A drive by of one of the volcanos through a dirty window.

Floating Dock

Sunset and a week that changed the lives of so many ends.
Here’s to tomorrow and a new sunrise. Cheers!

Namaste!

On the way home from Lincoln today we stopped at the Flying J truck stop for dinner and the sun was beginning to set as we came out!

Catch the Sun

A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed

A pink panorama of big skies and fluffy clouds.

And only a couple of days ago,

The snow cover on the lake was gone

And the cold mist seemed to make

The clouds as silver and soft as silk.

Gently, almost secretly, spring is approaching!

For more panoramas, please visit: Skywatch.

Malaysia’s landmark Petronas Twin Towers in silhouette during sunset in Kuala Lumpur 15 April 2013. PIX Firdaus Latif

Some stunning sunsets in Thailand.

Edgewater Sunset 60

We stayed at Camasdarach which has idyllic beeches that were deserted as many people had decided not to travel due to the stories of snowdrifts and power cuts in  Scotland. We had the campsite and beaches to ourselfs – fabulous!

The beach at Camusdarach was used during the filming of Bill Forsyth‘s “Local Hero” in 1983 and Trip Advisor reckons it has white sands to die for!

Camusdarach lies just south of the estuary of Britain’s shortest river, the Morar which feeds from Loch Morar  the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles.

Loch Morar

The coastline from Arisaig to Mallaig is a series of  sheltered bays and small rocky outcrops – perfect for exploring by canoe or kayak.  There are no strong currents or tides and there are plenty of places to launch.

This year we took two canoes, our trusty canadian and an inflatable which is as stable as a rock and great for two paddlers. Mooring was a doodle as we could bring the our truck right down to the beech.

The tide was in when we launched and had no problem getting the children in the canadian although Daisy was not so keen !

The sea was calm with no swell and just light ripples allowing us to sneak through gaps in the rock and watch the wildlife.

The views over to the Inner hebridian isles of Eigg and Rum were simply stunning.

Great views from the canoe back to the deserted beeches

Coming back to shore was a doddle with no waves and gentle slope on the beech

The day was rounded off perfectly with a campfire  as the sun disappeared behind Rum

Sky A Glow

Edgewater Sunset 60

Snow at Dusk

Sunset Reflections

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Witnessed a beautiful sunset tonight.

Click on the image to enlarge it in a separate window.

Sunday evening I was down in Waterfront Park to shoot the sunset and the people out enjoying the park. As I was heading back to my truck I saw the children’s playground was getting a little attention too. It was well after sunset and the light was very low so I thought I would experiment with some long exposure brackets of the kids playing on the merry-go-round. They were all ages from toddler up to five or so and they were having a great time. I knew that the figures would be blurred by movement so I decided to capitalize on that.

One mother, whose two children were the smallest on the ride, stood nearly motionless as she watched over them. I hoped that she would show up in the shots and was well rewarded. Even though there were eight or ten kids on the ride and several more parents in the scene they all stayed in motion and appear as faint ghosts in the final image.

I merged the three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using a 100% setting for anti-ghosting. I also applied the Deep #1 preset and made some very slight adjustments to the tonality before returning the image to Aperture 3 for final adjustments. In Aperture 3 I adjusted each color channel separately in order to compliment the blue tone that the twilight sky cast over the scene. I was still bothered by the way the kids were being rendered as simply a blur though; I decided to add some mid-contrast and voila their small figures appeared inside the merry-go-round. A little sharpening and some further tweaks to the Exposure and Enhance sliders and this final image emerged.

I miss sunset at the beach. I want a beach holiday!

Edgewater Sunset 50

Edgewater Sunset 16