What a start

What a start indeed. Only yesterday I announced my photo editing contest and already there are over 50 entries. It’s so stunning to see what different people can create with the same photos. And for you all who still haven’t joined, you still have 9 more days to do so. All the rules in yesterdays post, and all the already submitted photos can be seen here.

Long exposure reflections

One thin one always sad to do before shooting long exposures, is to clean the ND filter. I always do so, but it does not really help with my Hoya ND400. The problem is that while I was in Paris last year, it got loose from my camera and fell onto some stones. So now there are small spots all over the filter, that can not be cleaned. But luckily, the filter is still usable, I just need to spend a little longer with cleaning up the photos :)

This is a HDR from 5 shots, created in Oloneo Photoengine (yes, the software you can win in my contest :)) and finished in Photoshop. Taken in the middle of the Dubai Marina.

I got to the Burj Khalifa very late the day I was there. The problem was, that when I booked my ticket (around a week before my trip) all the good time were already completely sold out. Of course no chance for a sunset time, but luckily, I got one for my last day in Dubai, for the blue hour. Of course when I got up, it was already after the blue hour, but that just means that next time I’m booking my ticket a month before my visit :)

This is a HDR from 4 shots, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop. I took this one through the glass wall there, as I wanted more reflection from the building, and my tripod was not high enough to get enough over the wall.

I will really have to go back to Dubai one day. Still so many spots I wanted to visit. But on the other hand, I managed to visit so many great places in the week there. It was really worth the trip. Like this one. This is a view from a heliport of one of the skyscrapers in downtown Dubai.

This is a HDR from 3 exposures (I took 5 but had no use for the two brightest) created in Oloneo Photoengine and created in Photoshop.

I have never played golf, bu hopefully one day I get to try it :) But as I was taking photos from the Cayan tower in the Dubai Marina, this golf course in the distance looked quite interesting. It was the only big green area visible, and it just shined in the middle of the city. So of course I had to take a photo :)

This is a HDR from 4 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Yes, another reflection :) This time even with a yacht in the middle. This is actually the only area in the Marina where we were stopped by a security guard for using tripods. But only first time. The second time we were there later at night, and no guard in sight. It’s also a great area to sit down for a dinner in one of the many restaurants there. During my visit, the temperature in the evening was around 20-24 degrees, so just perfect to spend few hours with good friends and good food there :)

This is a HDR from 4 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine and finished in Photoshop.