After the Rain

This is a shot from our last trip to Arizona. Big storms were moving through, and we got some great shots of Horseshoe Bend. I took this shot as we were headed down the hill towards the cliff. The light was absolutely glorious, and at large size, you can see the tiny round craters that the raindrops left in the sand. This one took me a while to process - I started it a couple of months ago, and have been working on it sporadically. It's a manual HDR combination of three bracketed exposures. One for the sky, one for the ground, and a third for the extremely bright highlights. I generally try to stay away from lots of cloning in my photos - but this time, I did quite a bit. There were foot prints leading away into the desert in front of me. So, I took a little artistic license and cloned the footprints out. Some will say I'm cheating - others will say it's my perrogative as the artist. I say - let someone else argue the point. I'm just doing my thing - but I'd rather be honest about it. What do you think?

We're getting ready for some chilly weather here in Cleveland. Lots of snow this past week - and the temperature is dropping fast. The next few days are going to be pretty darn cold. But I can't complain - I'm leaving for Florida on Thursday, so I'll escape just when it's at it's worst here. I'm hoping for some great light on this trip. The weather was nice for snorkeling and swimming the last few times we were in Florida - but the skies weren't very exciting. I have my fingers crossed.