I’ve gotten a digital camera for my birthday from the wife – nothing too fancy, a Canon XS with the EFS 18-55 IS kit lens. I’ve been putting it through its paces lately, getting some practice with a variety of shots. A few weeks ago, I’ve found some pretty interesting shots on Flickr and it turns out it was Trey Ratcliff’s work. Needless to say I find his stuff pretty awesome. He’s got an HDR tutorial that inspired me quite a bit, and after a few unsuccessful HDR attempts I came up with a pretty decent shot.

This was taken around 8:15 PM at the Anderson train station in Calgary. Three exposures, +/-2 EV, from the tripod, with the kit lens. It’s the best one yet, although it has some ghosting and noise issues. I don’t really have a good noise reduction software.

Here’s another one, from our living room. Three exposures, +/-2 EV apart, with the tripod and the EF 50 1.8 II. Pretty mundane subject, I’m trying to get the creative juices flowing and learn more about light.

By the way, the EF 50 is absolutely amazing, scored it for 120 at Future Shop of all places and it’s worth every penny. It’s giving me some grief with the slow/noisy focus. The DOP is also very shallow, which makes certain shots tricky until you get used to it.