by John O’Donohue blessed be the longing that brought you here and quickens your soul with wonder. may you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs you when you have settled f

If you are taking the time to read this post then please refresh yourself with Dedication 1 before continuing.

So as you would have now seen and read, HDR photography is not that easy and I have come a long way since attempt 1 in November 2012.

My post on 26 November 2012 stated: “One day I will look at my first two “HDR” photos and have a good chuckle!”. I am chuckling now (one year and two months later) and have done so in the past few months.

I believe that I am at least halfway to nearly three-quarters of the way there; there being when I surpass some of the HDR hotshots in the world.

Robin Sharma is partly to “blame”. He came to Durban on 27 July 2013. I attended his seminar and on the following Monday started waking up at 5 AM. Nothing really happened to start with. After a few weeks I started concentrating even more on my photography.

To continue with this story I have inserted an excerpt of an email I sent Robin Sharma: “The benefits of waking at 5 aren’t known until you actually wake at 5. Even then it still doesn’t click into place until you have a 5 o’ clock mission (something worthwhile to do).

I tried the reading thing and exercise. The latter worked well for me but not the former. Instead, I tried photography.

In summer in South Africa you have to get up at 3 AM if you want to travel and be setup for photos at 1st light.

My 5 o’clocks have now become 3 o’clocks on weekends if the weather plays game. Alternatively I turn on the computer and process photos. Both stimulate my creative juices and there’s a big bonus at the end if what I produce looks really cool.”

I went on to tell Robin that my photography has now met some measure of success, although I didn’t know at the time that three of my photos would soon place well in the VSS CREATIVE virtual camera club competition (more info here).

It’s been revealed that the TOP 10 of every month in every section will soon be published in the biggest “SA Creative Photography Book”.

I was taken aback when the photo below took 2nd place in November 2013.

Truthfully, I was gobsmacked when the photos below ripped 1st and 2nd place in the same category and month.

Hein Waschefort of VSS, and director of the Photographic Society of South Africa, commented that he believed that it was the first time that someone had taken the top two spots in the same category and month.

The gobsmacked was 99.9% from being judged “ahead” of what I saw to be some super-hot works of art published by other photographers.

The “hilarious” side:

Two of the photos were taken with my “old” Canon 550D camera that is now worth about ZAR 6,000.00 new. Only one photo was taken with my new Canon 6D which recently set me back ZAR 28,000.00.

As I said in Dedication 1: Have a lovely week at work and if the going gets a little tough remember: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow” ~ Mary Anne Radmacher