Where I've been and what I've learned along the way…
I was surprised to find how easy it was to produce the mini-world effect in Photoshop. Half the battle is choosing the right photo to work with (look for directional lighting and a view from above as if you are looking down on a model). I followed the procedure and voila! The original shown below seems much less interesting to me now! More examples…
After a very long delay due to weather, I recently returned to the Jacksonville airport around 2am. When I found my car in the brightly lit parking lot, there was a large Luna Moth lying on the pavement. It moved very little and appeared to be stunned or dying. So I put it in a plastic container and took it home to photograph. The next morning I found it fully revived and clinging to the window frame. <smile> I snapped a few pics while it posed there, then coaxed it back into the world.
This put me in mind of how much artificial light must affect such creatures, who evolved millions of years ago when the only bright light at night was the moon. Thinking back to my recent trip through the air, why in 2010 do we still have so much light pollution? Viewed from above those glittering towns and cities are a sign of tremendous waste! To be even more specific, why are ANY street lights visible from the sky? The picture below represents billions of watts dissipated with no benefit to anyone and demonstrable negative effects on the natural world. Not to mention the loss of Dark Skies (2) for human exploration and inspiration!
On a recent visit to Iowa I happened to be up early and driving along the Maquoketa Caves road just after sunrise. The photo above is my first attempt at building a panorama from separate HDR images (each of which is built from three separate exposures). It was spur of the moment and hand held. I’m very pleased with the result! Note the small yellow halo around my shadow at the lower right. Here is a complete gallery from that morning…
