Wildcatter Ranch bills itself as the Resort Ranch in the North Texas hill country. It is a working ranch and they cater to corporate retreats and weekend getaways for those who enjoy luxury rustic. The restaurant and conference buildings are strung out along the top of a narrow ridge and the views off either side are wonderful. This is dawn coming to the hills of North Texas.

Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 250. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.

This image got a lot more processing than I normally do. I was experimenting with Lightzone again, and then trying to approximate (and improve on) the Lightzone tone-mapped effects in Lightroom and Photomatix. In Lightroom I used the dueling Graduated Filter effect technique to lighten the foreground and darken the sky. That produced a pleasing image but with a very soft sky. In an attempt to bring some definition to the clouds, I exported the Lightroom image to Photomatix for tone mapping. I began with the Painterly setting and then backed off on the controls until I got the definition I wanted, without the artificial look (I hope).

This next was taken a few moments later and further down the ridge. It received similar treatment in Lightroom and Photomatix.