When I go out in search of colorful sunrises I am normally met by either complete cloud cover or complete blue sky (anyone else have that experience?). This photo falls into the latter category. However, the crystal clear spring air made for some great stretched out sunrise shadows and direct sun did a nice job of back lighting the new grass and blooming vetch. I like the drama that extreme lighting like this provides. There are a few strangely dark areas in the oak trees that are part of the original RAW files. There isn’t much data there, so I’m not sure how to deal with that.

Canon EOS 5D, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 100, f/18, two different exposures blended manually in Photoshop to contain the wide dynamic range between the sun and the foreground.

William Neil has been working on a series for the past couple of years he calls “Impressions of Light” or something like that. He is trying to create unusual, impressionistic and intriguing visions of common outdoor photography subjects, something I’m also interested in. He uses a variety of camera techniques, one of which being slow shutter speed panning and/or zooming. A couple months back he had an amazing image in Outdoor Photographer that he took in a Yosemite redwood grove. It really struck a chord with me. This is my own attempt at something similar. It falls far short of Neil’s, but I like how the motion blur smooths out much of the distracting background forest clutter while emphasizing the lines, texture and lighting of the trees themselves. All the blur is in camera. In Photoshop I created several layers that were copies of the background image and then experimented with different combinations of blending modes (multiply, overlay, soft light) to increase color density, contrast and general mood.

On the popular photography website www.BetterPhoto.com my photo Crimson Gorge recently won the honor of Photo of the Day. Photo of the Day showcases outstanding pictures from BetterPhoto’s monthly photo contest and goes out by email to over 26,000 people!

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