Purple haze on the last Friday in September (or Green Eggs and Ham Landscape)



Diamond Bar, California, Panasonic DMC-LX3

Last Friday was exceptional because of dramatic cloud formation on the west. I used the old Point and Shoot on this image. Set it on manual mode and exposed it for about 15 seconds. If you’re wondering how I was able to hold the camera steady for that long, I didn’t. I placed the camera on top of a wall, and set it to two-second timer delay so I could avoid any shaking while the shutter releases. I made sure that the image stabilizer on the camera was turned off. (The IS will actually ruin your image if the camera is set on a tripod or something solid.) I think it must have been around 7 in the evening when I took this shot.  

What I like about this image: I love how the purple blends with the grayish smog on the horizon. The vibrant green provides a nice contrast to the skyline and the dark trees. I also like how the twinkle from the street lights add a nice to the overall scene. Try getting that from your P&S.

For this image, the tone and colors were enhanced. I post processed it using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5. I played with the curves, desaturate some colors and added some vibrance.

What I least like about the image: I wished that there were less of the trees on the right hand side but that would mean either cropping a good portion of the image, or moving from a different location -- but I would lose some of the nice elements like the street lights and the light streaks. Oh, well.

What I wished I would have captured: I wished that alien warships would emerged from the sky. Man, that would really be cool.