Imagine waking up to this view of the Rocky Mountains every morning. Better yet, imagine a long day at work then relaxing here with a cold beer! Not to rub it in, but I had a chance to experience both 
. My visit to Colorado was a pleasant one. Unfortunately there wasn’t much snow. Just white patches of ice where the Sun couldn’t reach. I went there hoping to photograph an ice storm. But I think I would have had better luck in Florida. And I mean this literally, cause after I left Florida a cold snap hit that froze the entire state. It seems my traveling luck is just too good.
Enough of about the trip, let’s talk about this photo. This was taken with 4 exposures. The first 3 exposures was shot without me. I mainly focused on capturing the landscape and surrounding environment for HDR. The fourth exposure was focused on me using a flash for fill light. I merged the first 3 exposures using Photomatix. Then I layered the fourth exposure on top of the merged HDR image in Photoshop. I masked everything out in the fourth exposure but me. This is the technique I’ve been using to shoot my self portraits and it’s been working well. However I’m not happy with how the lens distorted my body in this image. But I am happy with the overall results.
Processing Technique: 3 exposure HDR merged using Photomatix. Detail enhanced using Topaz Adjust. Noise removed by Topaz DeNoise. Image smoothed using Topaz Simplify. Photo processed with Photoshop CS4.
Camera Used: Canon 5D Mark1
Lens Used: Canon 17-35mm f/2.8L USM
Camera Settings: ISO 200, Program Mode, f/2.8 @ 2 second, AEB +2/0/-2, Image Shot in JPG
Processing Time: 60 minutes
Location: Fountain, Colorado
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denis