Like this one of Morganton Point at Blue Ridge Lake where we used to go swimming. I don't remember it ever looking that good, where is the red mud and pebbles instead of sand on the beach?
Or this one of the now City Hall of Copperhill, way back then it was the old YMCA building where we teenagers went on Saturday night to the Canteen to hear a local band for a buck.
Or this old trestle over the Toccoa River in Fannin County, can't you just hear the eerie ghost train whistle?
But something else I noticed about these pictures, do they look real to you? More like surreal… I noticed they were labeled as being HDR photos
High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.
Cool, kinda like when us amateurs use Picasa maybe?
But wait, here is another take ....
Doug Shiver, artist/photographer in Ellijay, uses digital watercolor painting to create his pictures. Very nice, check out Doug's blog, Creatography. He says, "It takes several hours to paint an image like this and for me, is very satisfying."
Is it real, or is it… surreal or digital or HDR or watercolor or art…
Taking pictures has come a long way, do you remember taking pictures with your little Brownie camera and sending the film off in the mail in those little envelopes, waiting weeks for your prints to come back? Those pictures were real, you could hold them in your hand, you paid real money for the film and developing, real time was spent watching the mailbox.
No doubt about the reality of this one! Grandaughter Sarah, 14-year-old photographer - was she bored? Or practicing to be on her own someday, living on mac-n-cheese? Or maybe she saw the colors and patterns and captured it to share in her album. I asked her about the title - heterogeneous - and she said that was one of her science words which describes the photo (consisting of a number of different kinds).
Browsing Sarah's virtual album makes me smile, check out the big cheese or fly on the wall. Looking through the creative eyes of a 14-year-old is very cool!
I say it doesn't matter if it is the actual shot that was snapped or an enhanced version, whether it is photography or art or something in between, it is all entertaining, and flipping through these virtual photo albums is real to me, especially when it is keeping me from working!
Note: All photos were used with permission of owners, well except I forgot to ask Sarah... maybe she won't mind. Hey Sarah, let me know if it is OK, will ya?
