What happened here? That´s probably what you are thinking when you see this photo and I get so many different response, some negative and some positive. However you see it, this is it, this is the final product. This picture was taken on the edge of the bridge of the Devil´s Throat, Iguazu Falls, Misiones, Argentina. I was careless but it was also inevitable, there is no bargain with mother nature. It was a hot, cloudy and windy day, the storm was forming right above our heads and my lense got sprinkled by the waterfall caused by the strong wind right when i pressed the shutter release button. Each and every effort to retake the shot was useless, sprinkles all the time. Luckily though, my initial intention was to take HDR (High Dynamic Range) picture so I had to take at least 3 shots of the same frame but different level of light exposure. When I got home and saw the original RAW picture I was devastated, I knew HDR would do the magic but looking at its original quality hurts me. I then processed the three pictures to photomatix pro, a software I use to generate my HDR photos and this is the best I can do to save this picture. For me it would have been better without the water sprinkle effects but I guess mother nature also wanted to contribute her artistic talent. 
I was on a small village called Valle Maria in Entre Rios, Argentina when I took this photo. Surely it wasn't the most lively village I've ever visited but Valle Maria has one of the most beautiful country side sunsets I've ever seen. In the early sunset phase I found myself standing in the middle of stunning colors created by the natural orange light the sun gave and everywhere I looked around was like God was painting at that moment as the colors of my landscape changing before my own eyes. Like all sunsets, it only lasted for a few minutes before it got dark. 
It was a horrible rainy week and feeling a little bit sick so there was no way I would risk to go out for any photo hunting session to get even more sick so I stayed home enjoying the warmth of my lemon tea. Wondering what to post I stared out my balcony window and saw a twig with a couple of water drops dripping slowly from it. It was around 3pm in the afternoon so there was still day light, well...whats much of it anyway but the water drops seem to reflect the day light and made it brighter. I don't know how the water did it but I can explain how I took this photo. 
This picture was taken on one of my photo hunting sessions in Recoleta, Buenos Aires. It was a dull day at the moment with horrible grey clouds all over and as far as I can remember even my eyes were seeing black and white. I had to have a strategy to bring home a smile and at least a couple of good pictures. Besides I was using my Nikon N75 and a black and white roll so anything that did not come out right would be a unnecessary additional cost. So that day, I was not hoping for any shadows, bright colors or sunshine. Instead I took the grey sky to my advantage as a background and any bird that passes my camera would be a potential black contrast to the grey color. Luckily Buenos Aires has lots of pigeons so I did not have to wait in vein for it and to spice things up I slightly angled my camera 45° just to get enough of the top part of the dome that I need and making it look more interesting. 
On my previous post on Simple Is Beautiful I uploaded a photo that I took of a wooden dock and over-exposed it and making it look simple. I explained that a photo with less detail could be as interesting as with lots of details or even more. With the available space you can always write something you believe or your feelings to those you consider special.
There has been questions going on about making an HDR image out of a single photo and whether it was possible to achieve it. The answer is, yes it is possible by manually adjusting the exposures in photoshop or any other photo editing software and generate it to become HDR with a second software you'll need such as Photomatix Pro or HDR Darkroom. After the generating process you would need to tone map the photo to get the end result you prefer. From there everything should be simple cause the software should do the rest of the work for you. Nowadays, there is nothing impossible to achieve in photography. There are shortcuts that we can take as an advantage but I suggest to always know your basic photography and camera setting knowledge before using these shortcuts. The art of photography apart from the end result itself is the process we do with our cameras, the craftsmanship and how we paint our photos with lights by using our knowledge and skills. Apart from that, the results are usually more stunning doing it the proper way not just in HDR but in all types of photography. Don't be a lazy photographer. It´s a hobby with a beautiful process in learning to master it. 
There is something peaceful and beautiful about simplicity. You can have all the details into one photo but still would get bored easily. Being simple does not necessarily mean dull or boring. Being simple is always easy to relate to and soothing. 
Almost all sunset shots come out if not perfect almost perfect. It's one of the common themes that is taken amongst photographers from different level of expertise. Apart from being easy it is also rewarding. 
Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí. However she already had a mortal lover called Tarobá. The two lover fled in a canoe to find their own piece of land to call home far away from their village. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. 
Before I start I would like to say, yes, it is not a real shooting star and yes I realize that the moon should be bigger than the stars. It´s a real moon by the way.
I always carry my camera along with me every where I go. Depending on the occasion I would choose what equipment to bring. It was a beautiful Buenos Aires Saturday afternoon when I took this picture in one of Buenos Aires finest parks called El Rosedal. The plan was to only have a walk around the park and go boat rowing so I only took my camera and a 18-70mm lense to take normal shots. During the walk I did not find anything interesting to take but as we were on the small wooden board I turned around and there it was, the perfect sky, trees and small island. Before taking this shot I already thought how it would be in black and white so I decided to take a picture of it. That is what this post is all about today, looking things that is not the obvious and what your eyes directly receives. This photo in color looks like just another photo but when I converted it to black and white the details and contrast becomes alive, the clouds, the trees and the island itself came together nicely giving this photo the wow factor.
I have posted this picture before but in black and white. The reason why I am posting this same picture is because one of my followers wanted to see the original photo in color HDR (High Dynamic Range) quality. It turns out that a lot of people are still having problems with producing HDR and to be honest I had problems too in the beginning.
Speaking about lines in nude photography, my first topic is about how important to have a line in nude photos and the second will be about where to draw the line between fine art nude and pornographic nude. I know there are no obvious nude in this photo but I think it serves it's purpose well for the topics I chose for today.
When I am at home and have nothing to do I usually go photo hunting and sometimes just before I leave I would tweet or post on my facebook saying that I´m off to go photo hunting. I would then receive text messages or phone calls from my friends asking where am I headed to thinking that I am going to go somewhere far. Actually, I was just heading to a park four blocks away from my house. That is exactly what I want to talk about today, potential photo hunting sights does not necessarily mean that you have to go the distance. A lot of people take their backyard sometimes for granted or their 23rd floor apartment view of the city scrapes as nothing and they drive 2 hours to go photo hunting. So if you are low in budget this weekend and have nothing to do, make your day productive and one of them is to take a walk in your neighborhood and take pictures. Who knows whats out there, maybe you come home with a stunning photo that you can brag about to your family and friends and if you come home with a not so good result, at least you know your weakness in photography and find a way to improve so when you go for your next photo hunting session you would know what to do to avoid making the same mistake. Either ways, you learn and there is nothing more productive than learning. 
Details in photography is very important. However too many details can be boring to look at especially if they have the same lines, patterns and colors. By minimizing the focus points your photos can still appeal interesting to look at even if the rest of the details are out of focus. If you feel there are too many colors try converting it to black and white using photoshop or other photo editing software. Play around with your focus points if your camera has a multi focus points. Make sure to position yourself in the right angle to line up your objects correctly from near to far so when you focus the middle point you have what is the closest and the furthest from you out of focus leaving in the middle part well focused. As long as you position yourself correctly you can chose which part you want to focus in the order you prefer. 
Almost everyone I know takes pictures of their pets and it doesn't matter what level of knowledge they have in photography most pets photos come out well. In my opinion animals are born photogenic and there are little mistakes to make. Those photos are then uploaded to your computer and you share them with your family and friends through facebook, myspace or blogs, some puts them in a frame and place it on a table somewhere in your bedroom or living room. What usually happens when you want to hang it up on the wall in a big painting size like? The usual answer I receive is that it does not look as good as when it was in the small frame. I am not talking about stretching the pixels as most digital camera today comes with 6.0 up to 12 mega-pixels. I am talking on the artistic point of view. Here is where the software photoshop comes very handy. There are lots of types of filters you can find in photoshop to make your normal photo to looking very artistic that your living room deserves. 
On my last post on portrait photography I mentioned about knowing your model's name and encouraged to get to know their personality to create a relax and fun ambiance. Today's post is more on the camera and lighting settings that I hear far too often how hard it is to achieve portraits in terms of lighting. 
A lot of new born photographers tends to like taking objects with black background and dark environment with colorful objects like you see in my photo that I post today to get that strong contrast between the object's colors and the background. What they attempt to do to achieve this type of photography is to have a single light source and turn off the lights to make the room darker almost too dark to see and work with. In the end they will only complain with the results being too dark, hard to focus or they cannot seem to make the background black or very dark because of the single light source.
