First up is the Westminster and Big Ben. A couple double decker buses provides the light trails to spice things up.

Then we have the Millennium Wheel – which is much prettier with lights on. Thanks to the rain I was able to get this shot without being blocked by any of those thousands of visitors.

Finally an HDR attempt at the Buckingham Palace.

Sample 1

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Sample 2

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Of course not all photos yield such amazing results but in general the content aware delete tool gives you a VERY good starting point for further touch up. Also I noticed in general you want to be careful the area you select for processing. The ones close to some sort of fringe is more difficult to deal with. I’ll be experimenting the new feature more but this is getting me pumped!

If you just want to view my photography collections, you can visit http://photos.maestroilluminist.com instead.

Now you can keep up-to-date with my articles when you’re on the go as well :D How sweet is that! There might be some quirky bugs floating around in the mobile version. Please let me know if you find them so that I can squash them neat and tidy :) Enjoy!

In case you don’t remember, here’re the original designs:

And here’re the new designs!

Feel free to let me know (or not – no pressure :D) what you think about the new logo by either leaving a comment or chime in on the poll below!

First up’s the iconic Space needle:

Then we have the shot of downtown Seattle:

This is really one of the best situation to use HDR. It was raining the day I went up the Space Needle to take this shot. Without HDR, the shots were very flat since there’s no shadow from the sun. HDR really adds a lot of depth to the image. Better yet, the angry-looking clouds add a lot of drama to the otherwise regular shot as well!

The next one’s from the Seattle harbor:

This one was mildly challenging since the ship I was on was moving. Continuous shooting with AEB did the trick.

This was the cruise line (called Argosy) I took to tour the Seattle harbor. Again a tricky situation due to the moving water and ship. Photomatix did a great job in eliminating ghosting.

The famous Pike Place market! This showcase another strength of HDR in capturing high contrasting background sky and the neon logo.

Finally the famous original Starbucks at Pike Place! This is BY FAR the hardest HDR shot I took but the result is well worth the effort! The people were moving around and it took a lot of Photoshop touch up after rendering. Photomatix again managed to give me a great starting point by eliminating ghosting. It would’ve been impossible to capture so much details of the cafe interior with normal techniques!

I was overall a great experience and I really love the look of HDR. I don’t think this will be the last of my HDR work!

I can venture a guess that this new functionality is based on the venerable “healing brush” tool. But this new feature is really over-the-top and can surely save us boat-load of time in post-processing.

Another feature is single image HDR processing. In previous versions, Photomatix was hands down the better HDR rendering software over Photoshop, giving greater control over tonal mapping. However, the single image HDR processing in both programs are really lackluster. Here’re two photos from Adobe showcasing the new CS5 HDR algorithm on single image. It looks quite promising!

I’ve created a new category of posts simply called “blog” – basically a separate category where I can discuss topics related to photography but not necessarily showcasing my work. Hopefully like-minded photography lovers can join in the conversations!

These two shots combined zooming with long exposure. I’m really fond of the floral one as it gives sense of color explosion :)

This one involves camera rotation, which is actually harder to pull off than the zooming one since you can’t rely on tripod for stabilization.

I found that there’re a few things that are essential for this type of shots work:

1. Steady, steady and steady frame! (I guess this is a no brainer)
2. A central theme object. You can’t just make anything play nice with motion.
3. A static focal point. You want some part of the image (the centroid) to remain clear and vivid so that audience can actually make out what you’re shooting at.

Try play with this next time you go shooting! You’ll love it :D

Now a major overhaul wouldn’t be complete without some spanking new photos! I spent some time in Japan over the New Year break and took some amazing photos there. The series of photos in this article all illustrate the traditional Japanese customs and architecture.

This photo of Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion – 金閣寺) in Kyoto is, in my opinion, the most amazing shot I took among the bunch. It was freezing cold the day I went there (25F!) and the sun was setting by the time I got to the spot. But luckily this was the perfect time to show off the marvelous golden coating of the pavilion!

The other photos were mostly taken from the new year night markets in Kyoto and Tokyo. These night markets were setup around popular temples so that locals can stroll the bustling shops after finishing their new year prayers.

I’ll be posting more photos from Japan soon. Stay tuned!