As the Romans said, at least in Gladiator: Many things change.  My obsession and profession of over thirty years is morphing in so many ways, it's hard to even come close to fathoming it all.  Sometimes, though I love the process of creating images more than ever,  I feel like a great weight would be lifted if I just gave up and left  the arena to younger people who are more at home in this Brave New World of photography.

Most of the time, though,  I feel like I've moved through a whole history of photography,  beginning with mastering 4x5 and 8x10, and moving through all these realms to where we are now, at the cusp of what seems to be the next revolution in photography-- HDR.  Since I've come this far--photographing  professionally in all or  part of five decades--I think I should keep riding this horse until it throws me off or I make to the finish line still in the saddle.

HDR is also entwined with other strands of flux: social media, the idea of everyone as a photographic artist,  publishing my images so that anyone can critique them, and  a move in landscape photography from realism to a more impressionistic, digitally-manipulated medium, to name a few.

Some of these things are harder for me to accept than others.  I'm reading an interesting book about HDR called A World in HDR by  Trey Ratcliff.  The book is full of very great HDR images, and espouses many of the philosophies of the new breed of, I assume, mostly young photographers (although I've had many older photographers in my recent workshops that were working a great deal in HDR).  The overall message of the book is that HDR, rather than being  just a glorified digital graduated neutral density filter, is a earth-shattering paradigm shift in photography--much like 3D in movies are expected to be.  I think he could be right, and he could be wrong. HDR could be a fad that people will grow weary of;  I don't know.  It is a revolution in many ways, but I wonder if it has staying power.

My own experience with HDR has been pretty conservative compared to many of the images I have seen, and fraught with some successes, but many failures.  My thinking about the process  at first was that it was simply a tool to use when lighting conditions surpassed the "DR" or dynamic range of my digital camera.  I certainly never thought of using it on every image as many  people now do,  and  I didn't imagine it would be the next big, big thing.   I also think that the "style" of HDR  images and the unusual look that actually has a certain "sameness" after repeated viewings may grow somewhat tiresome after awhile.

It is certainly true that HDR photography has taken the internet by storm, and it is intriguing enough that many photographers, including me, may want to experiment with the process.  It is also true that some images can only be made with HDR.  Using film or other "old school" tools just can not produce some of the imagery I'm seeing.  Also,  many HDR images, although not all, do have a certain kind of unusual beauty.

Theoretically, if there is any place on Earth where High Dynamic Range photography could be a really effective tool,  it seems the canyons of the Colorado Plateau would strongly qualify.  Huge differences between what the eye can see and the camera can record are an everyday occurrence here.  I've already created some images that have a nine stop range of correctly exposed light in them, but none that have the HDR "look".

How about  the HDR "look"  that sometimes borders on a more painterly style? In some cases as Mr. Ratcliff points out,  HDR is actually a more realistic media than normal photography.  One of his best examples is the quote by Monet  that shadows are not ever black in real life.  Digital HDR photography finally allows us to show the shadow detail we can see with our eyes--something we are not used to seeing in regular photographs.

This effect also happens using graduated neutral density filters, especially with what I called anti-sunsets. These occur when the sunset clouds light up in the east rather than the west, or conversly in the morning.  I have many images like this,  and the reaction from the public and editors sometimes has been skeptical because the result is so much more "highly dynamic" than what is seen in regular photographs.

What about the other parts of this great seismic shift in photography?  I have started a Facebook fan page, even though my love of privacy and my belief in Don Juan's ideas about erasing personal history made me reticent to do so. It is fulfilling knowing that your work has touched more people than you ever dreamed possible, but since I , myself, am constantly worried that my work is not making the grade (unlike some of my very confident colleagues),  I have to take the wonderfully kind words of my fans with a grain of salt, sorry.

Actually,  as a frustrated painter,  and as a photographer who enjoys the comment,  "Your photograph looks like a painting" above all others.   I think I will try my luck with  HDR photography and at least have a go at  mastering the basics.  It reminds  me of the years I spent studying dye transfer printing,  an extremely labor intensive  and complicated way to make color photographic prints developed by Kodak back in the 1940's. By the time I had the whole processed learned, Kodak discontinued many of the the materials and papers needed for print making. I don't expect this to happen with HDR, of course.

HDR has replaced multiple masks and hours in the darkroom with an array of sliders that seem to be able to be configured in an almost infinite way.  Trying to understand the realtionship between them all is a geek's paradise, but may also stretch my old brain and give it a good workout.

As for placing my images on Flicker so a community can react, I feel that my images have been constantly critiqued by photo buyers and the public for over 30 years. In this time I've heard every possible complaint and compliment about them, so  I really think more is less in this regard.  I'm not the most famous landscape photographer or the best, but I have made a good living for myself and my family for many decades now, even weathering the present recession remarkably well.  As always,  I feel very lucky to have had this work and career.  I don't care what anyone thinks, and I try only to please myself.

I know that I will never allow any "rants" on my website.  I  have given my opinions about some things, but I truly believe in the adjunct to the golden rule about saying nothing at all unless it is nice. The loss of civility in our politics and in our society is saddening to me, and I have received some very nasty messages about my work both at the gallery and on the internet--though fortunately, not many.   As they say in "No Country For Old Men, "Once we've  lost sir and ma'am, the end can not be far behind.

Trey Ratcliff says that photographers are the nicest people around.  I think that's a great sentiment and I strongly agree.

One other great young (I think he's young) Utah photographer that  has really inspired me in Guy Tal.  I first saw his work in Popular Photography Magazine.  His images are  beautiful and original and getting a lot of deserved attention.  His website, featuring a very thought-provoking blog and great images is definitely worth visiting on a regular basis.

Since I began writing this blog, I've spent a week really working with HDR, and I have a couple of observations.

1.  Many successful HDR images require more than three images. I think I will start making five my default number for prospective HDR pictures.

2.  Shoot the brackets as fast as you can, especially if anything is moving (clouds) in your shots.

3.  My best results so far have come from what HDR can do with clouds. By improving the texture of clouds and giving a feeling of movement without blur, I've obtained some cool results.  In one image the clouds were stretched somewhat and really looked like they were swiftly passing overhead.  In another, storm clouds took on an almost Close Encounters look, with much more dynamism and intensity than I've seen before.

4. Try HDR images of the usual subjects.  I used HDR on the ruin in Road Canyon and the ceiling came out completely differently than I've ever seen it before. HDR may be one way  to get new takes on shot-to-death subjects.

I am a rabid fan of Lost and can barely wait until next week's last season premiere.  I may be peeing my pants over it.  Like the creator, J.J. Abrams, I loved The Twilight Zone as a kid, but  Lost is an even  richer stew of many, many parts,   and everything about it has appealed to me: the science references, the many supernatural mysteries, the literary references and allusions to countless other people, places, events, and works of art.  I also love twist endings and surprising reveals, which Lost has perfected as no other tv show or movie.  The characters are also some of the most fully realized in televison history.  What a ride it has been!