It is hard to beat Florida's flatness for producing big sky photographs right from your back yard.
It seems every time I take Kiki out for an evening walk in our neighborhood, the sky and sunset are always fairly dramatic. Tonight was no exception. And almost always, by the time I get back from walking her the best light and clouds are already gone. I noticed the corkscrew clouds (bottom center of image) right away while walking Kiki. I cannot say I have ever seen that particular formation before. When I first saw them they were large and more pronounced. When I finally had a chance to make a photograph of them, they had drifted further away and their curliness had become less defined. Still, I was glad to be able to catch a bit of orange in the horizon before the fading sunlight all disappeared.
How I made this image:
- Nikon D300 with Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm lens tripod mounted
- f/11 ISO 200 white balance "sunny"
- 9-bracket jpg HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro 3
- Color correction in Nik Color Efex Pro 3
- Noise reduction in Nik Dfine 2
- Sharpening in Photoshop CS4 using unsharp mask