Dusk

It was an evening last summer (July 2014). I spotted a habitat of barn swallows in an abandoned farm house on road side not far away from this marsh and just managed to get a few shots, but the light started to faint. The storm clouds rolled in from no where. I threw (literally) my gears into the trunk and drove away the spot with disappointment. My wife said she had a snack attack and we were discussing where we could go for dinner. I told her the nearest restaurant would be 35 minutes drive away, but we had a couple bags of roasted peanuts in the trunk. I pulled to roadside and open the trunk just in time to see a few sun rays break through the thick clouds. The clouds rolled in and started to disperse all in a brief 15 minutes. I quickly grabbed the gears and dashed into thick reeds. After running for 5 minutes, I came to this small opening in thick reeds. I set up my tripod and camera as quickly as I could and was able to get a few bracket shots. I first processed the bracket shots in Photomatix and then imported to Photoshop for further processing. I had to change the white balance to a warmer tone, because when I took this shot, a corner of the sky already open up and natural warm sunset tone had been fading. This may prove that a favourite shot is not always shots that done in a planned location and time. Keeping one's sense on alert and eyes watchful may bring unexpected reward.