Dushanbe - 029 Dushanbe - 030

After spending yesterday learning how to tend our new veggie, fruit & flower garden, today was my second day out with a camera in Dushanbe. I got my first clear view of the snow-capped mountains in the distance, which promise a cool respite from the 100+ degree temps that are coming.

In order to preserve the wide range of tones in the bright sunlight and deep shadows, I've been shooting multiple exposures and combining them into a single finished image using Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro 2. It does a great job of lining up the frames, so I'm able to rattle off a 3- or 5-frame bracket hand-held. The two images above have greater richness and detail in the highlights and shadows than I could have gotten from a single exposure. Not every image benefits from this treatment, but enough do that I'm starting to shoot brackets as a matter of course.

You can see more photos on the recent work page.