Photos

Lately I have been trying to go out everyday and take a few photos. When I set out today it was raining very hard and the wind was quit strong.

I spent some time at the Jardin Botanique (perhaps a picture from there as well) and then started walking home. The Jardin is located above Neuchatel and as I walked home I saw one of the most wonderous visual images I have every seen; with the sun peaking through the clouds, the rain still driving down, and the sun reflecting off the lake. Tried to capture this on "film" but such moments seem to elude us.

The closer I got to home the more the weather cleared and as I came down level with the Chateau the light and clouds where magnificient. With a little exploring I found this vantage point; a place I never knew existed until today.

You really can't tell but the red dot in the middle is a worker being lowered over the side by a second worker totally hidden in the shadows.

The panorama was stitched using AutoPano Pro from a 10 photosequence, croped and adjusted in PhotoShop CS3. The first pass "final image" was a bit lifeless and failed to capture the true ambiance of the moment. Recently I read about creating false HDR images so I gave it a try and this is the result.

(False HDR: I took a single image and darkened it to my liking, then took the same image and lightened it to bring out a little detail in the rocks under the cliff. These two images where then reblended using TuFuse from Max Lyons at Tawbaware.com.

Hope you like it.
Charles