Patience in the Shadows
I made it down to the lake around 6:30 this morning to see what the sunrise had to offer. While making a composition of my favorite boulders on the shore, I looked up briefly and saw our resident heron by the reeds, immobile as it waited for breakfast to swim by.
I managed to get a few shots before he flew off, but this one (the first one) is actually my favorite image. I like the balance of sky vs water.
The sunrise was warm, but raw captures are by default fairly neutral and low in contrast. And with a good deal of the scene in shade or shadow, I took a bit of artistic license with this image and added that warmth back into the final image. I think this not only improves the image but helps to better tell the story.
The original raw capture SOOC, lacks contrast and mood. There's no real sense of time, either. I chose to go with the warmth of the sunrise, but I could likely have gone the other way as well, and turned this into a blue hour or dusk image.
The sunrise, while it was still possible to look directly at the orb.
You can check out my editing workflow of this image by visiting my Lightroom Discover page. One step not apparent in the edit is the use of a radial filter to emphasize the heron slightly. I boosted the Shadows (~30%) and Clarity (~15%) with a soft-edged radial selection.
Until next time!
