Sweeping Skies — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
Here’s a holdover from Sunday. I’ve gotta be honest: I dismissed this out of hand, and didn’t even bother loading my brackets into Lightroom until today—Wednesday. Related: immediate uploading of the compact flash card into Lightroom as soon as I’m home is my usual standard operating procedure. The reason for my tardiness? I was annoyed the sun never got below such a promising cloud deck to light up the skies that I didn’t even bother to make something of my exposures. It was two days of back-to-back sunset busts, and I figured these shots were trash. I was wrong.
Buried in here somewhere is a lesson in expectations. In hindsight I’m pleased with how this looks. Backlight by golden hour, the plentiful and sweeping clouds bring movement and good lines into the composition. And while I was hoping for great color to bounce off the mirrored reflection on the lake at Stafford Forge, days later and now I’m happy to make do with the photograph posted here before you. Even if I was standing on a peninsula of muck and disappointment. And speaking of great expectations—particularly ones that go unfulfilled—did any of you New Jersey people see what Monday had to offer? Talk about a top five sunset. Of course I was driving home from work and unable to capture what was certifiably an A+ sky. If I’m honest this light chaser is still cringing over that missed opportunity.
So here’s to next time, lessons learned, and not letting expectations get in the way. Yeah right.
