Every year Utah has a "Parade of Homes" This is where real people get to pay for the privilege of seeing how the filthy rich live. This year one of the builders went a little nuts and with the full blessing of Disney/Pixar built a life size replica of the house from the wonderful movie "UP". Here are a few videos a local TV station did on it.
We took the kids out to see it last Sunday as part of our "Family Home Evening" a time we set aside every week for time together as a family. Here are a few of the images - most of them are HDR images, and a few were taken using my new Promote Control. I'll have a full review of that soon after I've had a chance to take a wide range of images with it.
This is a sorta head on shot using 9 exposures @ 1ev spacing. I was on a tripod down in the shadow of the street barrier (which wasn't stopping any cars from driving right up in front of the house) I went low to use the shadow to block out the low angled sun which was just to the right of the frame.
This is the view from the corner across the street looking southwest you can see one of those useless barriers, and just how bright that setting sun was even with 9 exposures I wasn't able to dial down the highlights on the side of the house while tonemapping, and I didn't feel like messing around with a bunch of layers and masking in the darker brackets as I feel that this shot shows the true light levels at the time. Shot with 9 brackets with 1ev spacing using the Promote Control.
This is the mailbox that Carl and Ellie made in the movie complete with their handprints. This is a 3 shot HDR handheld with brackets at -2, 0, +2
One of my favorites of the day (at least of the shots without my own kids in them) It was fun watching this little guy try to open the mailbox (it doesn't, at least not right now) This is another handheld HDR with 3 brackets of -2,0,+2 and this shows just how important Photomatix's De-ghosting feature is as even at 7fps this guy was moving! One bracket had a clearer view of his face but this shows his effort better.
Sneaking a peek! My little girl was waiting patiently to see inside but it was taking too long so she stood behind the little boy to get a view of the front room which is decorated just like the movie with identical chairs, painting, etc. Again 3 shot HDR handheld at -2,0-+2
Here's my future Paparazzi! She took more pictures than I did. I took this literally seconds after the previous one, I saw it coming so I had to hustle around the fence and through the gate to catch it.
Here's my shot of the painting above the mantle of "Paradise Falls" a group getting a private tour had closed the blinds just before I walked up to see inside so this was all I could see of the painting and I had to crank it up to iso4000 (yeah that's 3 zeroes) but I kinda like the spying through the window feel of it.
The weather vane was a nice touch!
And here's a typical pose of a photographers wife - patiently waiting for her crazy husband, and wearing her daughters hat because she didn't want to wear it anymore. (btw that's the spot I took the first HDR image from)
This home is on sale for ~$400,000! It clashes so much with the neighborhood which is all mega mansion sized homes with dark brown stucco walls. I pity the eventual owner as this house will be a tourist attraction for quite some time and the customized nature of it from its paint to its shingles will be very expensive to maintain.
I however will never have to worry about that as I'll never have that kind of money, but I am very thankful that someone did build it, and that I was able to take the family to see it.
Happy Shooting!
