Mist

The bad weather continued today and I was determined to blip something during my morning commute. The weather was very misty this morning and it created a mysterious visual effect. I detoured lookng for a blip and had originally decided to shoot a chair and gate. When I stepped out of the car and looked around, my eye was immediately drawn to this scene. I have driven by this spot on numerous occasions, but there was something about the light, the trees and the horse that intrigued me.

I am happy to say that I love this picture. I particularly like the glowing sun and how it highlights the skies and the trees. The horse also adds visual interest and I was pleased that he(she?) cooperated by looking at me. I decided to use HDR for this shot because the range of brightness was too extreme to capture in one shot. I tried to limit the HDR processing and avoid that over-processed look that sometimes comes with HDR shots.

Edit: I decided o replace the original image with one that is slightly different. Here is the original. Did I make the right choice?


Processing:
Used Photomatix to create this image from three shots (-2,0,+2 exposure)
Used clone stamp to remove fence
Saturation layer

Constructive criticism always welcome.