We had a brief few hours of good light between fronts yesterday morning, after a night of heavy snow that clung, so I got out and did a tour of likely spots. The wind was coming up fast, and with the sun and that wind I knew the clinging winter-wonderland snow on the pines and spruces would not last long. You can see that the wind cutting across the top of the Kennebunk River bed had already dumped the snow from the tall spruces.

I took my Fat Gecko carbon-fiber, shock-corded tripod with me, intending to try some In-camera HDRs in the snow. Snow Scene Mode on the Canons SX50HS does really well keeping the highlights in the snow within bounds, but with a lot of sun on the snow, the greens go dark…losing most of their color. HDR produces a file that can be processed to show good values in the snow and keep the green in the greens! In this shot it also kept the water from going black. (Note: the In-camera HDR of the Canon SX50HS is not the overcooked, somewhat surreal, HDR that is often offered as examples of HDR processing. It is a gentle, natural extension of the apparent contrast range that produces very natural looking images.)

The only thing is, since the camera takes three images for every one, and then processes in-camera, a tripod is really needed. The Fat Gecko works well, and adds less than a pound to my kit. It is not a conventional tripod at all…the legs are shock-cored like tent poles, so they fold up rather than slide into each other. When you shake them out, the shock-cord pulls them together semi-automatically. It is easier to do than to explain. The carbon fiber legs and a small ball head provide a platform stable enough for HDR without the weight of a conventional tripod.

Canon SX50HS set for In-camera HDR. 35mm equivalent field of view. Recorded exif: f4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.