And the Sky Above…

Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms is a public/private cooperation. The Laudholm Trust owns the land and buildings. The WNERC operates the facility and staffs the research projects. All in all, it is a wonderful place, with public hiking trails through an old salt marsh farm situated on a hill over, through well grown woods, out across the marsh on an old road, and to the beach at the mouth of the Little River. On the north side it adjoins Rachel Carson National Wildlife property all along the marsh.

It is a varied habitat, and there is always something to see there. This was the first really warm day of spring, a Saturday, and there were quite a few people enjoying the trails.

The main attraction in this shot is, of course, the sky and that amazing cumulous cloud against the airbrushed (literally) backdrop of cirrus. I also liked the gold of the standing grasses and the intricate tip of the little tree just over the horizon. I got down low and used the flip out LCD for an up-hill, ground-level shot that hid most of the tree, and made the grasses more of a subject. A bit of crop at the bottom to eliminate some of the more scruffy grass and place the horizon…and there you go.

Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.

In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky, some Fill Light for the foreground, Blackpoint to the right, added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.

From Around Home 2010.

And, of course I could not take just one. This is the same shot, from the same position, at about 45mm equivalent…coming in tighter on the cloud and making the tree more of a subject.