Surreal Ice

Surreal Ice – A frozen, wave-swept lighthouse in Michigan – View inGallery

You don’t get a photo like this, without getting cold.

I took this back when it was a bit less temperate out.

I didn’t post it for two reasons.

One, I couldn’t handle looking at it during the winter.

Two, it was chromatically aberrated to a point that I thought it was ruining the photo.

However, I actually had a nigh-identically composed shot that did not suffer as much from chromatic aberrations, which you see here.^⌉

I think it is a winner. It also demonstrates one of my principles of photography: Taking photos from vantage points or locations deemed too risky (not risqué) , can result in unique images.


This is good	This is bad

⌉ When a lens fails to focus all colors to a single point. Happens most noticeably on edges of high contrast areas, the HDR process magnifies this problem in some cases [↩]

posted Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 at 2:37 pm

10 comments on “Surreal Ice”

Novena on April 3, 2011 at 7:12 pm said:

Surreal is definitely the right word. Nice shot!

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- John on November 13, 2011 at 3:22 pm said:
  
  Thanks Novena!
  
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Michael P. Hays on April 7, 2011 at 6:50 pm said:

Very Nicely done, great composition. Yes, this looks very cold…. Michigan, right

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- John on November 13, 2011 at 1:16 pm said:
  
  Thanks Michael! It was a rather cold day in Michigan. A rather cold winter for that matter.
  
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Kevin Miller on April 16, 2011 at 1:05 am said:

Sweet capture. I’ve been wanting to drive up to the lake during winter but haven’t been able to get the motivation to do it yet.

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- John on November 13, 2011 at 1:16 pm said:
  
  Thanks Kevin, I think it would be worth the trip. The shelf ice is something else!
  
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Ned Zerwic on November 13, 2011 at 10:20 am said:

This is such a neat shot. Thank you for explaining a bit of what goes into it. I have another question though, why does it appear more like a painting to me than a real picture taken?

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- John on November 13, 2011 at 1:14 pm said:
  
  Appreciate the comment Ned! Glad you like it.
  
  When I look at this picture, it looks very similar to how I remember it when I was there.
  
  But, I’ve had several other people say to me “That looks fake” or “That looks like a painting”, both for this shot and for some of my other shots as well.
  
  For me, a well done HDR photo looks more real than a regular photo, and recreates the feelings and emotion you experience when you are there, looking at the scene in real life.
  
  Sometimes the post-processing that I do creates a more painted or abstract look compared to traditional photos.
  
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Andrew Smith on November 28, 2011 at 8:40 am said:

Dude you have some good HDR’s keep up the good work :D

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- John on November 29, 2011 at 7:30 pm said:
  
  Thanks Andrew!
  
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