Photography by Mike Baker » Where is my mind?

The autumn sun bathed the bridge in a warm, soft light.

There were some strong silhouettes as the sun went down.

The crane and masts caught my eye, nestling under the Forth road bridge.

I’ve used high dynamic range (HDR) techniques here, with 3 exposures, 2 stops apart, in order to capture the sky detail, then converted to black and white.

Saltaire (near Shipley, Yorkshire, England) was built by Titus Salt around a huge woollen mill to house his workers. It is a model development of the time, giving workers much better living conditions than they could otherwise have had.

It is a beautiful place, with it’s own library, concert hall and cricket pitch, and has now been designated a world heritage site.

Now we are leaving the UK, I wanted to show my Australian wife some of the places here that have captivated me.

The photos are of the ornate Italianate church.

It’s funny what you find when out for a walk.

In an old shed, was this gem. I believe it’s a Mk2 3 litre Ford Capri Ghia, but I expect a real enthusiast might correct me if I’m wrong

It brought back a lot of memories, as this was the same model and colour as the first car I had regular use of. I remember the first time I sat in it – the huge bonnet stretching off into the distance. It’s such a beautiful shape, even after all this time. I hope the enthusiasts are keeping them going.

Driving back to the ferry from Tobermory, I spied these old weather-beaten boats on the beach.

This bus stop sits, abandoned, inside a disused psychiatric hospital. Just after a rain shower, the site was incredibly quiet and still, and the sky brought an added sense of foreboding and drama.

I had wanted to take an HDR photo, but didn’t have my tripod, so the resulting exposures were impossible to align properly. I exposed the RAW at -2, -1, 0, 1 and 2 EV, then used Photomatix Pro to combine them and tone map to bring out the sky.

City Hall, London. My first venture into the world of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.

I took three exposures (1 stop difference), hand-held, leaning against a wall, so I was pretty happy with the alignment of the shots. I’ve since had advice that to get the best HDR shots, a range of 5 stops is recommended, so I will try that (with a tripod) soon.

I’ve used Photomatix Pro to combine the exposures and tone map them (I haven’t figured out how to tone-map in Photoshop). I was so impressed by the ease with which I could do the tone-mapping in the Photomatix Pro demo, that I bought a copy!

I’ll write a bit about HDR photography and Photomatix Pro soon.