Christmas Storm Front

Christmas in 2003 was kind of a bummer because of the lack of snow and cold weather. Christmas day itself was warm with a little rain and clouds. Near sundown the storm front started to clear and I began thinking of a way to photograph it. I ran out to Halibut Point State Park in Rockport because it was near the front and the sun going down. It truly was a gift. To make everything work I had to shoot on a tripod and expose for the sky for one exposure and for the foreground on the other. Then I merged the two images in Photoshop using the history brush technique. Basically this means painting the sky in over the other sky in a layer which was about two stops darker than the foreground. I came away from the shooting experience elated. A great Christmas gift after all.