One of the best things about living in Montana is that there is so much open land. A lot of that openness is just from the amount of ranches and farms that have bought those large chunks of land. The amount of houses and buildings in that proximity are very minimal throughout the valley. Well on the 4th I went out to my buddies ranch where his family usually does something fun for the holiday. After a beautiful morning with puffy clouds, we were all a little surprised when an afternoon thunderstorm rolled through. After fifteen minutes, the storm pushed through and we were left with a gorgeous afternoon. Since I already had my camera for fireworks, I went out cruising in the fields. I learned a valuable lesson that day, thistles and sandals don’t mix.
In order to capture the range of light between the foreground and the sun, I had to use HDR. The beams of light over the green fields were a key aspect and losing that would create a loss in the images. The final touches were then brought out through ACR.
In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D4, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film