Hangover

     People who know me well, knows that I've been sober for years now.  I never counted how many 'cause it's not really a big deal to me.  I never considered myself an alcoholic in the first place.  But I still remember how it feels like, the day after drowning myself in gin.

     Apparently, I was suffering from it again.  I had too much urbex the day before, and gave me so much headache but wanting for more, a couple of hours later.  Yes, it's a photography hangover.  No, "UrBex" is not gin... although a bit intoxicating.

     On one of my blogs, there was this one particular image that really bothered me.  I mean, I like what I was seeing, but whatever's on my mind was not transcending through the picture.  Maybe it's the way I composed it.  Maybe it's my POV.  But I'll start with the background.  I want some heavy clouds in it.

     Fortunately, the day after shooting this, I saw some very nice nimbus clouds hovering over my work place.  It was noon, I had work.  But the most upsetting part was none of those beautiful clouds are near that abandoned factory that I took pictures of.  So instead of hoping for it to come near that place, I just thought I'll make the clouds my subject.

     For some reason, I'm also addicted to reflections.  Time and time again, I've been attempting shots of mirrors but I always fail.  Well, during those earlier times, I was happy with my results.  But looking at them again, I feel it doesn't really make so much punch.  Kinda needs more gin in it.

     Fortunately, as connected to my urbex hangover, I found this board from a pile of garbage.  What makes it interesting is the handles attached to it.  I think it was supposed to be for display or something.  Didn't matter much to me.  I just had my eyes on how shiny those handles are... reflections!  Clouds!  urbex-ish!  Headache!

Skies On My Mind
I've always wondered why some photographers are fascinated with these type of subjects.  Some take a picture of a door-knob and they get raves most of the time.  I still don't get much of it until I saw these handles.  Aside from the range of textures, I see those blue reflections of the sky.  Something I enjoy more.

Not So Obvious
It's a sarcastic title.  Of course everything is obvious!  The texture, the reflection.  The treatment.  And it's very HDR.  The thing is, didn't run through HDR software.  And the tones came straight from the camera.  It just happens to be nearing sunset.

I See You
I think I failed on this one.  But I was trying to make it look more street photography -ish.  Or at least film -ish.  But I'm having difficulty bringing that out.  So out of frustration, I saw myself on the reflection again.  I guess I could just fool around with this and hope it's not a crime.

Three Sides of Me
Now this is something I stared at for a long time.  I'm studying how bent objects reflect light in many different ways.  In this image, the effect is subtle, but still different.  As it shows, I'm standing in a single spot and at the exact position.  Yet the reflection shows three different points of view on each.

     Before I took any shots, I already anticipated these images will give me problems with dynamic range.  I know a lot will simply use Photomatix to fix that.  But I've never had much luck with that software.  Besides, I'm more interested on how people do things before these HDR software came about.  But that's another story. Next time, I'll be talking about how I'm coping up with Photoshop.

     Until then, let me tell you about my last image.

Rusty Wall
Since today I was talking about my urbex hangover, I remember seeing an abandoned container (sort of a trailer with no wheels).  One side of it is totally rusted.  And I also observed that many photographers take pictures of rusty stuff.  For some reason, I still don't get much of it.  I mean I like the texture and colors.  But that's about it.  So I took a picture of this... strangely enough, I like it.