[squirl033]

spent last Saturday cruising the North Cascades and wound up in the Methow Valley in eastern Washington. it's a very rural area - the only two towns in the valley have a combined population of about 1500. it's dotted with farms, deer abound, and birches, aspens, and lodgepole pines line the river banks. one of those pastoral places i would love to live in when i retire... anyway, i was driving down this one-lane dirt road, saw this scene, and pulled over... the light was about gone, and the road and trees were in deep shadow, so i shot 3 frames, +1/0/-1, and blended the exposures in Photomatix. this is the result... kinda makes me want to just start walking, listening to the crunch of gravel under my shoes, enjoying the sights and smells of autumn... 40D, tammy 17-35 @ 17mm, nominal exposure 1/3.3 @ f/14...

[enviroguy]

A very nice image, indeed. Colours are attractively saturated. It doesn't look like a typical HDR photo. This glorious season passes far too quickly. Last week around here the leaves had hardly turned colour. Today many of the trees hardly had any leaves left on their branches. And November is so bleak until the snow falls. But I'll bet you have plenty of photo opportunities in "your neck of the woods" before winter.

Regards.....Dennis

[squirl033]

thanks, Dennis... fall is one of my favorite times of year, but alas, it usually turns dark, dismal and wet here long before the colors are gone... we seldom get nice days once the leaves turn, so i have to take advantage of whatever opportunity offers itself.

i do try to use HDR processing with some subtlety. i see far too many HDR images that are badly "overcooked", and look like something out of a bad video game. that's not what HDR is for, IMHO, and i make a concerted effort to keep images i process that way looking as natural as possible...

thanks again for the kind words,

Rocky

[Janika]

Very nice indeed, Love the contrast and Fall colors...

[Don Schaeffer]

Very rich and nicely sharp.

[Irma]

Those little roads can give you nice surprises... It happens the same to me when I explore or lose my way and I end up in a place I had never been before. Great that you had your camera with you so you could take this nice view...

Thanks a lot for sharing

[squirl033]

thanks for the encouraging comments!

[aine-caitlin]

A beautiful fall image. Makes me want to take a drive out to the country. I haven't done that in awhile.