For about 2 years now I have been very interested in HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography.   Can’t explain it but HDR photos just really stand out to me.  I guess thats the point of them.  They pop with color and details like no other IMO.

I’m pretty sure most have seen HDR photos but probably never realized what they were looking at and how they came about.  One of the best tutorials I have seen regarding HDR photography was done by Trey Ratcliff at his website “www.stuckincustoms.com“.  This website and his examples pushed it over the top for me.  However, despite it all I never pursued my interest in it.

Not having a good camera is the biggest road block.  Good cameras aren’t cheap.  I have my eye on a camera that isn’t necessarily a “good” camera for HDR photography but I have seen and read a lot of great reviews on it and its flexibility as well as price.  Currently eye’ing the Olympus EP-1 or EP-2 PEN digital cameras.

Yesterday however I decided to try shooting some HDR photos.  I was in the car driving back from New Orleans and couldn’t help but notice how amazing the clouds looked.  Combination of blue skies, sun and huge puffy scattered clouds with a little darkness in some of the clouds.

Here I was driving down I-10, seeing some clouds and really wanted and wished I could do HDR photography.  It just so happens that a couple of weeks ago someone on Twitter posted a HDR photo they took with their iPhone 4 and I was pretty impressed.  So there I was with just my iPhone 4 in the car seat and thoughts about the iPhone application that was recommended (Pro HDR) when I decided why not lets give it a try.  I pulled over and stopped, downloaded the app in a couple of minutes and then snapped a couple of photos.

The results were…. well not so good.  Discovered how important it is to have a tripod when doing HDR photography.  The reason is that HDR photography requires overlaying usually two or three shots of different exposures and then overlays / combines them to get the best of each photo.

Here is an example from yesterday using the iPhone and shooting freehand.

First shot:

Second shot:

Resulting HDR shot:

Overall the photos weren’t very good but the experiment was still a success as it proved to me that even with just an iPhone 4 it is possible to get some decent HDR photos in a pinch. It’s a good thing to start with since I have one and doesn’t require any additional expense, well except for maybe a tripod.

Now here’s a really BAD example of an attempt at HDR photography. Learned another good lesson with this one, don’t pick the darkest and lightest areas for each shot. Causes some nasty results.

Bad HDR Shot 1:

Bad HDR Shot 2:

Bad HDR Shot 2

Resulting Bad HDR Image:

There is a strong Twitter presence thanks to the many Cisco Live attendees.  Plenty of tweetups and information sharing goes on each year at Cisco Live among the Twitter folk.  Follow the action on Twitter by searching or filtering for the #cllv10 hashtag.

Tweetup Info for Cisco Live 2010:   http://bit.ly/cqAfLH

You can view the list on the Cisco Live Virtual blogging site as well:  http://bit.ly/a4f2zS

Some notable Twits / Cisco Live 2010 Attendees to follow on Twitter:

Jennifer Huber  - Twitter: @jenniferlucille Sr. Systems Architect – specialization : wireless networks  http://jenniferhuber.blogspot.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhuber

Jeff Fry – Twitter: @Fryguy_PA – Mgr, US Network Engineering for kgb (542542) – CCIE 22061

Michael Bonnett Jr – Twitter: @MichaelBonnett Title: Carrier/Wholesale Sales Engineer Company: Charter Communications Location: Birmingham, AL

Steve Rossen – Twitter: @steve – Sr Network Engineer, Penson Financial Services. Dallas, TX

Dane DeValcourt – Twitter: @danedevalcourt, Title: Senior Network Engineer, Cox Communications, Location: Lafayette, LA  http://www.devalcourt.com

James Key – Twitter: @James_Key – Network Engineer, Jack Henry & Associates  CCIE# 25772 (Voice)  http://www.blindhog.net

Bryan Baize – Twitter: @bbaize – Training Manager for Boson Training in Tampa, I teach all of our R&S classes from CCNA to CCIE Written. CCIE# 16139

Marko Milivojevic – Twitter: @icemarkom – Senior Technical Instructor at IPExpert, CCIE# 18427

Rick Mur – Twitter:  @rickmur – Support Engineer at Telindus, CCIE# 21946 (Routing Switching / Service Provider)

Brandon Carroll - Twitter:  @brandoncarroll – Cisco Press Author, Trainer, and Course Developer with Ascolta.  CCIE# 23837

Denise Donohue – Twitter:  @denise_donohue – Network architect, CCIE, Cisco Press author

Dannette Veale – Twitter:  @dveale – Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual Strategist, Virtual Event & New Media Enthusiast

Leslie H – Twitter:  @kappadonna – Cisco Live Conference Manager

My dream inbox!

Facebook account has been deleted.  I know I know… I’m being dumb about this whole thing but am I really?  Seriously though.. Mark Zuckerberg has a mental issue.  His views on privacy and his recent decisions regarding facebook privacy changes are seriously flawed.  He seems to think that since people are willing to sign up and use social media sites and share all this personal information then they must not actually care about their privacy.  He is confusing the success of various other social network sites that center around openly sharing personal data (Twitter) as being what the users of Facebook want or what he thinks Facebook should be.

There are many problems with this.  First and foremost is that Facebook centered around the illusion of privacy.  Most people were not willing to be wide open books to the world.  They liked the concept of being open and sharing to their friends and/or family.  Facebook provided them the means to do this with what they felt was more control and security then just posting something online.

Most other social network sites centered around complete openness from the beginning.  There was no implied level of privacy with most of them.  And with that you will find that there are different types of people are at least different types of relationships and information being shared among the open social network sites and that of Facebook.

Here we are today and despite Facebooks success Zuckerberg isn’t happy and wants more.  He sees the success of others and keeps stealing their ideas and implementing them into Facebook.  Worst then that though is he keeps making privacy changes simply so that all that harvested information they have can become public and indexed by all the search engines.  Why would one care to do that you may ask?  It’s simple.  The more information they make public the more can be indexed by search engines and thus when people Google something now Facebook links are showing up all over the results.  This in turn drives more traffic to Facebook.  The more traffic to Facebook the more ad’s they serve, the more ad’s they serve up to eyeballs the more revenue they make.

It sickens me really to think that someone and some company can be so blatantly saying “F*CK YOU” to all of the people that helped make Facebook what it is all for more money.  Where most websites and companies say they will protect your data and will never sell it.. blah blah.. Facebook basically said, “Well we changed our mind, your info is too valuable to us not to sell it, k thx bye”.

I have been pissed at Facebook for some time.  Started for me when I found out that every time someone you friend on facebook plays some stupid little facebook game they give permission to the maker of the game access to not only their (your friends) information but also to your information simply because your their friend.  So the game maker or ad company can harvest your friends info and all of their friends info by proxy.   Didn’t matter what your privacy settings were.  Thats just down right wrong and it prompted me to go in and remove just about everyone as a friend except for family.  It also showed to me that this was not a company to be trusted.

More and more info about all of this has come to light lately and some big names in the tech industry have spoken out against Facebook and particularly Zuckerberg.  Some pretty damning information and quotes from Zuckerberg himself showing just how incredibly dishonest this guy is also has been making its rounds in the media and well personally enough is enough.

They are way too big to fall overnight and with all the time and information people have invested into the company I suspect most don’t want them to fall but rather just change their ways.  People don’t want to start over again building their social network and so they will likely continue to support them by using them in the “hope” that Facebook will change and do whats right again.

Not I.  I am done.  ”Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”   Good riddence Facebook.  Zuckerberg should take up some reckless thrill seeking sport or drugs or something and hopefully ….  ugh nevermind.   K, thx, dye.  ;-P