I decided to include this Royal Hawaiian lobby in this mini-series since I have a soft spot for this place. Fifteen years ago I was here taking a picture of this newly renovated lobby with a Canon 7D and a Sigma 10-20mm on a tripod. I was shooting multiple exposures to blend them manually in post-production to create HDR (high dynamic range) photographs. Much has changed since then.

The camera technology has radically improved in the last 15 years, and I’ve become a better photographer. I’m no longer making HDRs because of technological improvements; I’ve become lazier, and the world has fallen out of fashion with the HDR style.

I shot this picture in 2022 with the Fujifilm GFX 50S II. The larger medium format sensor with outstanding dynamic range allows me to take one photo and create the image I want in post-processing. I created the distortion via a fisheye lens, an artistic choice. I no longer need a tripod to make the kind of image I posted back in 2010. Admittedly, the HDR processing created a glow and mood that looks nice. If you ignore the fisheye distortion, today’s rendition is more realistic.

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