The Fiery Gates of Elgin Village

Last week while walking back to my place from the liquor store I looked to my left and saw a fantastic sunset painting the clouds all kinds of pinks and purples. I jogged the rest of the way home (as quickly as one can with a case of beer in tow) and immediately went to collect my camera gear to try and capture the amazing sunset. I had a hilltop spot in mind in the next community over (Elgin), but by the time I jumped in my car and drove the few blocks it took to get there the sunset was gone. SO disappointing! I was determined to get some shots of these arches on the hilltop so I made sure to keep my eye out for some dramatic clouds the following evening. Here’s what I came up with:

This is a 3 exposure HDR (-2,0,+2) tonemapped in Photomatix, original sky from the -2 exposure masked in using Photoshop, a bit of noise reduction in Photoshop, and some final tweaks in Lightroom. I left a bit of a blue cast because I liked the contrast between the blue stone and the fiery sunset. I’m still working on my HDR processing, so let me know what you think!