Autumn light

Taking advantage of summer-like temperatures and amazing fall colors this season, we did some hiking on weekend. This time, we went to the Pinikon Ridge State Park, not far past Marion. I vaguely remember being there before, early in spring, and the Horseshoe Falls vere full then- this time, hardly any water went past the small stony waterfall. Luckily, there were tress and leaves and colors all around to photograph. It does not happen to me often enough, but I looked at this tree on the side of the trail, and was able to see the final photo in my minds eye. I knew I need HRD to achieve the effect I wanted. Without this, you would be able to see the silhouette of the tree only if I focused on the sun burst, but I needed to preserve rich fall colors. The only problem in the final image was the lens flare, which I found distracting and removed most of it with a combination of clone and content-aware fill combined with some learning in Channel Mixer.