Grand Haven and Holland 2-16-09

Despite the bitter cold temps, I had a strong urge to get out and shoot yesterday. I'm really glad I did too. My main mission for the day was to continue where I left off with my D40, experimenting with HDR. So I set my new D90 to bracket exposure.

I started at around 4 o clock in the afternoon at Holland State Park. I took lots of pictures of the lighthouse but sadly none of them turned out to my standards. The sky was too dark and cloudy. I need to get out there sometime at sunset and I'm sure the pics would turn out much better. Here's one of the exposure blends that I came up with. This was created from 3 different photos, one overexposed, one underexposed, and one even exposed.


(Holland Lighthouse)

When I was done in Holland I jumped on US-31 and headed North to Grand Haven. Usually I am all alone when I am shooting over there but on this night there were several other photographers that showed up. I met a very nice guy named John Dykstra, www.johndykstraphotography.com. I took probably about 100 pictures and I only liked a few of them, which is typical for me. So here they are. I will start with my favorite.


(Grand Haven Lighthouse)


(Grand Haven Lighthouse)


(Grand Haven Lighthouse)


(Grand Haven Lighthouse)

Grand Rapids 1-8-09

These are my most recent shots of Grand Rapids. I woke up very early and stood outside in the bitter cold for some sunrise pictures. These are taken from my favorite spot on the Western Pedestrian Bridge. The Grand River was really high when these were taken. The effect in the water was made by chunks of ice floating down and a slow shutter speed.

All of these pictures were made using HDR. HDR stands for high dynamic range. I took several different shots of the same scene, some underexposed, some overexposed. And they were all put together in an image editor. So each image was made from several different shots.

I will start with my favorite from the shoot.

(Grand Rapids)

I really like the way this one turned out also. There was a lot of color happening. I showed this one to a buddy and his reaction was something to the extent of "No way, that's not real, no camera could make a picture with those colors". But my D90 did. :)

(Grand Rapids)

I don't like this one as much as the other two but it's still a decent picture I think.

(Grand Rapids)

My Gear

If you are a geek like myself you may want to know a little about the equipment that I use. I am a diehard Nikon fan. Sorry Canon users :) I would highly recommend all of these products.

-Nikon D90 DSLR


-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5 - 5.6 VR lens


-Dolica ST-500 tripod


-Lowepro Flipside 300 DSLR backpack