Not the Solar Eclipse

Sadly I did not have the glasses or solar filter for looking @ the sun and taking photos. It never seemed dark enough to risk it; I need my eyes! I love my camera! So I took some trios of photos with different exposures at the airstrip a few blocks away to process as hdr. I found a free program and instructions at wikihow while perusing an hdr flickr group and here is my first attempt. The cloud actually looks like a jet over the little plane on the airstrip.

Sunrise at cottonwood creek ranch, photo

We have been having rain and wind here in Northern Cal; last week a series of powerful storms blew in and knocked out power, felled trees and generally made life difficult. I was fortunate to only be without power for a day; some of my neighbors lost theirs for 5 days. My niece has a woodstove, so my son and I spent the night at her place.

Obviously the weather has not been conducive to outdoor painting, so I've been playing in photoshop and Fickr. Found some great tutorial ideas in the Photoshop support group and was able to improve some of my so-so photos. I'd forgotten what a treat it is to indulge in filter fun, and no calories, either!