The Mists Over Milford

Early Morning Milford

Early morning at Milford Sound is really something. When the tide goes out, you can walk pretty far out there to photograph areas you’d have to swim to otherwise. Or maybe waist-wade. To that I say: “No thanks!” Slipping and sliding over the fantastically slimy rocks was exciting enough for me. hehheh.

I suspect there was a relatively low tide the day we were there; although I didn’t have a Tides app like I do now to verify my suspicion.

In any case, Milford is a pretty surreal place. I don’t think a person could ever get tired of it – especially on misty/mysterious days like this! You should Google Trey Ratcliff and Milford Sound… just to see how un-tiring repeat visits are!

That Experimental Mood

The day I processed this, I was in an experimental mood. I’m like that. I created it as an HDR image from a set of 5 auto-bracketed images I took that day. Typically, I use Photomatix, then blend parts of a couple of the other RAW photos back in to create the base image. Then I go back in to clean it up, add whatever texture/color/tones I feel like doing and finish it up.

This was the image after basic processing, but before clean up:

Playing is Fun – and Good for the Soul

As you can see, I clone stamped some people out of there along with some other debris… and then played with color. Especially in the sunrise. Now, I don’t necessarily do that on every photo… but I saw that little tinge of orange in the base image and  simply wondered what it would look like if that sunrise were more ambitious. So I played… then kinda liked the result.

I used some NIK Color Efex4 Skylight filter – with only the sky brushed in, along with a bit of NIK Viveza’s Warm filter applied via Control Points – and some contrast to give the whole thing a bit more snap.

Playing. It’s fun. Expressive. Often quite delightful. I do it often.

I hereby give you permission to do the same. 😀