Got up one morning earlier than normal (actually, my son got me up) and headed out before the sun rose. As I was driving, the sun began to peak above the horizon and I was in an area that had many rivers, bridges, fields, and just general beauty. Add on the layer of major snow we got a few days earlier and you have a recipe for what I see as the definition of the heart of December.
Only thing I worry about this challenge is that it's expert editing. I think I would have a good chance to score well in an advanced editing challenge, but I think the expert tag on this is going to hurt me significantly.
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Wow, as you can see above, I really really cannot believe this ribboned. Especially when I thought it was only my third best photo of the morning. It was hard to pick one to use, but I used the technique of asking my wife and dad to look at them, and I watched their reactions. This made the choice......more difficult!
Eventually, the ducks won me over. They must be tough sons of guns to sit in 32F water and act like it's nothing. How their little webbed feet don't become popsicles is amazing.
This is a two image HDR (the three image didn't look natural), combined in Nik HDR Efex Pro, and with VERY little tweaking (slight saturation changes and chromatic aberration). If I would have done this from one image, it would actually have met the Basic editing ruleset.
Thank you all for your very kind votes, but especially your very kind comments!
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Oh, look. The participant voting average was more that the non-participant. Neat!
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 35 Avg (all users): 6.8828 Avg (commenters): 8.2857 Avg (participants): 6.9583 Avg (non-participants): 6.8654 Views since voting: 3221 Views during voting: 298 Votes: 128 Comments: 38 Favorites: 1 (view)
Just getting back to my congratulations on this challenge, Mike. This was definitely one of my top picks - it's stunning and definitely heart of December. Early usually pays - too bad I can't convince myself of that at 5 am. Congratulations on the ribbon.
eta I just looked back at my scores and see that this stood alone as my #2 choice : and I only had one #1 pick
i like the overall image, some of it i love some not so much, but very lovely, im thinking it placed higher than i would have expected as well, so im not quite sure why, so congrats on the placing.. :O)
Congratulations Mike on your ribbon, I really loved your entry and am happy to see it finish well. The pastel colors along with the subtle mist work fantastically well, I can feel winter just by looking at it.
Nice light touch with the color, interesting details here and there, but overall not much WOW factor. A good snapshot quality image. I might have played with the highlight/shadow controls a little or maybe a little more saturation would have helped.
Beautiful. I love the wintery colors and tones. The reflection is awesome. How in the world are those ducks in that water? Going to get hot chocolate now...
Blustery Winter
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