the sun is the same in a relative way

A High Dynamic Range photo of Cameron Village in Raleigh at daybreak. I've just started working with HDR and I think this is the best one, so far.

I had the opportunity to shoot both sunrise and sunset a few days ago. Here are a couple from the morning:

Note the times. In just 38 seconds there's that much change in the sky.

These were not "photoshopped" (except for the HDR photos). The camera was adjusted to pull out the orange more at the beginning and then I turned it down a bit. Here's a crow flying by:

Then Jupiter passed by...

really close to Earth and you guys were all asleep.

This next one is another HDR:

For those who don't know what HDR means, the quickest definition I can come up with is the conglomeration of several photos that each accentuate the shadows or highlights of a single scene. It gives you more definition in shadows and highlights than the camera can do at once. The camera fires 3,5,7, maybe even 9 pictures in a quick burst. These images all have different degrees of exposure. Software them combines them to make one crazy looking picture.

This is a regular photo - the Sun finally emerged:

Before I left I shot a handful of pictures of the city and had fun combining them:

Now for the evening of the same day. The skies weren't as exciting but I went to meet my photography club at a lake in Morrisville and shot a few:

So I brought a new toy to the lake; a homemade lens filter. I made this thing with a #8 welders' glass and it allows me to shoot at the sun for much longer exposures. Kinda like a serious Neutral Density Filter, except it cost $7.
The other thing is that it makes everything a lovely toxic green...

But, you can shoot awesome black and whites with it, too.

Now here's what can be done if you want to push things too far with HDR:

HDR taken in yet another direction: