Luminosity Masks Versus HDR Software For Creating Natural Looking HDR Images

Luminosity Masks Versus HDR Software For Creating Natural Looking HDR Images

7 Simple Ways a Blog Can Get You More Photography Clients by Ramsay Taplin (quoted from DPS)

Credit to the original author for the article below. This re-posting is for my future reference.

Are you a photographer who dreams of taking your photography business to the next level?

Well, one of the things that creative people (like artists, writers and, yes, photographers) forget is that you grow a business by marketing it – not necessarily by just being good at what you do. There are plenty of good photographers out there.

So what’s the problem?

Not all photography businesses have a huge budget to spend on marketing.

And that’s where a blog comes into it.

In this post I’m going to talk about how you can start a blog (or use an existing one) to get you more clients for your photography business. I don’t run a photography blog but I’ve got a bit of experience with helping small businesses grow using content marketing.

I’ll use a few examples from photographers I know as well as taking some sweet ideas from similar small businesses doing the same thing.

Not all blogs/websites are created equal

For the purposes of this article I thought it would be important to make a few distinctions.

And let’s start by highlighting the fact that a regular “brochure” website is not the same as a blog. Not by a long way.

What’s the difference between a blog and a website?
So what’s the difference? Well, a website is something that generally has static content – pages like About Us, Services, Gallery, Contact and so on. A blog is something that you update regularly with new content. The newest posts usually appear at the top. This comes with a huge set of advantages – some you might never have considered.

Can the two work together?
Absolutely. In fact, that is the ideal situation. The best way to set your photography website up is to make sure it has a blog integrated seamlessly with the rest of the website. Having a blog on a separate domain name is good but not nearly as good as building one under your main brand name. I’ll explain why later.

Where do I get started?
If you don’t have a blog (or a website) and want to learn more I’ve done a video and a full walkthrough on blog hosting that helps you understand how it all works together and how to get started the right way the first time around. You can alsocheck out this Wiki later on for some hosting alternatives.

So how can a blog bring you more photography clients?

Now that we’ve got some of the preliminary stuff out of the way let’s jump into the meat and potatoes of the post.

1. A blog helps to build trust
The first thing to note about a blog is that it helps you build a lot of trust with your potential customers and clients. This is an extremely important part of growing a business these days because a huge amount of your customers will research you before they engage your services. In fact, some people say that one in three people look at the website before engaging the business.

Part of this means having a well designed website that showcases your work and part of it means showing your personality. This is especially important for things like wedding photography where your client will want to have a good relationship with you as it is such an important day for them.

Tasmanian photographer Lisa K does this extremely well by having her blog as the homepage of her photography website. The articles she posts are about her daily life and family but always showcase some stunning photographs that would, no doubt, help to create an initial “buzz” and trust with a potential client.

2. A blog helps to increase your reach
The most important part of marketing a business is reach – you need to get in front of new people as often as possible.

This can be quite a difficult concept to understand because we are usually told that loyalty and repeat customers is the most important. Well, if you have five loyal clients who bring you the majority of your business but one drops off then you’re in trouble. A better scenario is to reach new people regularly and then convert them into loyal customers by providing a quality service. Reach is always more important than loyalty for growth.

So how does a blog help to increase your reach?

Well, it gives people something to share and a platform for you to promote all the cool intricacies of your business. People are very unlikely to share around just a portfolio site (unless it’s incredible!) but if you publish a quirky or unique blog post that’s different to your regular material you might find it makes the rounds on Pinterest or Twitter and brings you some new clients.

For example, let’s say you have some hilarious wedding photos of brides trashing their dresses. They’d look look good in a portfolio but imagine the difference it would make if you combined them into one blog post called 10 Hilarious Photos of Brides Ruining their Expensive Dresses. Much more entertaining and shareable.

3. A blog can get you more exposure locally
Google is now giving a lot of weight to local listings. What this means is that if someone types in “photographer” into a Google search they are going to get result from their local area. Here’s an example:

As you can see, in South Australia I get a Wikipedia result and then the next few are all local South Australian photographers.

Now, a blog can help you take this to the next level in a few ways. The main one is that every blog post you publish will increase your visibility for local terms. For example, if you do a blog post called 25 Beautiful Landscape Photos from Around Sydney you are more likely to rank for terms relating to those photographs to people in Sydney.

Or, you might do a blog post about every photo shoot that you do with local businesses. When people see those photos on those businesses websites or marketing materials and then look it up on Google you’re more likely to appear. So you can piggyback off the success of your client and your quality photos to get more business.

4. A blog gives your website multiple new points of entry
This point strongly relates to the previous one but is worth mentioning on it’s own.

Every time you publish a blog post it (if set up correctly) publishes with it’s own unique web address called a permalink. For example, let’s say you do a post called5 Interesting Photos from New York that post’s permalink would be something like www.yourwebsite.com/5-interesting-photos-from-new-york/

The great thing about this is that Google will index each post like this in the search results separately depending on what people search for, and how authoritative your website is. This is quite a complicated field we’re getting into now so if you’re interested you can read this SEO for blogs article or this list of SEO tips from Darren.

The main point, however, is that for every blog post you publish you’re creating a new set of keywords through which people can enter your blog.

A great real-world example is my mate Tim from SA TECHFLOOR who told me the other night that since he started blogging and posting photos of his flooring jobs he’s getting more and more phone calls every day. As each one has a different set of keywords (carpet, concrete, bamboo, timber, etc.) he’s got a lot of entry points he didn’t previously.

5. A blog can help your website rank higher
Now, one of the cool things about the previous few points is that if you do them all within your own website you can cause that website to rank higher on Google for important terms like “photographer in [your city]“.

Google likes to show results that are both fresh and of the highest quality. So if you have a small five page website with not much changing, Google might not think it’s all that useful.

If, on the other hand, your website has an active blog with lots of new posts, people sharing it on social media and so on, Google is likely to think it’s more useful for their customers (people searching) and thus rank it higher.

A graph of the click through rate of the top search results thanks to Search Engine Watch.

As you can see in the image above, this can lead to an immediate increase in business because the first result in Google gets over 35% of the traffic for that page. Worse still, the first page gets over 95% of clicks so if you aren’t in the first few results you’re getting overlooked.

6. A blog can help you form new collaborations
A good online friend of mine, Jamie Swanson, runs two photography blogs. One of them is embedded in her main business website and acts as a promoter of her main services. Her second blog, however, is called The Modern Tog and it’s all about running a photography business.

I wanted to mention her second site because it is a great example of someone who has set up something slightly out of the box and created a lot of new connections because of it.

For example, Jamie contacted me through Blog Tyrant about a year ago and I put her in touch with the content editor at ProBlogger. This lead to her writing a hugelysuccessful post about Pinterest that, in many ways, has lifted her reputation online as someone who knows about photography and the marketing side of photography.

It wouldn’t have happened without the blog.

7. A blog can help reduce client friction
Client friction is what happens when they visit your site, like your stuff but for some reason don’t make contact. It could be because they don’t like your prices or it might be something a little bit more intangible like not really “feeling the vibe”.

James Field runs one of Adelaide’s best wedding photography businesses and has a great little video on his website that is a cool example of something you can do to get your clients to know you better.

Now, James’s video isn’t on a blog but it’s the perfect kind of cross-platform content that a blog is perfect for. For example, you could do a series of these types of videos showing how the wedding day pans out for your clients. These could then bring you traffic from YouTube as well as reducing client friction on your blog.

Tips for your photography blog

So now you’ve got some reasons as to why you might want to have a blog on your photography businesses website. But once you’ve got the blog what are some things you can do to make sure it succeeds?

• Be personal
  People will love your photos (if you’re good) but they might not like you. Try to figure out who your audience is an, if possible, make sure you are personal and friendly.
• Know your brand
  Know who you are targeting and what keyword they might be looking for on Google. This will help you craft the right content.
• Make sure it loads fast
  People are getting less and less patient when it comes to websites. In fact, a one second delay can affect conversions by up to 7%.
• Find a way to be different
  Don’t just publish the same stuff everyone else is. Take a leaf out ofBuzzFeed’s book and use content we’ve all seen to come up with something fun, shareable and relevant.
• Make your blog your “home base”
  In my guide to social media I talk about the fact that your blog should be your base for all your social media activities. This way, all the Tweets, Pins and Shares that you get go towards growing your blog’s traffic and rankings.

Kilim Geoforest Park

The day started with the main agenda was to prepare ourselves to be at the jetty at 10am. The night before, the boat operator had contacted me regarding the timing of our trip due to the overwhelming crowd during this peak season.

Getting the kids ready on time was indeed a big effort. Though most of us were already up by 7 in the morning, we only left the place two and a half hours later.
The jetty was on the opposite end of the island where we were staying. We arrived late, which by then, the boat operator was already concerned because there was already a huge crowd gathered at the jetty.
Without any further unnecessary delay, we boarded the 10m boat and once we were all on board, the boat quickly left, to free up the space at the jetty. There were many boats around, getting their ways in and out of the jetty. Once we're in the clear of the heavy water traffic, the boat operator passed the life jacket to each of us. It's a huge relief that the water authority is enforcing a strict safety regulation. I had a big concern over my family safety because if there were any mishaps in the water, there's very little I can do.
At first, the boat gently cruised along the narrow river. However, few boats sped past our boat with their huge waves causing our boat to rock sideways. Our boat operator probably noticing some worrying faces among us, has decided to also speed off, with what I understood from his words was to teach the other boats a lesson. Apparently our boat had a powerful engine and though in no time we easily bypassed the other boat, the action also has caused a sudden caution for all of us.
All that apart, the scenery was beautiful. Personally, it is very rare for me to enjoy the scenery apart from what I normally experienced from my driving seat point of view. Experiencing the nature in this way was quite refreshing.
After cruising past few bends, we came across a big split. The one in the left was full with anchored sailboats while the other seemed leading to the open sea on its end.
We took the one on the left and we cruised slowly past these sailboats. The boat operator informed us that these sailboats came from all around the world. Immediately, I was having this vision picturing these sailboats sailing in rough waters out in the open sea, just like what I watched in the YouTube clips. From my understanding, mostly these boats are operated by a couple or a family. If that fact was true, then it had me thinking that how amazing for them to enjoy the world this way, comparing with myself being a man with a partner, and with a family as well -  just like them. I wish one day, I'll get to go on an adventure like this with my wife.
After we've passed the stretch full of sailboats, we took a turn somewhere and headed to a cave called 'Gua Buaya', or 'Crocodile Cave' in English. It was told that once, the cave was a nest for the crocs. Even at the entrance, there's a rock formation that resembles a crocodile jaw. We were told when the crocs were still around, its sizes were small and though now it's none to be seen, they believe that either it has extinct, or the remaining are in the hiding. He said, those surviving crocodiles in the hiding, if any, surely has grown in size over time. That was a fact best not to be thought over at that particular time and place.
We got out at the other end of the cave and it led us back to the stretch full of sailboats and we stopped by at the floating deck of caged fish. The place was crowded with visitors from other boats and the scorching afternoon heat added up to my loss of interest with the offerings.
Once we're back on board, we headed to a place where the eagle fed. There were already few boats around and at the centre was the main show - around eight to ten eagles, encircling in what appeared to be its target before it dove down in a sharp and precise aim, snatching the food out of the water using its claws. The way the eagles spread its wing encircling the area and aiming at the target before taking the dive - further accentuates the impression I had on them as the most handsome species of bird.
After that, we headed out to the open sea, following the river on the right at the big split. We stopped before passing through the river mouth into the open sea. We were shown of silhouettes from the rock formation at the river mouth. The first was a silhouette of a baby face on the right and then what appeared to look like the face of an Apache. Initially, we were briefed of what to expect throughout the journey. When I first heard of seeing those faces, I thought it was just another marketing gimmick but seeing it with my eyes, the silhouettes were distinct.
Then it was time to hit the open sea where we were shown of an island, that again, from that particular point of view resembles the form of a shoe. Hence, it's called 'Pulau Kasut' or 'Shoe Island'. We went around the island, then stop before a huge signboard of 'KILIM GEOFOREST PARK' installed on one of the prominent cliff for a memorable group photo session on board.
We were then returned into the river back to the jetty. However we didn't stop at the jetty and went past through it to our last stop which was the 'Gua Kelawar' or 'Bat Cave'. We had to experience this journey on foot. There's a ticketing counter at the jetty and at first we thought we had fallen into another marketing trap. However, the charge was for foreign tourist. I lauded this effort by our tourism authority to promote tourism among the locals as I've seen this at other tourism spots in the country as well.
We were given a torch light to navigate through the dark cave. It was a good and worthy experience because at that time, the ceiling of the cave was full with bats. Finally, I got the chance to visit a natural habitat that actually still lived up to its name.
All in all, I think it was a good and refreshing experience. I've been to Langkawi for few times but never had the chance to experience this side of the island. The journey took 2 hours but for the price we paid in relative with the size of our group, it was worth it to get to see what the nature has to offer.
In few hours, it's the time to explore new places, so I better get enough sleep for another day in Langkawi.

Pulau Pemanggil

Taken when we were just leaving the jetty into the open sea. Spill lights from the town still visible at the sky in the background.

- 30secs, f2.8, ISO 200 -

In the middle of last June, I had the chance to go on a fishing trip with some of my friends at Pulau Pemanggil. The island is located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, about 60km from the fishing town of Mersing. The island is one of the last three islands within the archipelago of Johor's and Pahang's island before it opens to the open water of South China Sea.

The built-up towards the day of the trip generated a lot of excitements since we got to do this with a bunch of long-time friends and we anticipated to have some good times at sea while fishing. Me, being an enthusiast in photography took it as a good opportunity to capture some worthy shots and being that, it has become a habit for me to always check the weather forecast for the place where I'm going. Our local weather forecast service allows us to check on the weather for the upcoming seven days and bearing that in mind, just exactly a week before the trip, I was already browsing through the website of Malaysia's meteorogical department. The forecast was good with sunny days and clear sky at nights, initially. A day prior to the trip, a revisit to the website resulted in a grim forecast - for the three days and two nights that we're going, it was going to be days and nights of heavy rain and occasional thunderstorm. I wonder though to this day, how could it changed from good to worse (or worst as I don't know what possibly could be more worse than a thunderstorm?) in such a short time?

I mentioned this to my friends I'm traveling with from the city but it only resulted a temporary worry because a mere cancellation would just rip us away the opportunity of a probably good and never had before outing for the some of us.

We arrived at Mersing on the evening of Friday the 17th of June after a 5-hour ride from Kuala Lumpur. We took the Ayer Hitam exit from PLUS highway and continue the journey on federal road towards the east through the town of Kluang and few Felda settlements. As we were reaching Mersing, I could see from my driver's seat that the sky over the direction we were heading was dark. To ease the worry, I kept saying to myself that probably it was just a normal shower.

The boat was scheduled to leave Mersing at 10pm the latest, to suit the tide of the river. We arrived early after being reminded constantly few days before by the trip's organizer. We visited a fishing accessories shop and later we decided to look for a place for dinner. However, it was really frustrating not being able to locate a decent seafood stall in this town, a fishing town. What frustrated us more was that we ended up settling down in a city-like bistro next to the main jetty. What a way to get away from the city life.

The other members of the trip came from the south - Johor Bahru. About an hour before the scheduled departure, we already met up, ironically except the reminder himself. In the end, we sailed to the sea an hour late, just in time before the tide receded. Here where the journey began - a ride on a typical fisherman's boat with 10 hopefuls on board to Pulau Pemanggil, hoping to experience the excitement of fishing at the open sea.

However, it wasn't a normal day to go out to the sea.

To be continued...

iMed! iMac!

It's a long overdue decision finally made. I really need a new machine for me to continue being productive. I have been at delay for quite some times with works especially on an album for a client who has been patient enough to accept every excuse from me.

My previous workhorse has been a lifeline for me to continue exist in the digital world. As mentioned in my earlier postings, my first desktop is considered an introduction for me to the digital world and the previous one brought me to another level. I am very much thankful, words can't describe how grateful I am for their contribution to my life.

A life span of four years for a computer could be well considered as a living dead, most likely everything is in obsoleteness and suppose to be dead and yet, still my PC has been able to suck some blood, especially in producing wonderful colors for my images. All those images that have grabbed many attentions were produced by that PC.

Parting with it the other day was sentimental. I have personal attachment with my belongings especially when it has performed as it should under great circumstances.

Now, I have acquired a new machine after given up very much thought in deciding to buy it. A PC or a Mac? I have always been a PC user except during my early years of employment when the office I was working at was on Apple's platform. The option was still undecided because with the same amount I could have buy a well equipped PC. It wasn't until I was given a brand new PC at the current office (also at my previous office when I was in the PWD). Anything new is always good at first but for a PC, that enjoyment mostly wouldn't last that long. I always hate it when it starts to become complicated, unknowingly. Soon enough, many pop-ups will appear warning me of whatever possible threat. Based on my years of experience using a PC, probably a constant watch day and night updating the latest anti-virus software will only free me of worries of my PC being infected, if not fatally, in a way it will somehow still affect the speed performance of that PC.

Now please welcome, my new workhorse - the new iMac (at time of published), launched less than two weeks ago. Still a lot of tricks to learn and I am eager to know it. And Johanna, definitely you'll going to get your album soon. I'm sorry.

Race Day!

It all started when I received a phone call 3 days before race day. A friend on the other line offered me a ticket to watch the F1 on race day. It wasn't an immediate yes until he uttered the next golden words - it's a grand stand seating. That prompted an instant yes! yes! yes! as the answer.

I am not that keen to watch an F1 race day at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) (that means I am still open to watch the race day at any other venue, definitely who wouldn't) due to some bad experience I had before. Though I was very much grateful to my nephew when he offered a free ticket during the 2005 season, I lost my wallet and had to endure a 2-hour traffic jam getting out of the venue. The seating, on a hill that forms one of the corner for the track, provides me with only almost a second of F1 experience, out of one minute and the half taken to complete a lap at SIC by an F1 car. The cars came out from our right before quickly disappeared on our left.

But this time, it was a big upgrade. At first I wasn't really care about the price of our ticket until I received a call from a former boss, who was also attending the race and wanting to know where I'm sitting. I mentioned whatever written at the back of the ticket when he mentioned that I have an expensive ticket. A confirmation by the ticket provider that the ticket was worth over one grand. Never in my life, unless, after when I already own a Ferrari, that I would only buy an F1 ticket at such a price.

The whole experience was carnival-like with lots of people already thronged the circuit by noon. Entering the parking was already hell enough, to pay an amount that can fill up 3/4 of my tank with petrol just to park under a palm tree really sum up the leeching we had. The price of the food was marked up out of proportion. No outside food or drinks allowed.

Anyway, what made it's worth to get a grand stand seating, apart from its hefty price tag is to damage your hearing, by purposely had it exposed to the high-revving engine sound during start of the race. My seating was just next to the starting grid. I really love the roaring sound of an F1 car!

Finally, big credit due to Jim for the free ticket. Though I know I will have to endure another 2-hour traffic jam just to get out of there (just as what I had endure for the two races I've attended) if he happens to provide me with another free ticket next season, the prospect of getting a corporate suite wasn't really much a deal, isn't it?

Our New Baby

Alhamdulillah, my wife has safely delivered a baby boy at 9.15 pm on the 15th of March 2011. Both mother and baby are fine. The baby weighed at 4.2 kg when he was born. I was there the whole time in the operating room watching how doctors worked to welcome the baby into this world.

We are very excited to welcome the new member to our family!

Boo!

On one fine night, my daughter browsed through the book shelf looking for something worthy to look into while I found it as an opportunity worthy to shoot.

We Love Our Ride!

We love this car so much. It has brought us to many places especially to the many seasides we have been as if it was part of the entourage. If only it could step along side with us when we were strolling all the beautiful beaches. Somehow, I would always try to get this car as closest as possible to the water, so close that it has once got stuck in the fine sand of Cherating. Latest, the jagged rock!

Surprise! Surprise!

4th of January annually is a meaningful day to me but for most of the years, it wasn't really much celebrated. Since I was little, I wasn't hoping for any present or celebration on that special day.

I remember a photo of me, standing in front of what it seemed as a birthday cake, complete with 3 lit candles and a very familiar table fan at the background, the fan that I've been trying to keep as it was the only tangible thing I can hold on to that reminds me of that sweet moments in the photo, until I lost it somewhere few years back. There's a note at the back of the photo, like an EXIF data stating it was taken when I was celebrating my 3rd birthday. At least, I know long time ago, my birthday was joyfully celebrated.

Years after that, only few times worth remembering on this special date. One was when I repeatedly begging to be bought a toy as my birthday present - a Matchbox-like trailer sold at a stationary shop I passed every day returning from my religious study, which I presume in present value is only about RM10.00, and I really had to beg for it.

The other birthday celebration that I remember was when my only sister brought me to a fast food outlet in KOMTAR at my hometown - because she was asked by my mother when she just got home after an hour ride from work in a public bus - at that KOMTAR, so basically she just had to repeat the same journey just to make it a special day for me. At that time, it was really really a big deal for me (and my family basically) to be able to eat at fast food outlet.

Then came my varsity days, when this date was still special but scary at the same time. I had to endure the unimaginable tortures thrown at me. At worst, I had my back splashed with chill water (real cold water) and later with hot water. Later, I felt my skin was burning and discovered that someone had poured lacquer all over my back. My cloth literally glued to my skin and it was hell painful to detach it. But hey, at least that's the way they celebrated me and I really enjoy it until today.

Nowadays it is celebrated differently unless my wife opted to celebrate like how I had stated above LOL. For this year, like any other before this, there's no cake for me because I am no fan of it. However, as I lay my head on my sleeping mattress when I wanted to go to sleep, I felt there's something boxy beneath my pillow.

Thank you dear for the manly present for my birthday :)

Outdoor Session for Johanna & Shafiee

This post of them is very much overdue as I had covered the solemnization months ago and yet I'm only posting the casual out door session done recently. They were just lovely throughout the whole session despite being the attention of the public for dressing up to kill.

Location was at the old Kuala Lumpur railway station as it has that nostalgic and classical feel. I've been wanting to at least captured a few shots inside the KL Heritage Hotel but it has now been closed to public. I've done some researches online and discovered that the previous owner/management really embrace the idea of having newlyweds shoot their wedding memorabilia there. Such a big loss to have it closed without any clear indication of what future lies ahead for it.

Anyway, to the couple - you guys rock!

Expecting

We are all excited!

Saloma Bistro

Shot taken while on an assignment to shoot a dinner for a public department at Saloma Bistro. Had I use the tripod, it would not have been a glaring attempt on HDR. Bear with it, I'm really getting myself the best tweaking for my HDR photos so there'll be lots of trial photo uploaded here.

One Fine Afternoon

The morning was a long wait for Lira's check-up when the doctor had to leave his clinic to deliver a baby upstairs in the maternity ward. We finished around 2, that meant we won't be able make it on time to attend a wedding of a friend in Port Dickson. Since suddenly we have time to spend, I decided to bring Dhea for a train ride to KLIA. The weather was really nice though despite occasional heavy rains for the past few weeks. We were happy!

Busy Times

After quite a long hiatus, I'd love to write as long as possible but time would prohibit me from doing so as evidently, for the first time since its re-establishment, there was no post for the month of November. Been busy with works at the new office hence the shelving of my beloved camera ever since. Whenever it's possible, I'd bring along my camera and shoot. Here are some updates.

Second Attempt

My second attempt on HDR. Macam budak kecik, new thing hooks me.

Post Processing

During the early days of my photography, I was always admiring good photos that I found while browsing for inspiration. I learnt that there are lots of factors implied in producing a good photo. While investing (or wasting) endlessly to new and more superior gadget is one of the factor, I knew (or rather hoping as definitely I couldn't afford in acquiring the new gadget most of the time) that it wasn't just the hardware, but a sort of alteration or modification or enhancement surely have been involved in producing such photos. A further research on the net (by using the words above) has led me to the world of post-processing (or PP in the shorter term).

Inspired by a certain photos I've seen, I have ever since been trying to get the similar result only to discover more ways of doing it. As it has been, the general appearance of photos that I took were inconsistent due to the experimental post-processing methods I've discovered.

I've known about HDR (high dynamic range) processing technique at about the same time but I was always turned down when I saw lots of overcooked samples done by other enthusiasts. Apart from it, as I attempted to produce an HDR-processed image by using the software that I always used when processing my photos, my old workhorse just couldn't process it. I'd always thought, it must be that because this is an old horse. I was wrong.

Though it's true that my ever trusted PC is old enough with lesser capabilities compared to every other PC that I touch nowadays, the failure to process an HDR image in CS2 is due to the EXIF data embedded in the 'single RAW' technique I adopted to create the HDR image. HDR processing requires same images of different values in order for the software to merge these images. As I was using the single RAW technique to produce a set of images with different values, the Adobe Camera RAW embedded the same EXIF data for all those images thus the incapability of the built-in HDR in CS2 to read the different values for each of the photo.

The other option, and actually is the best (according to the findings on the net) to produce HDR images is by using PhotoMatix. I hesitated for so long to install it for some reasons - the computer being old and almost full is a part of it but being a reason is always used in any way as a justification to delay a thing.

It has been years and finally tonight, to heck with all those reasons, I decided to install it. I did and there I was fascinated with it and at the same time regretted that if only I installed it years ago.

Anyway, it's still an immature attempt and I am yet to understand the parameters within it. This is my second try, a set of photos that show the original photo, the one that has been through tiring and difficult methods to get a balanced exposure by using merely the CS2 and lastly the HDR attempt. I am not fully satisfied yet with the result but definitely I can foresee a major leap in my image processing for the years to come.

But first, I have to get the watermark removed first. That is by getting the license guys, not by the harder way of image manipulating.

Broken Finger Scene

In my life, at 4 years old, I've ran straight head on to the edge of the wall and had a deep cut on my forehead that has its scars clearly visible until now.

In my life, I've been on several times bled because of fireworks.

In my life, I've fallen off from both the bicycle and bike and sustained deep cuts.

In my life, there was once upon a time, a girl came beside me and simply struck a pen knife to my arm causing a cut so deep it still exists today.

In my life, I've twisted most of the joints in my body with one still plaguing my right knee for the past 10 years.

But I've never break a bone until now.

In my life, now I've broken a bone.

Dhea's Blurb!

Finally, something that I have envisioned even before I actually start clicking the shutter is to have it printed out represented in the best medium I can afford. I found out this book making service and been wanted to make one ever since. It does require a stock of photos to be included or else it won't be a book, so I had to wait for a while before this could be realized. Initially, I wanted to include all of the photos that I have but I think it's better to dedicate Dhea a book of her own. After almost a month of waiting finally the book has arrived.

What We Did On A Good Saturday

While she was sleeping...

...Mama baked this...

...and Abah cooked this.