Heather in Bloom

Some mornings just bring out a good mood.  I'd woken early and so I took myself up to Cannock Chase.  The last time I visited the heather was just beginning to bloom and today it was probably at its most colourful.  Add to that some obliging clouds and it led to this scene, which almost seems too purple to be true.

We say farewell to Michele as the community coordinator in the next month and Blipfoto announced it today.  I've thoroughly appreciated all her hard work to create all of the engaging articles for the community blog.  She has had an infectious enthusiasm for the role and I know her new grand children will be privileged to have her in their lives. 

Oh and I added an extra after having had the bonus of a small rainbow as I was walking around.  I never felt any rain, it was a bright, if breezy morning, but somewhere someone was getting wet!

Technical: Not an easy shot to manage, the light levels on the horizon were significantly brighter than the rest of the scene. it needed filtering, and I used a 3 stop reverse grad filter to be able to expose for the whole scene, without losing shadow or highlight detail.  Even then the tree lost any detail and is pretty much a silhouette.


In lightroom I used the basic controls to still further bring out shadow detail and reduce the intensity of the sky on the horizon.  I actually had to dial down the saturation slightly!