I woke up Sunday morning in Socorro to wet streets. It had evidently rained heavily during the night. The Rio Grande Valley and all of New Mexico certainly needs the rain. On the dive out to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, the landscape, still under massive clouds, looked fresh washed…all the colors sharpened and deepened. It was especially effective on the browns and oranges of late fall.

I could not resist stopping at one of the wildlife viewing areas along the road into the refuge and setting up my hyper-light weight travel tripod for some HDRs. I like the tones in this one, the sweep of the clouds, and the leading lines of the two roads. It is looking straight north up the Rio Grande Valley.

Canon SX50HS. HDR Mode. (The camera takes three shots at three different exposures and combines them in-camera for a single extended range image. Hence the need for tripod.) 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness using my new “soft-hyper” preset.