A “dramatic-popper” and then a vignette presets in Lightroom followed by Lab Color sharpening in Photoshop combined to create a pleasing result out of an unremarkable shot. Feel free to enlarge and compare the two.
 

I almost instantly became a fan of HDR photography. Scroll through Trey’s blog or look for examples on the first page of his tutorial and you may just join me in that.

It is all a matter of taste and opinion, of course. Your sensibilities may reject vivid colors that stretch the appearance of “natural” or you may lean towards purity of photography as a capture-the-moment art that disdains enhancements that can be achieved in post-processing.

Me, I love vibrancy and sparkle of colorful pictures, especially when it comes to landscapes. Plus, I am just an amateur photographer with a reasonable but not too advanced DSLR kit – I’d be a fool to rely solely on my skills and my equipment if I wanted good pictures; instead, quite often I have to rescue bad photographs from the trash can by extensively post-processing them.

Here is an example from our recent trip to Newport, RI. I liked the way this street looked under rainy skies but despite my best efforts – or, maybe, because of them – the picture came out horribly underexposed and dull.
 

 
I decided to play with it in Lightroom. And yes, I exaggerated some of the colors and had to give the photo a bit of a “painterly” look in order to smooth out the noise that appeared during processing, but I ended up with something that I find rather worthy of not only keeping in my archive but also of putting out there for people to see.
 

 
That was not HDR in its most-used form, which involves combining exposure-bracketed images. Capturing images in RAW allows me to work on separate parts of the tonal range without affecting the rest of the photograph – and since I am stretching the tonal range of the original, I am technically creating a more dynamic range which fits the definition of HDR. I found in my experiments that when the scene is lighted evenly, I do not get a significant improvement from combining under- and over-exposed shots into an HDR photograph over what I can accomplish post-processing a single 0EV RAW shot. But when shadows and highlights are prominent (which is most frequently present in expansive landscapes or whenever the clouds or the foliage cast shades on parts of the scene), working with a bracketed set is the shortcut for getting vivid HDR photographs.

Here’s a not so great example. (It is not meant to dazzle, just to illustrate. When I get to the level of being able to dazzle, you will be the first to know.)
 

 
This scene attracted me because of the contrast of the bright sunlight on the far shore and menacing clouds practically above me. My cheapo lenses and middling skills combined to create this fairly flat photo.

Via Lightroom and Photoshop, I managed to give the photo quite a bit of pop.
 

 
Took me not that long, but long enough so that I decided to leave too dark shadows on the rocks on the left and also to not bother with the ripples in the lower right corner that I found a bit distracting. (Do not forget, this is all RAW processing – the tools at my disposal allow for fairly straight-forward ways to correct these things, I just chose not to do them for the purposes of this exercise.)

When I took the original shot, I also bracketed it with -2EV and +2EV variations of exactly the same scene. Combining the three in Photomatix software using one of the presets immediately presented me with the image below. (Okay, I also straightened the horizon in Photoshop afterwards, but no other enhancements.)
 

 
This is certainly an unfinished product yet. I can think of a couple of things I can improve. It may ultimately get me exactly to where I can arrive via further enhancements of the original 0EV RAW file. But it surely gives me a wider room for experimenting (if I chose to do so with the full tonal range of three different-exposure shots) and also jumps closer to my desired outcome in shorter time. Amazing!

You might be able to guess by now what the title of this post is meant to convey.

In the last few months I’ve recaptured my fascination with photography, and I can even imagine posting to this blog once in a while with some of my photo attempts. If you kept my feed in your aggregator or simply made use of clicking through to my posts in the past via Facebook, you certainly will be overjoyed to hear about this revival. Or not. But regardless of your reaction, Trey Ratcliff deserves a lot of credit for reigniting my interest in photography.

It took me six and a half years, a pace of roughly 3 posts every week. Surprisingly, this is very close to the pace I initially established at the beginning of this endeavor, but obviously well below my peak from late 2007 through mid-2009. Since that peak, my output dwindled to barely noticeable; the last 50 of the thousand took over a year to get through.

Those readers who stuck with me through the latter years will recall that I’ve been dropping enough hints that I was no longer finding blog-writing an enjoyable – or, to be blunt, worthwhile – exercise. I got into blogging when it was a common fad and when I had a somewhat uncommon angle to work. It has now been longer since our return to the States from England than the duration of our entire stay in England, so the angle is long gone. I cannot work up enthusiasm for any other angles. And the fad is clearly on its way out.

Majority of the people whom I got to know on interwebs through their online writings are on a similar curve with respect to their own blogging. A few are ahead of me – they already stopped updating their blogs. Many are mirroring my trajectory down from the peak output, having significantly reduced the frequency of new content. They mostly migrated to Facebook or Twitter, opting for shorthand writing instead of essaying. As far as I can see, only the professionals are continuing strong in the regular blogging department – that is, people who either directly make money from their blogs or who use blogging as cultivating ground for the prospective buyers of their commercially available products. It is needless to point out that those people are significantly more talented than me in the creative writing department.

The long and the short of it, this is the end of the road for my blogging in its current shape. I might get a sudden epiphany of what my new angle could be or I might even wake up one day and feel a renewed vigor to try my hand at writing, but I would not bet much money on it actually happening. I appreciate all the encouragement I received from friends over the years, but in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, a man’s got to know his limitations, and one of mine is: I am only an indifferent writer. If I managed to entertain people or provide a useful insight in the past, it was decidedly not due to any superior wordsmith skills.

So, now, having achieved a symbolic, if meaningless, milestone, I am going to call it.

The existing content will stay in this same place in the short term. I have not yet considered what I will do with the hosting and the domain – since the costs are fairly minimal, I might just keep them intact for the foreseeable future. Comments are being closed off, but I am reachable via email at the link on the sidebar in case any of my old posts triggers a question from someone. And while I do not maintain an overly active presence on social networks, I am reachable there too.

With that, I bid you all good luck and farewell. May you always find interesting reads elsewhere!

The first picture is a side view of the charming Hever Castle, along with a portion of its estate.
 

 
The castle itself is quite interesting, but we visited the place several times just for its grounds, complete with beautiful formal gardens and a quiet boating lake.

Next is a shot taken in the gardens of Sissinghurst Castle.
 

 
The gardens are the primary attraction themselves, combining orchestrated beauty with serene nature. The castle tower in the background serves as a magnificent elevated viewpoint.

Next is the view onto the English Channel from the ramparts of the Dover Castle.
 

 
Dover was one of our first day-trip destinations soon after settling in London. This shot perfectly captures for me the essence of the crisp November day on the coast.

Then, there is Windsor Castle.
 

 
It is not Versailles, but it is definitely in the exclusive company of the most impressive royal castles of the Old World.

And here is one of my most favorite places in England – banks of river Cam in Cambridge.
 

 
Cambridge is north of London and belongs to East Anglia – a different region from what is known as South East England. But its proximity to London made it accessible to us and we visited on several occasions. It joins Hever Castle as our most frequent day trip destinations around London and the two form perfect bookends to this brief photo-essay.

As much as I prefer to go and visit new places, returning back to something that I love would be a grand occasion. I wonder if I ever get the chance.

Here is my favorite view onto the plaza, through the arched gateway in town walls, looking at the exquisite tower shyly peeking from behind the cathedral.
 

 
And here is a tower close-up.
 

 
The vastness of the square can be recognized in this view, a perspective from the top of the tower.
 

 
I have been up there twice. My general love of elevated viewpoints aside, making an extra effort in terms of advance ticket purchase and timed entry is very much worth it when it comes to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Anyone who’s been to Pisa undoubtedly made a photograph of her or himself holding up the Leaning Tower lest it crashes to the ground there and then. Banal, I suppose. And yet strangely symbolic of experiencing the sight of the plaza and of the famous buildings. So, here is one of us making sure the tower keeps standing.
 

 
She’s done an excellent job, methinks. We might yet contribute to the tower’s upright state again this year.

Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber is a picture-perfect medieval town in Bavaria that owns its remarkable state of preservation to a significant diplomatic effort in the late stages of the Second World War to spare it from a major assault. As I mentioned elsewhere in this series, my childhood was infused with fairly tales (and later, more serious literature) set in medieval Europe, and Rothenburg hits the bulls-eye for me in terms of making those fairy-tale backgrounds come to life.

The gold-plated signs adorning craftsmen boutiques around the city epitomize the feel of the small medieval town for me. When combined with an architectural masterpiece such as one of the city clocktowers, a craftsman’s sign is my perfect favorite sight of Rothenburg.
 

Here is my hands-down most favorite sight on all of Costa Brava.
 

 
It is the view towards the marina from our rented villa in the hills above the town of L’Estartit. I spent long hours on the villa balcony, aided by salchichón and local red wine, alternating reading with gazing onto the sea. (My family would likely be at the beach during that time, but I much prefer quiet repose to beach-going.)

Here is a closer view over town and marina towards the small group of islets called Illes Medes.
 

 
I have never actually ventured close to the islands myself, but the rest of the family took journeys around Illes Medes, and we have several excellent close-ups of the rocks. Here is one.
 

 
The towns along the coast and also several miles inland are full of typical local architecture and delights. We have a couple of favorites in always stunning and yet amazingly peaceful Pals, or sometimes overcrowded but lively Begur, but step into Peratallada or Ullastret or the historic part of Torroella de Montgri, among others, and you will be infused with the unique Catalan atmosphere. Here is a small selection of sights.
 

    
  

 
And why not, here is another perspective from the same spot as in the opening shot but at a different time of day.
 

 
I did say it was my hands-down favorite, didn’t I?

Nonetheless, Glendalough Valley, within easy driving distance from Dublin, is remarkably scenic and serene, headlined by the medieval monastic site with a famous round tower. Below are a few of my favorite shots taken on our visit there.
 

Here is a view to the town from a distance.
 

 
There are two towers that stand pretty close to each other and, while they actually differ in size and would not be called remarkable on their own merit, from a number of angles they bear certain resemblance to an erstwhile New York City landmark.
 

 
Climbing the tallest of San Gimignano’s towers, Torre Grossa, is highly recommended, especially since it is not as taxing as tower climbs elsewhere. The views over the Tuscan countryside are amazing. Here is one prominently featuring the not-so-twin towers.
 

 
This line of houses on the main square, Piazza della Cisterna, is one of my favorite sights in town.
 

 
San Gimignano is small, and we visited enough times to be able to explore areas beyond standard tourist routes. On one quiet street, we found a row of doors guarded by sculpted heads. Here is a fragment.
 

 
And this is just so unmistakably “Tuscan hill-town” that I like this shot even though there is clearly nothing exceptional about it.
 

 
Tuscan towns are among the most-frequently-visited destinations in our travels. That form is set to continue this year.

My favorite sight of Ghent is unsurprisingly its central quay, Graslei.
 

 
There is something fairy-tale about this view. Maybe, it’s a vestige of my childhood. Having read a lot of Hans-Cristian Andersen tales when I was little, I always imagined European towns to look something like this, gabled houses and all.

As is my custom, I climbed to the top of Ghent’s Belfort to absorb views over town. The perspective onto St Bavo Cathedral is pretty impressive.
 

 
Another place to come back to eventually.