Great Sea Caverns of Antrim HDR Project

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skyandstone

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Hi guys,

This is my first posting to these forums.

I'd like to show you my latest project to photograph some of County Antrim's remote sea caves. Some of these secret places have never been photographed from the inside. Many of the photos are based upon old etchings from the 1900s. The adventurous Victorians used to row into these places.

As you can imagine, the project has been a highly dangerous undertaking. Many of the caves require steep climbing on tidal cliffs.

All are HDR images comprising up to 6 blended images spanning as much as 10 stops !!

Here's the photographs so far. There are more ongoing, including one which is over 80 foot high.

cathman.jpg


ir281.jpg


ir283.jpg


Andy
www.skyandstone.com
 
Great Shots, I bet they look great on a large scale.
No.2 looks like a scene from "Alien"
 
Just had a look around your website, some fantastic pictures. This project you are working on at the moment is very interesting, it was good to see the original prints/drawings that proved the inspiration, along with the stories. Great Stuff

(Also an inspiration for me, a fellow K10D user)
 
Thanks Mark, glad you enjoyed it. Did you spot the "ghost" in the first image? There is more to him than meets the eye. In many ways he is a real "photographic ghost". A phantom of a bygone day pulled forward from the very beginnings of modern photography.

He fascinates me and I am trying to trace the deceased person through through my local newpaper.

If anyone else wants to read about the project it's all here.

http://www.andymcinroy.com/5port.htm

It's being featured by a leading UK photography mag in a couple of months.

Andy
www.skyandtone.com
 
Great shots I like the 1st the best, the lone figure gives it a spooky feel.
 
Thanks W.Smith,

This project couldn't have been done without HDR. For the second image the longest exposure was 30 seconds and the shortest was 1/15th. If you mean that they don't look overly like HDR then that's good, I wanted to keep these images consistent with the old etchings and photographs.

Cheers for the comments
Andy
 
Yes Papa,

It's even more spooky if you consider that the man in the 1st photograph is in fact desceased.

But in the 3rd photo it's actually me standing down there.

Andy
 
Great shots Andy, but i'm going to wait til i get home before commenting anf further as these work monitors will not do them justice!!


W.Smith said:
most of the benefit of HDR is lost in the B/W conversion.
Click to expand...

Not sure i follow the logic to this W.Smith....... Dynamic Range isn't tone dependent in the least..... Do i miss your point?
 
love this set, can't pick a favourite. The story and work done in creating this set really all goes so well together
 
What else can I say, but Brilliant! :clap:

I'll take some time to look at your website later.
 
W.Smith said:
Great shots, Sky!
But imo most of the benefit of HDR is lost in the B/W conversion.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't agree. I think these look great. Tone mapping can produce a great degree of end results, this is one of them. Really fantastic stuff.
 
I have taken look through your web sight and it shows you are a dedicated and skilled photogragher willing to explain your techniques.

A great inspiration to me and I'm sure many others.

Well done Andy. (y)
 
Thanks everyone.

And Tooler, thanks for those very kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed my pages.

I've enlisted the help of a grade 5 kayak instructor to get me into 2-3 very difficult caves. The problem is that I need to get out of the kayak to make my HDR exposures on a tripod. I ideally need to climb up onto a dry ledge or alternatively constuct a hanging belay for both me and my tripod on the cave wall. Not easy.

We are currently waiting for some calm seas. I'll keep you all posted.

Andy
www.skyandstone.com
 
Excellent work. This is exactly how HDR should be used (And im a self confessed hater). Nice to see how close you have got to your inspiration in terms of imagery. (y)
 
Wow, thats an excellent and admirable project with some outstanding results thus far, love it!


W.Smith said:
But imo most of the benefit of HDR is lost in the B/W conversion.
Click to expand...

Without HDR all of these shots would be blackness with a white centre... :wacky: :cautious:
 
Thank you very much Messiah, InaGlo, Helium,

Helium, exactly right. You can't really appreciate how deep and dark these caves are. In the second one in particular I couldn't even see my camera in front of my nose. I had to use a headtorch which I turned off before each exposure started. I was alone during that 30 second exposure in the dark and it was scary indeed. Also it's was so loud in the cavern that I would never have heard something creeping up behind me.

Andy
 
These are great! You've done a fab job in very difficult conditions. The ghost/ person in the shots really helps add a sense of scale.
 
Fantastic shots, second one for me as stated has an alien egg chamber feel but also remings me of an ultrasound scan.
 
Great shots (y) Spooky. Keep up the good work. Best of luck with your project
 
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