Ah, the crisp fall morning; mist dancing on the water chased by the promise of warm daytime sun.
For specific screen resolutions, go here.
de Havilland Beaver C-GZBR at Ignace Outposts’ Hilltop Lake cabin.
Category: sunrise
sunbeams at dawn
I hope you have been enjoying the rays of sun on July’s desktop. I have more for you! This time I caught sunbeams at dawn reaching through morning mist at the creek. For specific screen resolutions, go here. I have a bonus option there, too!
It is difficult for the camera to balance the contrast between the brightness of the clear sky with the darkness of the foreground. A graduated neutral density filter can be physically added to the front of the lense to darken the sky somewhat but I did not have mine along. Fortunately, in Adobe Lightroom, where I do all my image upload, storage, rating and post-processing, there is a digital version of the graduated neutral density filter. I added a touch of darkness to the sky which brought more blue out and another digital filter to the foreground to reduce the darkness. Like seasoning your food, the amount added is personal preference. Below it a screen capture of the before and after of this process in Lightroom.
On the far right, you can see the amount of exposure compensation selected (-1.20) which is greatest at the top and fades to clear through a designated area centered horizontally above and below a selected point shown as a grey button (just to the right of the sun in the image). Like the physical graduated filter, the digital adjustment is linear. Lightroom also offers a large number of other adjustment tools. There are photographers who prefer to do as much in camera as possible and next to nothing in post-processing. I am quite happy to have come to this hobby in the age of all things digital and enjoy learning both camera and computer.
emerging blue
It may only have been an hour from the first grey, foggy shot (see previous posts) to the clear blue skies (posts to follow) of this particular morning. I hardly knew which direction to turn and shoot for all around me was in transition.
frosty dawn (continued)
Moisture from the creek caused a build up of frost pointing back to its source. 
There are just some mornings…
There are just some mornings worth getting up early for! (Bet you thought I was going to say something about staying in bed!) This particular morning, my dear hubby, almost always up before me, peeked out the window, recognized a special atmospheric condition I would appreciate and brought it to my attention. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my gear and headed out. He’s a good man!
Fog was thick and temperatures hovered around zero Celsius. I knew both the fog and frost would disappear quickly. It was so incredibly beautiful.
The lack of colour in the initial shots is striking!
With brightening skies, colours emerge.
You ‘ll have to wait to see the transition to clear skies that morning…..
Maple at dawn
This angle is the opposite of the October desktop image. If you look closely you can see the chair at the end of the dock.
Karen Greaves Photography & Fibre Art 