Zhå-or'que's photostream

What's up with the nick?
Some of my friends call me Zork, so I often use it as an alias. Since Zork was already taken I decided to Science Fiction it up by spelling it as intricately as possible.Zorque is a Frankification, Zo-ork is a reference to Earth Final Conflict, Zor'k is a reference to Stargate (Teal'c) as is the å which is pronounced almost as an o and the Ancient symbol for Stargate looks like an upper case å (which is why I always pronounce it Stargott). Finally the h is just slapped on to make it even more complicated, hence: Zhå-or'que.

Why take pictures:
From the first moment I got a camera I had lots of fun with it, even with my first camera, which was single-use, I tried to make art instead of just snapshots. I compose music on the computer and I mostly took pictures for inspiration and for album covers, so the next logical step was a digital camera, wide-angle because I like architecture. I got a canon S60. That camera got stolen though, which was lucky in a way, because it gave me an excuse to buy an SLR. I was used to canon so I got an EOS 350, with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, later I bought canon's 10-22 wide angle lens, which I almost exclusively use today.
Ever since I joined Flickr, photography has become a hobby in itself for me, instead of just being part of my music creation process.

Technique
Ever since I got familiar with Corel photo paint I've spent hours tinkering with images.
Today I edit all my pictures with the Gimp.
I shoot almost exclusively in raw, because it retains more dynamic range and I don't have to worry about white balance. I edit all of my pictures, and tend to almost always sharpen them and do some tone mapping. I try to do what is right for the picture, so if it e.g. needs to be somewhat hazy I don't sharpen and may even blur it a bit.
I do all my tone mapping using masks and sometimes spend hours adjusting the mask to get it just right.
I don't use the term HDR because I don't want to be asociated with those super over the top edit artifact laden lollipops or grey pencil drawings (I'll still make such a picture if the picture demands it).
The dynamic range that a picture needs is unique for each picture, generally it should be free of artifacts, one should not be able to tell that the dynamic range has increased. In very rare cases tone map artifacts may enhance a picture.
I love night photography as it often produces very cool results and I find it a relaxing activity. The trouble is that it takes a lot of time for very few pictures, but it's often worth it.


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