The end of a spring-like day

When the skies cleared after lunch, the air warmed wonderfully and the colour in the landscape returned. Smoke from several bonfires further up the valley plumed into the sky before being caught on the light breeze. I recognised a large family that we know striding purposefully across the fields behind Oakey Grove with their two dogs.

I have been reading about creating HDR images and have downloaded two recommended plug-ins for Aperture, one of which I might buy after I try them out. I am not keen on surreal HDR images and just want to learn about enhancing the range. I thought that with the last of the direct sunlight setting over Rodborough Common I would try to record some sets of auto-bracketed images which I could use for my first endeavours. I'm not sure that the landscape shots will be ideal as there was so little detail in the near silhouette hillside.

But the sky looked beautiful, with many types of clouds in the various levels of the atmosphere moving quite swiftly up from the south, accompanying that warm air. I used the tripod mostly, but tried to see if I could shoot another view handheld from the bottom of the garden, and still manage to get three steady images to combine together. I somehow doubt it.

I took this single shot just before I packed up and I love the deep blues in the sky. Sadly the remnants of some pretty pink puffy clouds which were very low in the sky seem not to have appeared.