Surreal Ice

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

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.1

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
  1. 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 []

19 comments on “Surreal Ice

  1. 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?

    • 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.

  2. Surreal Ice – For real?
    The frozen, wave-swept lighthouse in Michigan looks like a CG image in-which a blue hairy Neanderthal walks out from behind it’ and clubs me for being to close. Ding I loose 50 credits.
    For real it is a super HDR image and makes me really cold. I would not mind it a bit cooler in Kansas but that is to cold. Since I was not following in 2011 I thought I would comment now. While it is still warm.
    Thanks for sharing your work. James

  3. Fantastic, looks unreal but yet very nice, here in Portugal we don´t get that amout of snow. once again very nice

    • Sorry for the delayed response. It’s pretty amazing that so much ice could build up in one winter, and then be completely gone in a few months. Thanks!

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