An HDR of the Boston Skyline taken a couple of years ago. This photo has a pretty funny story behind it. On the surface it looks like a typical HDR photo – but behind the scenes had a bit of a silly setup.

I was working in Boston and packed light which meant my camera, 1 lens and no tripod. After a long day of working I made it to my hotel room. As I was lugging my belongings into the room, I looked out of the window and was greeted with this beautiful scene. I knew right away time was ticking to capture those colors as an HDR photo – but without a tripod, how? I tried many handheld attempts which failed.

I looked around the room and did some quick improvising. I grabbed a box, a black t-shirt and the ironing board. I used the ironing board as a stable surface, the black t-shirt was draped over the camera which was to minimize reflections from the double pane window, and the box was for height. I set all of this up in front of the window and voila – instant tripod to fire off brackets from!