HDR mani-ar

I adore/worship/sleep with (ok, not the last one) my Canon DSLR and the 4 lenses I have (the 18-55, the 50mm 1.8, the Tamron 90mm macro, and the 55-250 IS). Yes, even the kit lens! But I really miss my Sony Ericsson for its portability and the wonderful photos I managed to get, just because I always had it with me. Take this photo of this beautiful and humongous (at least 2m long) reticulated python for example. It was late at night and we spotted the snake as we were walking along an extremely dark path (the lights were off).

My iphone 3gs can't take decent photos even in slightly dim light. I need a flash or light on that thing! I've missed another snake opportunity, one that slithered thoughtfully across my path as I was jogging. I stopped and tried to take a photo and it came out dark, pitch, black.

So it's the size of the DSLR and the light-lackingness of the iphone that prevents me from taking interesting photos outside. Ok, those are pathetic excuses. I'm also too shy to be seen out taking photos. I hope to overcome that soon.

Anyway, here's a photo that I took from the inside (balcony), of the outside (car park). I took photos with my 50mm lens for durations of 4s,8s,13s and 25s, then I used the HDR merger in photoshop. The lights look kind of odd, and they are too bright. And the photo looks nothing like how it appeared in the merger program, it looks very odd instead of having a high dynamic range.

But if I choose the "surreal" preset, I kind of like the weirdness I see!