Late last year, we bought a cottage in a resort community near Peterborough, Ontario. I'd always wanted a cottage but had resigned myself to never being able to afford one. However, this three-season resort caught our attention and was very affordable.
This is our first full season as cottage owners, and the first long weekend we've had to spend here. Needless to say, there will be many photos created in and around the area. The sampling below is just from the last 16 hours! While I won't post everything on Behance, you can always see more of the area by checking out my Flickr album.
I'm shooting more HDR images, and pushing Lightroom CC to see how well it handles various situations. And while the HDR images in this collection are looking good, there is at least one that needs additional work (and possibly reprocessing as HDR) using Photoshop. Lightroom's HDR capabilities are not too shabby, but it does have issues when it comes to resolving ghosting, as you will likely notice on one of these images.
Sunrise on Rice Lake. I got to the lake about 20 minutes too late to capture just color, but this HDR image turned out fairly well after processing in Lightroom.
Bellmere Winds Golf Course
I'm not a golfer, but I can appreciate a well designed course for its aesthetic value, and Bellmere (part of the resort) is a lovely course. I know I will find myself taking more photos of it as the season progresses.
Trilliums, County Road 2
Not 10 minutes from the cottage, I discovered this lovely copse of Trilliums, and just had to pull over and make some pictures. Many of these Trilliums were quite small and it was challenging to try and give a sense of just how many were peppered around the forest floor.
Sunset off Villiers Line
Just across from the golf course is a farmers field. This is also where the sun sets. I made my way across the road and up a steep embankment to capture these shots, braving a very aggressive swarm of mosquitoes as well. While I'm pleased in general with the results, Lightroom demonstrated some of its limitations in terms of hand image ghosts and also some extreme chromatic aberrations. The two issue combined to produce some not very desireable results. Look closely where branches meet the sky and you may see what I'm referring to.
With the wind gentling stirring the grasses and the low contrst of the scene, this composition cried out for a longer exposure (2 seconds) and a black and white treatment.
HDR Sunset
This image was the primary culprit when it came to ghosting. I debated leaving it out of the project, but I REALLY liked the image in general, and hope that the visual issues can be considered more umm, educational. I tried to reduce the issue by apply negative Clarity and Sharpness using a Linear gradient filter. I'm going to see what I can do with a single exposure version...
The foreground of this image was VERY blue, due to the color temperature, so I attempted to reduce this on the dead tree by painting in a warmer color balance using and Adjustment Brush, and letting it fade the blue. I *think* I did a pretty good job but would be interested in hearing opinions.
