ALASKA: Baranof Warm Springs in HDR

We spent the evening in Baranof Warm Spring Bay. This little fisherman’s stopover  has only one permanent resident… but it appeared she was gone this time! There are additional houses, but they are not in year-round use.

A thundering cascade tumbles into the bay from Baranof Lake. Along the river’s edge about 1/4 mile from the bay lies a series of geothermal pools… hot springs, that are a big attraction to passing boaters.

Old cedars, hemlocks and spruces draped in old mans beard lichens cling the the river bank waiting for snow and ice to topple them into the frigid water.

Slow to decay, the fallen trees will take many years to disappear, slowly feeding nutrients to the surrounding plants. The mature spruces in the area may be over 400 years old!

A hike to the lake offers more wonderful opportunities to play with HDR possibilities. HDR stands for ‘High Dynamic Range’ photography. This technique requires using a tripod for most images as three or more identically composed images are taken at different exposures… one at normal exposure, and additional images over exposed (to capture shadow detail) and under exposed (to capture highlight detail).

Since camera have a narrow latitude (or dynamic range) of exposure capability, many images do not look like what we see with our eyes. By combining the exposures using Photomatix software (HDRsoft.com) or Adobe’s new HDR in Photoshop CS5, photographers can re-create the image they perceived at the time. Older versions of Photoshop have an HDR capability, but until CS5 it just did not function properly.

Many HDR photographers go way beyond what they saw creating an artistic impression that can offer either the WOW factor or the common “that’s been photoshopped” reaction.

The images above are all HDR and offer a very close representation to what my mind’s eye perceived while enjoying this beautiful area.