gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

The Great Pumpkins

Now that I've got a new camera, I've finally had time to fool around with some different techniques, including HDR (high dynamic range imagery.) These days it's pretty simple to do - basically you take three images of the same scene - one underexposed, one overexposed, and normal) and then use a program such as Photomatix to stitch them together. The technique brings out the colours and subtleties of both light and dark parts of the picture.

This pumpkin patch is my very first attempt at an HDR image - no masterpiece, but I do like the slightly surreal and spooky feeling it created. And as my colleague Tim Neesam says, HDR is great for skies.

Frost

On Boxing Day in Woodstock, Ont., we woke up to see an amazing glazing of spiky frost covering everything. The walnut tree behind my mother's house looked more like an acacia, and I had to go outside to see the spikes up close.

Some were about 3 cm long, and so light that they almost flaked off when you looked at them. It was mild out, and as the morning sun rose the flakes fluttered down from above like the lightest snowfall imagineable.

I gather this is what's called hoarfrost, which forms when it's mild and windless. The lengths of the crystals were almost unbelievable, like those ads for the ultimate mascara want you to believe.

Magic.