The Think Tank

Joel and I joined about 4,000 crazy Portlandians at the 10th Annual Worst Day of the Year bike ride last Sunday, marking our 2nd consecutive year.  That just so happens to perfectly coincide with the only years when it has rained as well, although I have to say that we were pretty fortunate in that regard.  It did sprinkle on us just a little, but it was hardly worth mentioning and nothing compared to the deluge that followed later in the evening.

I started off very well by failing to look at my registration information to determine the correct starting point, and went to the Lucky Lab in downtown instead of the one on Hawthorne.  That was bummer.  For Joel’s part, he actually did follow instructions (for once), but in order to hold with tradition he showed up with a flat tire that he had repaired at the mechanics tent.

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After a hiatus lasting nearly seven full years, I started shooting archery again this week.

I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but I have been lacking the last push needed to get me over the hurdle and actually pick up my bow and arrow set again.  Last week my friend Debbie Lane gave me the push I needed.

She started shooting again very recently as well, and she registered for the Oregon State Indoor Championships, which is being held at Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City on February 26th & 27th.  She also said that I needed to get my sorry butt in gear and shoot it with her.

So I figured, “What the hell?”

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I took a few shots last night on the way home to experiment with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography.  Basically you take a series of photos at different exposures levels, thereby capturing a much broader range of color and contrasts than you can get from a single exposure, and then you merge them all together into a single image.  The result should not only have all aspects of the image properly exposed, which is almost impossible when you have very bright objects framed with very dark objects, but the contrast level and color saturation is also enhanced.

Last night I was using 1 total f-stop adjustment over the course of 5 frames.  The end results were pretty cool, though I’m not sure that my subjects really show the full potential for this type of imaging.  You can click on the image to see the rest.

I’ll be playing with this more in the future, so I’m sure you will get to see other examples in the days to come.

What better reason could there possibly be to route for the ducks?

The holiday season has come and gone, along with the whole of 2010.  For me,  it did so in a blur, the last month of the year passing so quickly that I am just now ready to settle in and have our annual Holiday party (which, of course, took place a month ago).

I’ll try to give a quick rundown the goings on.  I will also put photos of the events up on friends.thinktankgallery.com throughout the day, but in the mean time, click through for all the details.

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