J.Bird Cremeans

http://www.layersmagazine.com/why-does-hdr-bring-out-the-bestworst-in-you-as-a-photographer.html

The above link talks about HDR photography and it's intended purposes. I have been medling in the artform since last year and found it to useful when deciding how far to push the tonal range of an image. I have however seen the tonal range of an image pushed wildly. I'm not into that kind of style and like for it to be more subtle or pushed just a tiny bit. Also, I don't plan on turning ALL of my photos into HDR works. I pick and choose based on what I think will benefit from the process. If the image already has good tonal range then I might apply the process and see what comes of it.

"Pretty soon, HDR becomes your “Hail Mary” pass when you take a horrible photo, rather than just deleting it, and working the image again.. Don’t be that person. Look at the technology as a way to realize your Vision rather than the workflow that’s going to replace it. A cool HDR of a junky picture is still a junky picture."

 A lot of photographers use this same ideal with Photoshop. I believe you should learn to get it right the first time. If Ansel Adams's work can't be replicated today without the aid of Photoshop then we suck as photographers.

Here are 2 of my HDR photographs:

These are both HDR images but I applied different techniques to both of them. The graveyard was created with multiple exposures taken with a tripod. Selective dodgeing and burning was then applied. The truck hood was one single exposure but I applied the dodge and burn tools achieve better tonal range. I don't believe either is taken too far. I agree the graveyard has an "effect" look but I did that on purpose.

Here is link where you can purchase prints:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7018491§ion_id=5975535