Photography Assignment: High Dynamic Range Imaging

Here are the final works that I have created for this photography assignment, I love shooting imagery whether it is video or photography, and this assignment has let me try out one of my all time favourite techniques.

The first time I ever saw an HDR photo was when i was doing a photography technique assignment in grade 9, and have wanted to try it since.The concept of my idea is about skateboarders and how skateboarding has changed their perception of the outside world. HDR Photography works well with this concept because it really brings out every detail in the image and makes the colours almost surreal looking. Because when they average person looks a ledge or a flight of stairs, that's all they see.

I got tips from Tylyr Lenc, a photographer and former CyberARTS student. He also shoots HDR photography.

.Underpass.

Underpass skatepark, otherwise known as Don Valley skatepark, was built in July 2012, and has been the late night training ground for local Toronto skateboarders ever since. It is a more simple, metal skatepark, but designed with a lot of flow. Its shelter from rain and snow, and the fact that its lights remain on all through the night, make Underpass the best place to skate for free when there is nowhere else to go. This park is filled with low boxes and flatbars which create the perfect learning environment to get comfortable with complex tricks before taking them to larger obstacles. Underpass is now seen as one of the most core skateparks in Toronto.

Due to hurricane Sandy, falling debris had severed the main light source on the skatepark, But the coloured lights connected underground remained lit. this created very little light for skateboarding, but also helped created the image above! because it was so dark I shot 3 long exposure shots at different exposures to create the final image. I love how the coloured lights can also related to the Rogers centre and CN Tower, that also have large displays of colour changing light. This ties Underpass right into the Toronto night life. The steel structures holding up the DVP, create leading lines that pull your eyes into the skatepark itself which is positions behind the first row of columns.

The main lights have been fixed and activity at Underpass has continued ever since.

Sorry for the glitches in the video the edit was created as a quick clip of the day and i forgot to check export settings.

.Courthouse.Ledges.

Located in a path between city hall and the courthouses downtown, this unmarked territory creates a perfect warmup spot for local skateboarders. The courthouse ledges consist of 2 average hight ledges with literally the smoothest ground in all of the downtown area. This long pathway provides room for doing flat ground tricks as well as a flat ledge and another ledge that  slowly goes higher to about upper thigh hight. The grindable areas are around 20 feet long each and never seem to need any wax. They always slide perfectly. The courthouse ledges are also located right in the middle of all of the other downtown spots and is the idea place to warm up and meet up with other skaters.

I had to work fast at this spot, because of the other skateboarders warming up or filming tricks on these two ledges. The skateboarder in this photo(Brandon Murray), is messaging another filmer to come  along with us to get second angles. This is the very first spot that I go to whenever I am downtown.

All of the footage I have shot at this spot is being saved for a full length video hopefuly coming out by the end of next fall. But here is a COTD from Erick Valentic, a very good filmer who is well known all across North America.

.8th.Street.

8th Street skatepark, was built in July, 2011. After 11 years of hard work and planning the location was finally decided. This skatepark is home to many skateboarders in the etobicoke community and is a popular hangout spot for local LCI Students. The park offers a large variety of different styled obstacles to cater the needs of all different styles of skateboarders ranging from stairs, handrails,  different sized ledges and even a bowl that replicates a famous pool in California.