I decided to attempt to make some tilt-shift photography miniature faking photos as examples for my class. They’re not quite there, which makes me wonder if it was a matter of the photos I chose or the blurs I applied. Regardless, it was fun revisiting some photos I’d shot over the years.

Last week, I introduced HDR to my digital photography class. To present a working example, I chose to use a photo of the Subway Cafe that I shot six years ago. Fortunately for me, it’s one of the few photos from my past where I kept all of the originals I shot, so it gave me an opportunity to play around using techniques that I didn’t really know of back then.

Here’s the 2003 version, which was composed of two exposures.

Here’s the version I did this year (2009). It’s composed of three exposures. I used an underexposed version of the sign, added some unsharp masking to the bricks, did some Shadow/Highlight to the sky, and did a bit of dodging and burning with my Cintiq.

As a photographer, it’s frustrating to realize how many of my pieces I’ve done in the past that could be revisited and improved upon–furthermore, how many that could have been revisited had I not saved over the files. Nowadays, I make a point to save all of the originals.

Apparently, I failed to mention to a few people that I was in Colorado Springs for a week and a half. I was out there to assist on The Big Game class at Colorado College (think alternate reality game, not hunting elephants). Yes, it was cool.

I must say that I didn’t anticipate missing the Mrs. and the boy as much as I did, although I did have fun out there once I got over a temporary stomach bug. I took a brief trip to Denver to visit an old high school friend, and took a detour from the airport to spend roughly a half hour at Garden of the Gods (above). I wish I’d have had more time, as well as my tripod. Sigh.