Right brain, left brain

I spend a lot of my day thinking in numbers, thinking about science, and staring at a computer screen.  I mean, it's what I signed up to do when I went back to school, so I'm not complaining.  But the deeper I get into research and computer modeling, the more I find I need to flex the creative side of my brain.  I'm afraid that if I don't, I'll turn into another absent-minded professor type who wears mismatched shoes because...wait, what was I saying?

Anyways, I really like photography, and obviously living here in AK means no shortage of pretty scenery and wildlife.  So, I spend a lot of time taking pictures and being outside, then thinking about ways to make my pictures better...or just different...or just trying something crazy.  Recently, I've started to get interested in HDR - high dynamic range - photography.  It's largely a digital processing technique that uses a set of photographs - one underexposed, one 'correctly' exposed, and one overexposed, then combines them in a software program.  By doing this you can capture more of the light dynamics that your eye can see but the camera generally cannot in a singe exposure.  It's borderline photography-creative art in my book.  I used to be more of a purist in that only 'real' photographs that looked good without processing (in say, photoshop) were "Photography" (with a capital P).  But, I'm opening my mind now.  I still don't love composite shots passed off as photographs...such as when someone photographs a castle during the day, swaps out the boring blue sky for a moody cloud backdrop, then adds a wild pony to the foreground.  I think it's fine to do that and call it art, but in my opinion, it's no longer a photograph, since that scene never existed in the real world (or at least all in one place at one time).

But HDR is something I am enjoying because it allows for some creativity with processing, but everything is still 'real', in the sense that I can change contrast and amp up colors and make it look crazy without adding new elements.  So, it's pseudo-photography, but fun!  And I should also note - I don't think this sort of technique should replace good fundamental photograph skills (which I am working on but definitely don't have down yet).

What does a HDR photograph look like?  Well, they can be subtle or a slap in the face.  I'm noticing them all over now, which is kind of cool.  Here's an example of a picture I took on a stormy-snowy day when the light was fantastic, but when I looked at the photograph, it was just flat.  Kinda boring.  It totally didn't capture the light dynamics I saw when I pulled over to take the picture, though I still like it and with some work on light balance it would be better.

Now here's the same picture with HDR-style processing, which just plays with the light balance (among other things):

It's the EXACT same photograph, just processed differently. You see more of the textures in the clouds, the white of the fresh snow is brighter.  The blueish cast is gone (which I could have done in the original just by correcting my white balance).  It looks real, but almost surreal.  I don't like to look at the bottom picture and think 'photograph' but I do like it and think it's pretty - like you could walk right into it! - and almost like a photograph. 

Here's two more examples:

      First, one in color...

     And then a similar angle but done in black and white...