Taken about 2 years and 1500 miles apart, it was only when I looked at the second picture on my laptop that I realised it reminded me of one I’d taken in Pompeii. I started to write this post then but got side tracked with the events happening in Japan.

The main similarity in the photographs is, of course, that they’re both shot from a fairly similar angle of a long straight street. The big difference, of course, is that one is of Sheffield and the other Pompeii. A modern city versus a historical one. Yet one that we can still learn much from.

When I was in Pompeii it wasn’t just the quality of how well preserved it was that impressed me, but the logical way in which the city had been designed. You can see how deep the kerbs are in the bottom picture: they’re getting on for at least a foot deep (33cms). A health and safety nightmare these days for sure, but it was done for a very simple reason: hygiene.

There weren’t any sewers in Pompeii, instead everyone simply emptied everything out into the road. Twice daily (at morning and at night) the sluice gates on the aqueduct at the top of the city were opened, thus washing the streets.

To make it so people didn’t have to wade around in muck the roads were built deeply inset, and the stones you can see in the middle of the road were laid for people to cross at. Each crossing stone is, at maximum, the width of the axel of the carts that used the road.

The simplicity is mesmerising to me, and I think we could benefit greatly from this kind of design more today.

Everyone in the UK seems surprised at how early winter has arrived this year, especially given the snow fall that’s swept the country these last 10 days or so.

Seems someone didn’t quite get the memo though.  I’ve been darting about the country a lot recently, alternating between driving and catching trains depending on conditions.  It seems the entire country was covered in fog yesterday, making for potentially great photographs as I zoomed past.  Waiting for a train though this advert popped up, which seemed… optimistic:

Slightly late to jump on the bandwagon (what with iOS now supporting HDR photos, I decided to have a go with my 450D.

Stuck in customs has a very indepth tutorial on how to create very surreal looking HDR photos, and is well worth a read if you’re interested.

Naturally I did everything in the complete opposite to how he says you should take them:

Tripod, high contrast scene, +/-2 on the exposure bracket, static scene.

I went with:

Hand held, not that much light contrast, +/- 2 stops, subjects that are prone to move.

In spite of this, I’m happy with the results:

(left image is a normal shot, the right is HDR)


Normal:

HDR:

The most fun comes from trying to see if I can simply mimic the HDR versions by doing lots of photoshop work. It’s certainly possible to get somewhere close, but the results are much better by having the extra light information 3 different shots gives.