What a difference an Hour Makes

Popped out first thing; there was just the hint of colour in the sky to the east.  It takes me about 7 minutes to drive to this location and in that time the pre-dawn pinks in the sky had intensified.  In the 3 minutes it took to walk along the path to the edge of the canal the colour had desaturated completely!

I'm used to the vagaries of the weather and its effect on the opportunities for imagery, but even for me this was a rapid change.  Still the cloud patterns were interesting so I set about taking some photographs.  It was then I noticed the hints of further colour on the horizon.  I wasn't expecting this to develop, but was happy to keep taking photographs.

Even this display soon died down and as I was driving back home for breakfast spots of rain had started to appear on the windscreen.  As I sat processing the images on returning home it was absolutely chucking it down!

Technical:  A bracketed exposure (5 shots - I stop apart).  Still playing with Raya Pro but preferred the result from a balanced preset in HDR Efex Pro.  If I use this setting I then use basic sliders in Lightroom to increase clarity and usually lighten shadows.  Sharpen, slight vignette and that's it.