He recently did a two part series on HDR at Pixel Perfect with Bert Monroy, who is an amazing digital photo-realist artist. In the video, he goes in to detail about how to create HDR images and the though processes behind it. Ben also introduces us to a Photoshop plug-in called Photomatrix that really lets you have complete control over the HDR process.

This is a great video series for someone (Krysta?) looking into expanding their photography skills and experimentation. The Wife and I were just lamenting last night on how our goals for this year (her to do more pottery, mine to do more photography) have fallen woe-fully short. Watching these videos gives me an itch to go out and shoot. Just gotta find (or make) the time!

And apparently I put way too many things (is that possible?) in parenthesis.

Before talking about what I really was going to talk about, I want to direct everyone’s attention to my Quick Bits over there. I want you to check out the link to Pigeon Point Lighthouse. And no, I’m not going to link it here, go over there you lazy bastards and click!

Today is going to be about my brain and the things it does to keep itself occupied while I’m asleep. See, I’m doing a new production right now, a reading of A Christmas Carol. Basically what that means is there are 6 of us on stage, actually reading from the script. We’ll be dressed in costume, but have minimal props and addressing the audience directly.

The other thing taking up a lot of my time is, naturally, work. I’ve been stressing over the creation of several different secure forms for these banks. Lots of little things I have to remember to include, and naturally I missed a bunch the first time (or two) around. Because of security measures taken as the result of an audit, I’m not allowed access to the production servers, nor the secure sever. Basically, I can create the forms, and make sure they look OK, but for full functionality, I have to send them to my boss and she has to upload them and tell me all the mistakes I made. Which, quite frankly, is a sucky way to develop.

But back to the brain playing while I’m sleeping. This morning, probably about 3 a.m. or so, I woke myself up. I woke up because I was talking. I was reciting lines of the script for a Christmas Carol. But they were formatted in the aforementioned Secure Forms. So, instead of Last Name [input box], First Name [input box], the were lines like Scrooge [Scrooge's Line], Cratchit [Cratchit's Line]. And that’s how I was reading the lines, talking in my sleep. And this isn’t the first time work has intruded. When I was managing the pizza restaurant, I was working very long hours (70-80 hour weeks). At one point in the middle of the night, I sat straight up in bed, and yelled to my wife “CHEESE! I NEED MORE CHEESE!”

I quit shortly after that.

So that’s how my brain occupies itself; merges two aspects of my daily life into one, and messes with me. Lovely.

As it was the weekend, and I was going to be later than planned, I decided not to set the alarm, and see what would happen. I have a great body clock, and when I tell myself to wake up at a certain time, I can usually come pretty damn close.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:05. Nice.

So, being awake, I got dressed, grabbed my camera and tripod (crappy tripod, I’m going to have a to add one to my B&H Wish List *shameless plug* ), and drove on into D.C. I snapped between 75 and 100 photos, and I think I got a few nice ones. I’ll be doing post-processing this week sometime, and hopefully will be able to share some here shortly.

Oh, and sweet. I just won an iTunes Free Song from my morning Diet Pepsi. Guess Monday could be worse.

Oh well. Tomorrow night and then Friday and the weekend should be free. Don’t expect any shots posted anytime soon though. It’s going to take me some time to get used to the camera and I plan on visiting some various photography forums and posting pics there to get some criticism about the pictures.

Some quick photo links for those that care:

Photosig – Good galleries and a forum
Fred Miranda – Excellent forum and reviews
Digital Photography Review – Great Resource and Review Site
Rob Galbraith – Just found this site, but it looks good