Cow Bay Float House
Cowichan Bay is home to a lot of floating houses, although most of them are not at the dock that we walked out on, this one is right next to where we were. I think this slightly grungy HDR treatment works well for these shots – it brings up the sky very well, and its reflection in the empty berth. I think I probably missed the shot this time – these are my only two sets of brackets from here. I prefer the top picture for the way it embraces the empty berth, but I do wish that I had got all the roof line of the float house, and more brackets to expose better for the house and boats. I also have a thing for that metal boat house on the left side, as showed up yesterday and will be featured tomorrow. The second shot is nice enough, especially with the boat and its reflection to the right, and is based on a better exposure, but I don’t like the composition as much. I guess I should have tried a 5 bracket panorama of this location, then I could have had edible cake. But, I would have needed a tripod to really pull that off. My camera only does 3 brackets automatically, and for handheld brackets it is pretty hard to get comparable framing after looking at the camera to reset the exposure.
I never used to notice the reddish stain used on cedar siding in coastal British Columbia. But since I have been looking at local HDR photography in the past months, and more recently processing my own, it has struck me just how common it is. So common that I suppose I might get tired of it, though it does stand up very well to this kind of treatment. There is a green version too, which is as common.
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Canon 5Dii, Nikkor-N pre-AI 24mm/f2.8 lens, ISO125. Probably at f2.8 as the light was quite low. The top shot was exposed for the sky at 1/500th +/- 1 EV. The bottom photo was exposed for the float house at 1/160th +/- 1 EV.
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burnt embers 
Look like paintings – great treatment of these shots 🙂
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Thank you Lynn – I had not thought of them as like paintings until these comments were made. Too focused on getting one part or another of the shot processed the right way.
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I really like the ‘grungy’ treatment. I agree the first one is the better of the two compositionaly but I slightly prefer the tonal range in the second.
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Thank you Andy. Yeah, that was part of “missing the shot” as the exposures were quite different too and eking out a similar tonal range was not really possible. Still, they both came out OK.
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Eerie is right. I find the sky menacing, like a character in a book.
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One could imagine all kinds of ominous story moments to go with these.
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These houseboats are so full of character and spirit, and you’ve done an absolutely amazing job! I know what you mean with the red color that is so frequently encountered in the area. We quite like it, it seems to be a part of the character that makes the island so unique and special. Great set, my friend!
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Thank you Toad. That reddish stain was common in Haida Gwaii too when i was up there last summer. You find it on plywood too, and when weathered is a great subject for tonemapping treatment.
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These are rather surreal, inviting but a touch of eeriness. Interesting!
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Thank you!. Eerie is a good word for some of these kinds of HDR images with ominous skies.
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These are my favourite two of your photos so far. HDR photos look best when printed/viewed very large.
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Why thank you! I like them a fair bit too, but go for the simplicity of the next post more.
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Eerie and inviting all at once–while I do not do HDR, it does work on your images.
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Thank you Sally! Glad you like it. I have been discovering there are so many different ways for HDR to look. I am coming to the realisation that quite often people use HDR and don’t say so how they got their pictures to look they way they do, and often it is not obvious.
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Talked to Rupert on the phone — he looked at it too, and we both thought it must be a painting!
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Hi Richard. HDR can look like paintings sometimes. I actually tend to shy away from the more painterly effects in HDR, but I thought it worked well for these photos. If you or Rupert want to see good local examples of these methods, often of heritage buildings, then look at Toadhollow Photography.
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Thanks will check out The Toad.
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Amazing skies, wonderful pics
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Thanks Geomack, the skies looking in this direction were great. Most of my shots ended up facing the other way, for some inexplicable reason…. This is a bonus post today since I accidentally published it 24 hours early. My last Cow Bay post is tomorrow, and then we can move on to other things.
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