The machine at the local quarry









Following an accidental deletion of images I have had to replace all images on this blog.

Quarry visit

I wasn't able to travel too far yesterday but I had previously asked the owner of a local quarry if I could do some photos at the site. Seemed like a good time to visit, the site should be empty as no work is done over the weekend.

Hdr processed Digger
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This was a chance to try my hand at hdr  (High dynamic range). I haven’t done much hdr work as generally I find it looks a bit cartoon-like. But, with machinery in mind I thought the hdr look might well suit the subject.

I had recently joined a photography site,  HDR spotting, which is aimed at the hdr enthusiast, so this seemed a good chance to get some images to upload to the site.

Ackerman Digger processed in Photomatix
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For hdr the technique is to take multiple exposures of the  image, each exposure one or two stops apart taking in the shadows and the highlights. These exposures are then processed using software that then blends the images together to produce an image with all the shadows and  highlights exposed correctly, oversimplified yes, but that’s the general idea.

Screener HDR
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The quarry was totally deserted which suited me fine, what I did find was a number of big mobile screeners and diggers which was just what I was hoping for. The only downside was the diggers had their shovels facing down, it would have been better to have the shovels facing up for a more appealing image, but I’d have to accept that

Digger processed in photomatix and photoshop
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The first machine to have my attention was a big Chieftain gravel screener. Composition would be a problem as it was far too wide to take the shot side on, I settled for an oblique angle from the front side. This allowed the whole machine to be in frame and gave the machine a bit of a sci-fi look.

The long arm of the digger
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I took several photos of the machines around the site and eventually they will be processed in Photomatix pro or possibly Oloneo photo engine a new bit of hdr software still in the beta stage but looks promising.

Powerscreen
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