This is a similar but different image from that which I posted back in October. Again, sorting through files I decided to give this a go as it includes the sun which I had avoided in the previous composition seen here.
Grrr…..I’ve tried a few altered versions, but WP is killing the saturation or overdoing it. Either way, this looks a bit better on Facebook than it does here.
This is a combination of three exposures processed initially through Nik’s HDREfex Pro and then modified in Photoshop which was also the case with the first post.
The title? That’s a reference to a recent post by my friend Greg Russell. If you are not familiar with Greg, he is a great photographer of the west and writes some very thoughtful and thought provoking posts. Worth a click. I agree completely with his point that the real reason we are out there is for the love of place and photography. Although I have some vivid color in this image, that is not the reason for the photograph but rather the excitement and pleasure of the experience at that moment which I hope you can sense in this image….and the less colorful ones that are often my ice or fog shots.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
The colors in this photo are candy for my eyes. I like the muted orange, red, brown and gold of this autumn scene. The sun lends just the right amount of interest to a placid strip of meadow with the forest in the background. It looks to be a very pleasant place to visit.
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This road leads to a favorite nature reserve, High Ledges, that I have mentioned before. I have driven by here many times thinking that there would be times when the possibility of a nice sunrise would be strong and this autumn day gave the opportunity. It’s a very nice country hillside road.
Thanks, Yvonne.
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The sun in the picture adds that dot on the i of an already spectacular image. I know what you mean about how the saturation is somehow altered when we publish in WP, but there’s certainly enough here for any normal purposes. I really like the sombre, gentle mood of the whole. I’d love to wake up in a tent and find this waiting for me just outside the flap.
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Absolutely a great way to start the day, Gary. I was very fortunate to get a nice dawn a short distance from here and still arrive in time for sunrise.
Periodically I have to go into my blog library and delete all of the duplicates and triplicates from the various ‘re-edits trying to control the WP saturation and luminosity issues.
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i think I like the prior version better. It doesn’t have anything to do with color, precisely. The colors are lovely and inviting in both. But I’m a cloud person more than a sun person at sunrise or sunset, and I find the clouds more appealing in the other version.
This is a beautiful place. I recognized it as soon as I opened the photo. That’s pretty cool!
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I think the first is a bit tighter composition and does emphasize the clouds more. It’s nice to have a choice.
I am glad that you remembered this place from the prior post. It’s just across the road from an old farmhouse, currently occupied, and those lucky folks get to enjoy the view daily.
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I signed up to follow Greg.
I got out at 6:30 for a photo of the space station pass near the crescent moon. I also got a good shot of Venus near Mars. I have one from several evenings since the 18th. I hope to put them into one image showing the movements of the planets. That post will come later.
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I am sure you will enjoy Greg’s post. He posts sporadically but they are always interesting. I had plans to meet up with him but had to cancel. I still hope to get out there.
I am also eager to see your images of the space station and the moon.
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It is a lovely image, Steve, regardless of what WP did to it. As you and Greg point out, it is really about getting out there and seeing, and the sharing what you have found. That is what I love about your work, and that is what keeps me going out there in the heat and the bugs to do what I do.
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There are many subjects worthy of photography, but our best work in any medium comes from what we love. The experience of nature does it for me, and obviously for you also, and it shows in our photographs/paintings. Thanks, Melissa!
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When FaceBook shows better than WordPress it is a sad day! I have found some colours and patterns change quite dramatically when I save the files for the web. Quite frustrating since I end up doing a completely different version for that. Sharpening seems to translate quite differently. Frustrating indeed.
Your photo still gives a wonderful sense of place.
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Add to that the varying degrees to which folks have their displays calibrated and there is no telling how they appear. But the overall message gets through, I think.
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Whatever you did to this image it looks wonderful on my Macbook Pro
I really like the sense of the sun bursting up into the sky and giving us the light that lets us see and take photographs
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Thanks, Rod. I am always torn between the feeling that I should “get it right in the camera” and the idea that we should use all the tools at our disposal to make the most of the images. Even in film days an awful lot of work in the darkroom went into most images.
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