Photo Friday: HDR

Today’s Photo Friday subject is actually “Cameraphone Shot,” but since I don’t have a cameraphone, I thought I would share some photos I recently captured around Chicagoland in High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging. The process involves taking five photos of the same subject under five different exposures and then merging those photos together. With some, I like oversaturating the photos where they actually appear more like paintings than photos.

The first two photos are of First United Church of Oak Park. I attended there for the first time on July 19th searching for another United Church of Christ (UCC) church that was open and affirming (ONA), welcoming of GLBT celebrants. I was absolutely stunned by the size of this Gothic-like church. And inside, the service was so vibrant and the people were so welcoming. What was so weird to see were children. The congregation that I am a part of is a relatively old one. You could say that I am probably one of the youngest members…and that ain’t young! I’d love to consider membership in this church that I visited, but there is only one drawback…it’s about an hour’s drive from my house. The second photo shows a labirynth in its garden. The photos are much better when vewed at full scale, so be sure to view them from the gallery below.

The third and fourth photos are of Unity Temple, a church that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which happened to be across the street from First United Church. You can actually see First United in the background of that third photo. The exterior wasn’t as nice as I expected it, particularly at the pedestrian level.

The fifth photo is of the recently-renovated Lincoln Plaza at the Lake County Courthouse in downtown Waukegan.

The sixth photo is of Immaculate Conception Church. This is a church that I had longed to get inside of to get some photographs of.  That I achieved on May 2, 2009 and I have photos of its interior HERE and HERE from my photo blog.

The seventh photo is of a private residence that my oldest brother always admired. About 60% of the house sits on a ledge overlooking a ravine below. Because of the lay of the land and the orientation of the house, not much is visible from the street. Just recently, the homeowner refinished the two arched doors for his garage. They were in terrible disrepair for some time and one evening I saw the garage doors unobstructed from parked cars and took photos. During some treatment of the photo, the doors seemed to glow as if this was a Thomas Kinkade painting.

The eighth photo is of another private residence here in town, followed by a photo that illustrates one of the gateways to Roosevelt Park, which underwent a major renovation with boardwalks along the ravine, playground equipment and sculptures.

It’s going to be a somewhat quiet weekend as I start to pack and get stocked up on items needed for my camping trip to Saugatuck, Michigan next weekend. Hopefully the weather will be better than it has been around here the last few weekends. Have  a fantabulous weekend everyone!