More stuff from yesterday

I've added some pictures of barrel cactus and fishhook pincushion flowers to the web album. I also added a couple more processed pictures.

There have been many times when I've stood looking at a scene and knew that my camera could not possibly come close to capturing what I was seeing. The eye has a much wider dynamic range of operation than a camera, as if each "pixel" seen by your eye was represented by 32 bit word for each color, but the camera only has 8 bit words. In a picture, some areas may be too bright and washed out. For example, instead of seeing the clouds in a picture, the sky will just be solid white. On the other end, instead of seeing what is in a shadow, a picture may just have a black area. You can take a picture that will show the clouds, but everything else will be too dark. You can take a picture to show what's in the shadows, but everything else will be too bright. You can't have both.

Until now. There's something called High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI), which combines pictures made at different exposures so that the entire range of brightness can be in one picture. Well, sort of. One reason cameras don't capture a wide dynamic range is because monitors cannot display a wide range, and you can't print a wide range. So after the software combines images with different exposures, it then has to "compress" the range so it can be displayed. The user can adjust parameters to get the desired effect.

The software I've been trying out is called Photomatix. Since I haven't paid for it, it puts a watermark on the pictures it produces. In some of the pictures I've used it on, I can't decide if I like the originals or the modified pictures. Maybe that's because I'm not very good at modifying them. The first picture on which I tried it seemed impressive. Here's the picture the camera would normally give you:

And here's what I got with the default settings in Photomatix:

If you look at all the pictures in that album (the final result comes from combining data from 3 pictures), you can see that none produced by the camera show near as much as the one from Photomatix.

My results with landscape photography have not been nearly as impressive, but I think that's because the conditions haven't been quite right (or wrong) to make Photomatix useful. As soon as I produce a stunning picture that I couldn't have gotten any other way, I'll buy Photomatix.

When I was up on the ridge yesterday, a couple of lesser nighthawks (aka goatsuckers) kept flying in front of me and then flopping around as if they were injured. They must have been trying to lure me away from their nest (but I never saw it). Anyway, I tried to make a video of their antics. They never flopped around after I got the camera out, though. You can hear their strange monkey-like songs, though. I was about to turn the camera off when I heard coyotes howling. They were loud enough to record, so I kept the camera going. OK, so there are some interesting sounds on the video. You have to turn your PC sound up pretty high, though. I talk quietly a couple of times during the video, but it turns out it's too loud. Sorry about that. Also, there wasn't much wind, but it's kinda loud when you turn the sound up enough to hear the birds and coyotes.

Traffic jam

Lindsey went out to Bulldog Canyon with me today to see the goatsuckers. We saw a bunch, but we could hardly hear them because of all the traffic. A church was having a father / son campout there and there was a constant stream of trucks going by. I even saw a couple of minivans. I would never take a minivan out there myself. I guess there were enough trucks to pull them out if they got stuck, though.

Lindsey asked one of the drivers what was going on. That's how we know it was some sort of church function. I wish she had asked what church it was. On the way out, there was a guy sitting on the (closed and locked) gate. He sat there as Lindsey opened the lock and the gate. I pulled through and stopped just outside the gate. Then a guy sitting in a large diesel pickup started his truck, as if he was going to drive through. I asked the guys if they had a pass. They dodged the question. If I let people in there that don't have passes, I could lose mine. I'm not about to give up my Bulldog Canyon pass for a couple of yahoos. Anyway, the pickup driver was very upset because I wouldn't let him in. I'm guessing he was one of the church members because he didn't cuss. He was extremely rude, though. What's up with that? He gets mad at me because I don't want to help him break the law and risk losing my pass? What a total and complete moron. The one and only thing I don't like about Bulldog Canyon is the surprisingly large number of idiots I seem to run into out there.

Sunset in Bulldog Canyon

Suzanne and I went out to Bulldog Canyon to see the goatsuckers again. I don't know why they're called that, but that's what the bird book says. I'm glad we saw them last week, because there were hardly any tonight. It was not a disappointing trip, though. The weather was fantastic; mid to upper 70's (and dropping fast) and a nice breeze. We saw an owl, too. It perched on top of a couple of saguaros. I tried to get pictures, but it was too dark. Here are the pictures.

BC_2008_04_23

Red tailed hawk?

I went to Bulldog Canyon (I know; "Surprise, surprise") after work today. I got out of the truck and looked up and there was a large bird (as big as a vulture) circling above a mountain ridge. It had different colors than a vulture, though. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but it was very far away. Suzanne checked our bird book and we think it might be a red tailed hawk. Before you look at the picture and scoff and say, "How could you possibly determine that from that picture?", remember that I have the full resolution picture and you don't. Nanny nanny boo boo.

While I was perched on the side of the ridge, I was looking to the north and noticed something unusual. What's missing from the picture below? Hints: I'm in the Sonoran Desert. They are all over the place (except here). It's rare to see such a large area without any; I think they may have been wiped out here by a fire.

Click below to see all of the pictures. I think I got some nice ones of some rocks.

BC_2008_04_22

Lesser Nighthawk video

I've been having some trouble with Google Video the past couple of days. Hope this works. If you turn the volume up you might be able to hear the birds.