Scott Davis Photography

There’s often a good layer of fog outside when I wake up early for work. I usually don’t get outside to take any photos, but this morning I decided to pop out onto the porch and take the following HDR shot. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Went to the local pumpkin patch a week or two ago, and at this farm they had some old abandoned tractor equipment. I tell ya, rusted metal makes for great HDR. I really liked how these turned out. All hand-held, 3-exposure bracketing, tone mapped together with Photomatix.

For the first week of August I spent a week in Alberta hiking in the Kananaskis Country. That area has quite a bit of significance to my family, and we’ve spent a lot of time in the area over the years. We hiked from Upper Kananaskis Lake Parking Lot (see the Google Earth image below) up to Forks campground, then the next day up to Turbine Canyon Campground, just past Lawson Lake on the way up to Maude Lake.

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I hauled up my 7D and my 24-105mm L lens, my external flash, as well as my cheap and heavy tri-pod; all-in-all, about 8-10 lbs weight added to my already 40+ lb pack. But it was worth it, for I was able to get some awesome photos. I did a lot of HDR, including some long-exposure HDR, made possible only with the tri-pod. Man I love that place! Check out my flickr set for lots more from the area.

My wife planted some sunflowers this spring, and they’ve been growing like crazy. The first one to show its yellow petals appeared a couple days ago, and I took some pictures this afternoon. The first few I took were ok, but nothing special. Then I brought out my flash with my on-flash diffuser, went to Manual mode on the camera, and got some wicked shots that I just love. These should brighten up your day!

There are many things to take pictures of at the Aquarium, but it’s difficult to get at some of the good ones with an 18month old little girl in tow. I did however manage to get a few shots of the jellyfish they had on display – displays which had very cool lighting. Taking advantage of higher ISO speeds and the incredible noise reduction in Lightroom 3, I got these cool shots:

I made my return to mountain biking this weekend, though not exactly a triumphant return, as I totally bailed off the first jump I tried, bruising my rear-end and lower back. Brought my camera with me, and was the only one taking pictures, so unfortunately didn’t get any in of myself. I set my camera into Shutter speed priority mode, as I wanted to make sure that they were fast enough to capture the high-speed action of the bikers. The first few shots I took turned out too dark without the flash, so I used my Speedlight in High-Sync mode. This was my first attempt at taking this kind of picture, but I think that with the Lightroom work I did to them, they turned out pretty well. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to try again soon. Hover over the photos for the exposure info. Click on them to see larger versions.