HDR photograph of Kilmore church on Mull. Processed by Photomatix Pro

I recently wrote a blog article about Photoshop CS5’s new “Merge to HDR Pro”. In that article I mentioned that the recent improvements with HDR software will mean that I will start to do more HDR photography in the future.

However, before committing to doing HDR with Photoshop CS5, I thought that I would do some more tests. The ultimate HDR test for me is how easy is it to create a HDR panorama?

Whilst in Scotland, I made a handheld panorama at Tobermory. The light was harsh, so it was a great opportunity to try HDR at the same time.

I first tried to process the HDR in Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. The result was good but I couldn’t find an easy way of batch processing all the segments of the panorama in one step. In this case there are 10 different segments with 3 exposures per segment.

Click on the photo to see more of this hand held HDR panorama of Tobermory.

With Photoshop CS5’s ‘Merge to HDR Pro’ I had to process each frame separately and stitch the HDR frames.

I then tried to do the same task with Photomatix Pro. Photomatix has a Lightroom plugin, when the plugin is combined with Photomatix Pro’s batch processing, it is easy to select ALL the photographs for a panorama (in this case 30) and process them together. It can achieve this because you can tell Photomatix Pro that you want it to do the HDR processing in steps of 3 (in this case).

If you photographed a HDR panorama with 8 segments and had 5 exposures per segment then you would select all 40 photographs in Lightroom, export them to Photomatix Pro and tell Photomatix Pro to do the HDR processing in steps of 5. It’s that simple!

I’ve been so impressed with Photomatix Pro that I contacted the developers (HDRsoft) and have got a 15% coupon code. If you want to buy Photomatix then click here and type ‘RBERRYPHOTO’ as the coupon code and you’ll save money!

Brown bear at Pavlov Bay

As I write this, I’m on my way home from this year’s “Adventure in Alaska” photo tour. I had a very enjoyable week with a wonderful group of people. We enjoyed the antics of breaching whales, photographed brown bears at close range and relaxed, whilst absorbing this stunning corner of the world.

Bob Brown enjoying himself in Alaska

It was great to have Bob Brown along on the adventure, as well as meeting new guests; Jon, Jan and Anne.

Compared to last year, we saw fewer bears, which is probably due to there being fewer salmon in the rivers.

Why fewer salmon? May be the salmon run is later this year, may be it’s a dip in the cycle or may be…. There seem to be as many different reasons as there are experts but when you talk to locals that have lived here for decades it is clear that there are much fewer salmon now than ten years ago.

Another noticeable difference this year is the increased number of people at some of the locations that we visited.

Kayakers from the National Geographic ship 'Sea Bird'

The bear in the photograph on the left was standing at the spot where these kayakers were sitting some 30 minutes later. (The bear was on the shore line looking for salmon carcasses, the kayak in the top right would have been about 3m away).

We were much further away with long lenses doing our upmost not to impact the bears.

Big lens and a big smile! Ready for birds, bears, breaching whales and rain!

Do you think that bears are going to come to the river and feed when there’s this number of kayakers waiting for them? Is this responsible ecotourism?

Believe it or not, these are some of the passengers from a National Geographic cruise ship. Other passengers went hiking or viewed the falls from a Zodiac. To me, this is not ecotourism.

However, there are still places in the world that are quiet, with great photography opportunities and very few visitors. I’ll be heading to more of these locations in the years ahead.

Brown bear looking for fish

Our first few days in Alaska have been incredible with excellent bear and whale photography.

We saw a few bears at Kadoshan on our first day and photographed them chasing fish, resting and eating sedge grass.

For our second day went went whale watching. After a slow start we saw a humpback whale that was breaching, we headed to where it was performing and enjoyed the spectacular display and enjoyed listening to it’s calls.

Later, more humpbacks arrived and on the cruise back to Tenakee we saw a large pod of orcas which we photographed before heading back for dinner.

Humpback breaching

Today, we are exploring Tenakee and hope to see some bears in the river near the cabin.

More updates on Saturday!

"Chocolate" eating sedge grass

Highland cow on Mull

Sheep, Highland cows, misty mountains, fish and chips, whisky and haggis. These are just some of the many sights and samples that we experienced on this year’s ‘Scottish Wildlife and Wild Places’ photo tour.

We had sun, fun and of course rain but despite the latter we still got out and saw some beautiful parts of Scotland.

On a couple of the wet mornings we stayed in for a few hours and discussed Lightroom, panoramas and how to take and create HDR photographs.

However, for the majority of the tour we were outside enjoying Scotland.

Puffins pose willingly for Dave

We started by driving to Mull via Glencoe and Fort William, stopping for photos of the dramatic landscapes along the way. Two short ferry rides and some single track roads led us to our wonderful cottage near Salen.

One of the early highlights of the trip was a day trip to the Islands of Staffa and Lunga. On Lunga we got incredibly close to puffins and everyone took some beautiful photos of these colourful, comical birds.

Mull provided us with great photo opportunities; colourful Tobermory, old boats, churches and of course wildlife and a wild landscape.

Mull, a beautiful island of sheep and single track roads

A trip to Mull isn’t complete without a visit to the nearby Island of Iona. This relaxing island rewarded us crystal clear water, stunning beaches and of course it’s ancient cathedral.

All too soon it was time to leave Mull and head to Skye. This took two different ferries and more single track road. Despite a very tight squeeze in to the minivan, we did make a detour to the spectacular Ardnamurchan lighthouse which is situated on the most westerly point of mainland Britain.

I have to thank the group for persevering with our rented minivan. We quickly discovered that a ‘fullsize’ minivan in the UK is nothing like a ‘fullsize’ minivan in North America!

Our cottage on Skye was also delightful and created a great base and friendly atmosphere. Despite uncooperative weather on Skye we saw a lot of the island, hiked up to the Old Man of Storr, visited nearby Eilean Donan castle and of course enjoyed a tour of the Talisker distillery.

Eilean Donan castle

We took a slow and scenic drive back to Glasgow and spent some time in the beautiful Perthshire town of Pitlochry.

All in all it was a tremendous week, we had fun, learnt new skills (including me) and I’m certainly looking forward to returning for the 2011 Scottish Wildlife and Wild Places photo tour.

Sunset from Fishnish on Mull

Victoria Falls at sunrise

It’s hard to think of a superlative that can be used to describe my recent adventure in Zimbabwe.

Incredibly friendly people, gorgeous landscapes, breath taking wildlife experiences, all in a safe area with hardly any tourists.

The adventure started when I flew in to the town of Victoria Falls. Esther, a wonderful local guide took me on a tour of the falls and it’s different view points. During the walk she advised not to go out at night. After working in Nigeria for 6 years I wasn’t surprised at this advise but was quickly assured that it was elephants, buffalo and baboons that I had to be concerned about, not people!

Sunrise at the falls was spectacular and there I was, photographing one of the seven wonders of the natural world and I had the place to myself.

The purpose of my visit to Zimbabwe wasn’t just to photograph Victoria Falls but also to travel by canoe down the Zambezi River in Mana Pools National Park.

Canoeing down the Zambezi River

A Cessna 206 took three of us to a small airstrip at the western end of the Mana Pools National Park. Here we met our guide Nick and his team and soon we were on the river.

The idea is that the guests sit in the front of the canoes and enjoy the ride, whilst Nick and his assistants Tim and Tonia do the paddling. In strong currents we helped but the goal was for us to relax and take photographs.

Within minutes, we saw our first group of hippos. Over the next three days we saw an astonishing number of them; it is estimated that around  5,000 hippopotamus live in Mana Pools National Park.

One of the groups of hippopotamus along the Zambezi

When you are sitting in a canoe; a large, fast moving hippo suddenly seems a lot more intimidating than the ones at a zoo! Nick made sure that we stayed a safe distance from hippos but as we learnt on day 2, some hippos choose to hide. I’ll save that story for another day….

The variety of wildlife along the river is incredible. We soon saw crocodiles, African fish eagles, short tailed eagles, a variety of kingfishers, waterbok, elephants, water buffalo, impala, egrets, wart hogs, baboons and much more.

Enjoying a beer at the end of the first day

Before we reached our first camp, we rafted the canoes together and I enjoyed a beer as we watched the sunset.

Within a few hours this had become one of my best wildlife experiences ever. The solitude, lack of other tourists, sense of adventure and viewing experiences were unprecedented and this was just the first day!

At the start of the next day, Nick took us on a game drive followed by a walk. It was evident that Nick enjoys taking his clients on a walk through the bush, it was certainly exciting not knowing what be round the next corner.

Nick leading the way

Using a dry river bed as cover, we sneaked up to a herd of grazing water buffalo and then sat and watched them as they ate their breakfast.

This was one of the many incredible experiences that Nick took us on over the three days. His 50 calibre rifle was a reminder that these animals are wild and that we should plan for the unexpected.

At the end of each day we stayed in a mobile camp. This was luxury camping with proper beds, en-suite facilities and awesome food. After dinner we would sit around the fire swapping stories, watching the stars and discussing the plans for the next day.

It’s hard to choose a single highlight from such a memorable few days but I have to admit that Nick’s ability to take us safely up to bull elephants was astonishing.

He would raft the canoes together and we slowly drift toward the elephants, then stop and watch them eat, then drift a little closer…

Up close and personal with an African bull elephant

We ended up right next to the elephants as they munched away. No need for a super-telephoto here, I was using a 50mm lens!

On this trip I wasn’t just a spectator but felt like a participant in the excitement of a typical African day.

I’ll be returning to Zimbabwe in 2011 as part of my Adventure in Africa photo tour. I can’t wait and I’m sure that this will be the start of many trips to Zimbabwe.

Smiling on the Aonach Eagach ridge as the cloud clears

On our first full day in Scotland, Steve and I ascended and traversed the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe.

The Aonach Eagach is regarded as the narrowest ridge in mainland Britain and it certainly has some airy sections.

So, what camera did I choose to take? My nice and light Canon D10 point and shoot? No, I actually took my heavy D3x!

The reason was that I suspected we’d see the cloud clearing and that we’d get some great photos.

The view along the Aonach Eagach ridge

The camera didn’t seem too heavy because I no longer use zoom lenses (except for the 17-35mm f2.8). I took a 28mm f2.8 and an 85mm f1.8 and was happy with choice. These two lenses are much lighter than taking a 24-70 f2.8 zoom. I also used my Winer front loading camera bag so that the camera was handy and had a polarizing filter (which I didn’t need) and a graduated ND filter which I did need.

We had a great day and I was certainly glad to have the D3X.

Summer is here and it’s time to travel or enjoy the outdoors. What would be a great compact camera to take on your adventures? dpreview.com recently reviewed 10 compact cameras to determine the best one for travelling.

The winners were surprising with the Casio FH100 and Samsung HZ35W coming out on top. The strengths of these cameras were their excellent image quality (both indoors and outdoors), flash capability, build quality and ergonomics. In addition, the Casio has high speed shooting capability and the Samsung has a built in GPS (however, the GPS does seem to have some issues).

Other cameras that did well are; Sony HX5, Panasonic ZS5 and Panasonic ZS7 (the latter has a built in GPS) and the Canon Powershot SX210IS.
These cameras are from well known manufacturers so why didn’t they win?

The reviewers found that the Sony HX5 was slow operationally and had a frustrating interface. The Panasonic ZS5 and ZS7 are excellent camera’s but the reviewers found them expensive compared to the competition. However, if you want GPS in your compact camera then the Panasonic ZS7 is probably the best camera to get.

Finally, the Canon SX210IS has some great features but suffers from soft images compared to it’s competitors.

One thing is for certain, compact cameras that offer great versatility and great image quality are finally coming of age.

Yesterday, Adobe announced the release of Lightroom 3. There are a number of significant improvements.

The important improvements for me are:

• Ability to import video
• Lens corrections
• 64 bit support (only useful if you have a 64 bit operating system such as Windows 7 or Mac Snow Leopard)
• Better noise reduction

If you’re interested in upgrading to Photoshop CS5 and upgrading to Lightroom then upgrade both programs at the same time and save 30% on the price of Lightroom.

Waved albatrosses during their courtship.

On Wednesday, June 9th I will be giving a talk to the Cochrane Camera Club about wildlife photography. I will be showing my latest work and describing techniques that will help improve your wildlife photography and how to make it fun and not a frustrating ordeal!

Join me at the Cochrane Alliance Church, 902 Glenbow Drive, Cochrane at 7pm on Wednesday.  (Use the north door.) Hope to see you then!

Mesa Arch at sunrise with typical single exposure

I have to admit that I’m pretty excited right now! The biggest bane with landscape photography is the limited dynamic range that our cameras have, especially when compared to our eyes. To overcome this problem, I often use graduated neutral density filters to make the bright areas of a photograph darker, this allows me to use a similar exposure for the highlights and the shadows. Graduated filters do work well but they have their problems.

One place I’ve always had problems is Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. In the photo above, how do you make the middle darker without underexposing the arch?

The answer is HDR photography. The idea is that the photographer takes multiple, identical photographs with different exposures and then uses software to combine the images. The resulting photograph should look like the scene was perceived by the photographers own eyes. The only snag was that HDR software often made a mess of the combining and the result was a fake, cartoony looking image (below). With work, it was possible to get the right result but it was often easier to use a filter then use HDR.

Typical result from older HDR software

When Photoshop CS5 was announced, Adobe said that they had updated their ‘Merge to HDR’ and they called it ‘Merge to HDR Pro’. It is supposed to be easier to use and produce a more pleasing result than the older version. When I downloaded Photoshop CS5 today it was the feature I tested.

One nice thing about ‘Merge to HDR Pro’ is that there are now presets. The presets allow the photographer to quickly see how the image will look with different settings. I am finding that ‘Photo realistic low contrast’ is the best one, especially when combined with a 0.5 increase in exposure.

Once the Merge to HDR is completed I added several curves layers to increase contrast in specific areas. The result is below and it took about 10 minutes! I think that HDR photography is now a feasible alternative to using filters. It is fast, easy to do and looks great. I can’t wait to do more HDR photography when I go to Scotland.

Mesa Arch at sunrise. 5 exposures (1 stop interval) Merge to HDR Pro