HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photo of the Seminary

For a long while, I've wanted to use Photomatix, a program that helps to make great 'HDR' (High Dynamic Range) pictures, but couldn't afford to spend $100 on it. I finally found out that students and educational customers can get the whole program for $30, so I bought it. I take a lot of outdoor and indoor pictures that have very bright and very dark areas, and HDR can make those pictures look spectacular!

What is HDR? Basically, it goes like this: no digital camera or computer display can record and show every level of brightness and darkness in some situations (like when you're taking a picture of the shady side of a building with the super-bright sky in the background). So you can either (a) take a 'RAW' picture with your camera (as I do in my example below) and make multiple exposures from it, or you can take a series of pictures, each one a certain amount brighter or darker than the first. Then you use a program (like Photomatix) to combine the differently-exposed pictures into one picture with all the shadow and bright areas exposed correctly.

I went outside a few days ago on a beautiful spring day, with a lot of ominous clouds in the sky, and switched my D40 over to RAW mode and took a quick snapshot of the seminary from the back baseball field. Without Photomatix, I could make the picture look pretty good by simply adjusting it in Photoshop (I have CS, but hope to get CS3 sometime soon...), using Levels and the 'Shadow/Highlight' adjustments:

But you can make the picture look much better by taking the RAW file and making a few files out of it (one that exposes for the Seminary building, and the other that exposes for the bright clouds in the background), then combining these files using Photomatix:

Notice how smooth all the textures are, and how the picture is completely well-exposed, without any very bright or very dark areas? That's the power of HDR. There are tons of examples of HDR photography on the Internet, and I hope to make some more HDR photos in the next few years (and not only of areas around the Seminary...). There are more than a few chapels and churches in St. Louis that would look absolutely amazing with some HDR work!

College Seminarians Featured on REAP Team Podcast - Sorrowful Mysteries

The Cardinal Glennon College Seminarians (along with our College Director, Fr. Cronin) are featured on the St. Louis-based REAP Team's online podcast, praying the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. Now you can pray with us at any time of day or night; just download the pocast episode (a handy MP3 file) and listen to it on your computer, iPod or a CD!

Flowers at the Seminary

I posted pictures of flowers growing on trees and in the ground around the Seminary. Spring is a wonderful time for someone who likes taking pictures of the beauty of new life in God's creation!

(Can you see the bee?)

(Does anyone know the technical term for these flowers?)

2007 German-Irish Day (The Germans Won!)

For the third year in a row, Cardinal Glennon College held it's 'German-Irish Day,' a day (more like a few hours) of friendly (and not-so-friendly) competition between the seminarians with more German heritage and those with more Irish heritage. Since I'm a blend of German/Irish/Dutch/French/Etc., I was on the German team this year.

First we played kickball - here's the victorious Germans, cheering on the seminarian at the plate:

And here's a picture of the trivia contest (also won by the Germans):

Thanks to Fr. Cronin (the college director) for taking pictures during the kickball game—I was playing on the field, so I could not take any...

In other news, spring is most definitely here, and I'll be posting a group of floral/tree pictures within the next week or so on my pictures page (link at the top of this page).

Cardinal On the Windowsill

I love spring (which begins tomorrow)! Besides the fact that my eyes start itching from all the pollen and other allergens in the air, I like seeing all the new growth and the birds returning for the summer. This morning, some birds flew to my window ledge to get some bird seed I had left there, and one of the cardinals was kind enough to raise his head for an up-close picture:

I tried to get a little closer so I could get a better picture, but cardinals are very jittery birds, and this one flew away the instant he noticed me moving. Patience is a very important virtue for those who would like to take pictures of birds!

The Best Sites Use Macs...

In what is now a fairly old news story (but not old for me, as I was 'out of the loop,' as it were, and just found this news today), the Vatican office in charge of the website has switched to using Linux servers and Mac workstations.

They surely have a lot of work to do to get the Vatican Website up-to-date (it has been image-map-based and not very innovative, design-wise, for many years... but it is one of the oldest and most well-known websites in the world). But I know of a few other great sites maintained on Macs. This site would be included in that list ;-)

I Love Volleyball - Picture from Seminary Intramurals

A brother seminarian took this picture of me getting ready to jump-serve at this past weekend's intramural championships and priest vs. seminarian volleyball game. Way back in high school, I played on my high school team (we went to State, but placed 2nd to Vianney...) and Missouri Thunder, a local club team, and I loved every minute. Unfortunately, there are very few in the Seminary who play volleyball, so I cherish every moment of it.

Who knows? Someday the seminary might have a vibrant community of volleyball players... hmm—maybe not. Oh, well, at least there's the soccer season to look forward to! You can find more pictures from the volleyball game in the 'Pictures' section at the top of this page.

A New Look - Whole Website Updated

I have everything moved to the new web server, and updated all the links, picture pages, etc. What do you think of the new look - any suggestions?

A Breezy Day Today

(Tree outside my window blowing in the wind - up to 45mph gusts!).