…just can’t be beat.

I know I haven’t written much, but with the weather the way it is, I choose to enjoy life.

Back another day.

Enjoy!

Europe HDR - a set on Flickr.

A short answer to the question, what is HDR? High Dynamic Range is a photography method where you take three exposures instead of the normal one. An under-exposed, over-exposed, and normal shot. Each exposure ideally allows you to capture certain details that are otherwise discarded. Using software (I use Photomatix) to composite them, you end up with these stunning exposures with an amazing level of depth and contrast.

An example…the three exposures.

…and HDR-ized.

I’ve been back in Seattle since Sunday night and it’s always fun to be able to tell stories that start with, "last week when I was in Morocco…" and "yesterday when I was in London…"

But alas, I am back. Erika is still out for another two weeks through Italy and Ireland while I hang out here in Seattle. I’ve been occupying myself going through the 1100+ photos I took and experimenting with HDR composites all on the kick-ass MacBook Black that I bought right before I left. HDR has really brought some new life into my photography hobby. I’ve got a little teaser pic below, but I’m hoping to have them all posted and available in wallpaper sizes this weekend.

I’ve also been following closely the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province. I’ve spent a pretty considerable amount of time there across two different trips. Dave and I have been going through and looking at the earthquake photos and pretty easily linking them up to places we recognize. Hoping for the best out there…

Erika, who’s a self-proclaimed "not a car person", has had her ear talked off in the past two weeks with my incessant car watching. You see, there’s loads of different cars here than at home, both models and manufacturers. So when the I walk by the new Fiat 500 or a Mazda2, I can’t help but stop, leer, and point.

I thought I’d share a few of my favorites. These aren’t the kind of cars you’ll find in magazines, but fun-looking city cars of the practical type–in other words, cars you and I might actually own. Not surprisingly, they’re all hatchbacks, which are not only very dominant on the streets of Europe, but also extermely versitile.

The BMW 1 3-door. I’ve always liked the BMW M Coupé, and this is essentially the same thing, except slightly longer. Beautiful curves on the doors and an bold front for a tiny car.

The Fiat 500. Seen in a Top Gear video a few posts back, this little hatchback is filled with neat little design touches on the inside and outside. It’s also a refreshingly nice car to see rolling down the road.  See the Fiat website for interior photos.

The Hyundai i10. I love my Hyundai Elantra that I drive back at home, but here in Europe they’ve got this new city car called the i10. It’s a 5-door hatchback with a spacious interior and a look that’s a little more unique than the equivelent Seats and Opels on the road here.

The Peugeot 207. But for hatchback styling, I’ve always had this space in my heart for a Peugeot 207. I’d totally want one, except it’s French, and I simply can’t imagine trusting the French to produce a reliable car (and they historically haven’t).

The Mazda2 5-door. All my favorites might be blown out of the water though–Mazada has produced this amazing looking hatchback that grabs my eyes every time one drives by. It’s striking, brilliant, hopefully powerful and I want it to come to the US, becuase I want one!!

Having been on the road for a couple weeks now, I’m obligated to insert a little plug about my iPhone.

Best traveling device. Evar.

Let’s go over what the iPhone does…

I’ve discovered on this trip that every hostel has WiFi now and that means I can check my e-mail, read the news, check in for flights, and book hostels all without fighting for position on the hostel computers. In fact, HostelWorld even has an iPhone-optimized site now.

An iPod is an iPod, but the iPhone happens to come with a speaker as well, which means if I want a little background music to start off my day, I can! The quality is paltry, but it’s worlds better than nothing at all–puts a little spring into my step.

And of course, it’s a phone. Mine is of the jailbroken and unlocked variety, so I’ve been plugging in various SIMs as needed.

All this thing needs now is Skype–hopefully the upcoming iPhone SDK will provide.

Made it to Melilla, which is North Africa and on the edge of Morocco, but incidentally Spanish controlled. So I’m in Spain, but in Africa.

View Larger Map

Erika has some missionary friends here that we’ve been staying with, which has been a cool experience–it’s always a treat to be able to stay with a local family while traveling.

I suggested to Sarah that we go out for breakfast this morning. Going out for breakfast is an absolute joy for me on the weekends back in Seattle and I thought I’d experience what the British do.

As Sarah led me through the streets of Soho searching for a pair of places she had read about (though not remembered the names!) I suddenly stopped short and double-taked upon what I saw and demanded to Sarah that we go in.

Look through the window…the coffee snobs of you might see something…

…

Well, it certainly caught my eye!

That’s right, it’s a Synesso Syncra, the same machine used as Espresso Vivace and design specs layed out by David Schomer himself.

The coffee was incredible–I ordered a double ristretto espresso and it was nearly as good as the Vivace espresso. I could certainly drink it every day.

I’ve found decent coffee. I’m ready to live in London now.

Did about six hours of walking yesterday around London, through sunny skies, Seattle-grays, light rain, heavy rain, lighting, thunder, and hail. A wonderful spring day. Discovered that my new shoes were too small though…

And a couple photos, kicking off with some mussels and chips over lunch…

And as promised, a photo of Erika and I.

It’s 5:47a, I’m jetlagged, and I’m sitting at Sarah W’s awesome two-story flat here in Waterloo…that’s right, I’m in LONDON!

First stop on a couple weeks of holiday here in Europe. Normally I wouldn’t considering traveling to Europe with the American peso in the condition its in, but my gf, Erika, has been planning a trip to Europe for over a year, and I thought it’d be good fun to join in. Somehow I haven’t a picture of us here in London yet, but I’ll be sure to rectify this today.

OK–so on tap for this trip–London, Budapest (fourth time in three years, but I have to take Erika there!), and Morocco (via Malaga, in the south of Spain). I’ve been wanting to go to Morocco ever since I met some Brits in Croatia back in ‘05, and even though it can hardly be considered “real” Africa, excited to take a few new steps on that continent.

Convienently, this gives me a great excuse to visit Sarah W here in London, whom I had quite literally met on a bus back in Seattle over the summer.

Sarah has very kindly let me stay at her flat in Waterloo–especially awesome in light of the aforementioned American peso and exorbiant rates for lodging. =) She has a pleasant two-story flat (I’ve always wanted to live in one of these…) with a neat little view out the back.

But in fact, Sarah might even be more excited than I am for me to finally make it here and visit her…it would seem from the kitchen calendar I’m quite the keynote event!

=) and with that I’m off to steal Sarah’s keys and head off on an early morning stroll through the neighborhood.

My roommate Bram, took off for an exciting two+ weeks in Patagonia this past Tuesday, having just landed a new job at a Seattle startup. I’m really excited for him and a little jealous—he’ll be going down to Buenos Aires, home of the fun steps of tango that I love and Patagonia—the furthest south you can go without touching Antarctica.

My friend Tina happens to be in Buenos Aires right now, more than halfway through her nine month stint in South America. I mentioned this to Bram and minutes before walking out the door, sent Tina a Facebook message.

Moments after Bram walks out the door, I start getting IMs from Tina (which is fairly rare in itself!).

Tina: Hey, Bram just sent me a message on facebook–is he like in the process of leaving Seattle RIGHT now?

me: hey!

yes

he flies out at noon

any chance you have a number I can give him?

Tina: Sheize!!! If I only would have known…

I just sent him my cell.

me: you’re not going to be there?

Tina: I totally wanted to see if I could get someone from the states to bring me a new digital camera.

Purely selfish reason.

Tina’s last camera was stolen and though willing to spend money on a replacement, she was finding that all the models being sold are thee years old and overpriced. I called Bram immediately, hoping he might have some time to duck into one of the overpriced but-in-this-case-cheap airport electronics stores and caught him right as he was unloading at the airport. He agreed, but needed to check in first.

Tina and I end up chatting on Skype for a little while and catching up, me taking advantage of the webcam I picked up a few weeks back. So much fun—video adds so much to a conversation. J Eventually Bram calls my cell, tells me his flight is delayed, and is standing in the shop right now looking at cameras. I start relaying what Bram’s looking at to Tina on Skype when Bram comes up with the genius idea—”why don’t you just conference me in?”

Brilliant. And that’s when Skype bridged cities, countries, continents, and even hemispheres to put Tina, Bram, and myself on the same line for a drastically inexpensive rate. Bram read me the camera models he was looking at, I looked them up on DPReview, Skype IM’ed them to Tina with my opinion, and Tina chose her new camera. I’m sure she has it in Buenos Aires already.

How cool is this?