NormLanier.com

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Luling, Texas - The entire series can be seen here www.flickr.com/photos/normlanier/sets/72157632025756161/

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Lasvegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

Neon Sign Museum - Las Vegas

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Jackson Square looks great at any time but I really like it at night.

The night has just begun on Bourbon Street.

I think New Orleans is the only town where you can walk around with white powder on your face and no one will think you're a druggy.

Home of the Hurricane.

Bourbon Street is wild anyway, but on Haloween...

I noticed when we were on Bourbon Street that with parking being so bad in the French Quarter that most employees biked to their jobs. Thanks in advance for comments and Favs

Every night's a party on Bourbon Street

Strangely enough this photo strikes me as kind of creepy.

Great place to watch the revelers go by.

This looks like a scene from a movie

The Woodlands Waterway Cruiser (formerly known as Water Taxis) is a fun way to get around The Woodlands Town Center. For those who want to have a relaxing ride and take in the scenery, you can take a boat tour on a Waterway Cruiser along The Woodlands Waterway, a 1.4 mile long water corridor.

Outside of a Tommy Bahamas

The Woodlands Waterway Square.

Waterway Square features a unique, 120 foot water-wall adorned with dancing columns of water, next to a cascading waterfall enhanced by “boomer” jets of water capable of rising more than 60 feet into the air.

Waterway Square features a unique, 120 foot water-wall adorned with dancing columns of water, next to a cascading waterfall enhanced by “boomer” jets of water capable of rising more than 60 feet into the air.

Waterway Square features a unique, 120 foot water-wall adorned with dancing columns of water, next to a cascading waterfall enhanced by “boomer” jets of water capable of rising more than 60 feet into the air.

Enjoy a walk along the fantasyland of magical, lighted toy soldiers, elves, doves, musical angels, and snowmen.

Enjoy a walk along the Winter Wonderland pathway and be delighted in the fantasy land of magical Christmas lights, toy soldiers, elves, the doves of peace, musical angels and snowmen. Admission is Free! As you wander through the Christmas Merriment of the Winter Wonderland, (a two-acre attraction) alongside of the Ice Rink at The Woodlands Town Center, you will see lighted snow flakes, elves, snowmen, and things that help to make the holiday season bright. The Winter Wonderland is a lighted display that runs along two sides of The Ice Rink. Enjoy a walk along the pathways as you and your kids delight in the fantasyland of magical, lighted toy soldiers, elves, doves, musical angels and snowmen.

Sit back and enjoy the island lifestyle. Savor the chef's eclectic, tropical fare or just unwind with one of the many delicious cocktails.

Tiffany & Co. 9595 Six Pines Drive The Woodlands, TX (281) 292-4360

I love Photomatix Pro for combining exposures for HDR. After using it for a short period of time I realized that Photomatix wasn't giving me everything I wanted. I still found areas of the shot that were too dark or too light and no amount of tweaking with sliders would pull it all in. So I started experimenting with hand painting back in the details I wanted. In the above example you can see the result Photomatix gave me. You can see that the area especially around the carrousel is blown out. Going back to the exposure that was 2 stops under you can see that the detail is there. What I did was open up the output from Photomatix in Photoshop and import in the -2 stop exposure as a layer on top. I then added a layer mask to that exposure and inverted the layer mask so that none of the -2 exposure is visible. I then take a brush with 100% feather and set the flow to somewhere around 5. Setting the paint color to white I then start painting on the layer mask and the detail from the under exposed frame starts to appear where I want it. You can see the final layer mask in frame 3. When I'm done it goes back into lightroom where I adjust color balance, crop, and detail for the final image. I'm not sure how common this technique is but I hope someone can learn something from this process.

The Tower of Terror attraction drips with amazing detail.

Love the detail in these tractors.

I tend to like my night shots lots better but not too bad if I say so.

Detail from Carsland

The entrance to the show sets the stage.

Tough shot with the light coming from behind.

Everyone gets a shot from here. Experimented with taking this fisheye shot, lens correcting for the bow and then cropping to create a pano view.

The detailed lights in A Bug's Life area of California Adventure

One of the details in the TOT lobby in Disneyland

Dang, I didn't know that if you pushed the plunger marked TNT that you hear fireworks inside and smoke comes out the top. I guess this means I will have to go back to DL to try it out for myself again.

Gag boxes in Toontown

This little area makes a great spot to shoot the Astro Orbiter.

I'm thrilled to announce myself and 16 other fellow Flickr Master Disney photographers have contributed to this Apple App which gives you an awesome new photo from Disneyland, Disneyland Paris or WDW daily. These photos are these photographer's best of the best. All profits from this app are being donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation. The app is available now in the iTunes store itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic365-daily-disney-park/id5889...

Dungeon scene in the queue

It's been almost a year since I was at Disneyland and I was digging through the leftover pile. You know - that batch of photos that are ahhhh not so exciting. Well I played around with some treatments and cropping and came up with this.detail from the Sleeping Beauty Statue.

It's the stuff of legends - like Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. Many say it doesn't even exist. This photo proves otherwise. Only 18 of these coveted camera strap pins have been given to photographers in the world. They've only been given to photographers that have been deemed as having exceptional photographic skills in Disney Parks. The Disney Master Photographer Induction is the only award in the world that recognizes Disney Park Photographers for their exceptional work. Do you have what it takes to earn one of these camera strap pins? To find out more visit www.DisneyMasterPhotographers.com to find out more.

I use Photomatix alot but in some situations it just doesn't work. In this comparison you can see how photomatix has introduced a ton of noise (view at max size). To get what I wanted I brought all 5 exposures into Photoshop and painted in all the correct exposures with layer masks. It was a long process but it got me the results I wanted. I just discovered that the same people that make Photomatix have a Lightroom plugin called Merge to 32-bit HDR Plug-in for Lightroom. You export your exposures into one super tiff file with all the info from all 5 exposures. Then it reimports the tiff back into Lightroom where you make all your adjustments in raw. You can see that there is almost no difference between the layered Photoshop file and the Merge to 32 bit HDR. The areas you will see a difference are in the lanterns and Pinocchio which were burned down in Photoshop. All adjustments to the 32 bit HDR where only made with sliders in Lightroom. You can download a free trial at hdrsoft.com/download.html and to purchase is only $29.