Sunset after a storm

Was up on a nearby mountain (social distancing). The scene may be familiar as it is one I have posted before. Last night was pretty special for me, however. The weather was bad--heavy winds, and it started thundering and raining when I arrived. The wind was too strong for an umbrella and I took my hat off to put over my lens and tripod and hoped that it would not blow away. There was a double rainbow that was amazing but I was poorly positioned to photograph it and I did not want to put my camera in the bag and move as I figured it would fade and then I might miss the light I was hoping would come in the opposite direction. In fact, the light was getting pretty but I was still being rained on and the wind was such that I could not really take pictures (I was facing into the wind--maybe 30-40MPH or more at 4500 feet). Eventually the rain stopped and I got in some shots. I had to up the ISO in order to avoid vegetation being blurred, so technically the pics may not be ideal but it was sure fun to experience. Hope these give some idea. All with the same lens (I have a couple with a longer lens, but I felt I needed wide...) Thx for looking...

Glad you waited out the storm - this is a really nice set of images. Hard to pick favorites. I do like the foreground lighting in #1 and #2. #2 in particular has some captivating lighting. The foreground might be just a bit bright given the sun angle and available light but it still makes a scene that is fun to gaze at. The skies in #3 are really nice but the foreground seems a bit busy down at the bottom. Maybe crop out some of the dead branches down in front? Cropping the bottom with my browser window brings the focus up to the really neat clouds/colors.

Nice set of images. Second Alan's suggestions of the crop. It definitely brings the focus to the main event.

Jim Dockery said:

#3 for me - the foreground layers really work in this one. I'm with Jim on the last - I'd like to see a zoomed in view of the distant mountain, but the branches in the foreground distract.

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AlanLichty said:

Glad you waited out the storm - this is a really nice set of images. Hard to pick favorites. I do like the foreground lighting in #1 and #2. #2 in particular has some captivating lighting. The foreground might be just a bit bright given the sun angle and available light but it still makes a scene that is fun to gaze at. The skies in #3 are really nice but the foreground seems a bit busy down at the bottom. Maybe crop out some of the dead branches down in front? Cropping the bottom with my browser window brings the focus up to the really neat clouds/colors.

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Jameel Hyder said:

Nice set of images. Second Alan's suggestions of the crop. It definitely brings the focus to the main event.

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Thank you both for your comments. As usual, Alan's comments are insightful and got me thinking about my development of the second image. I have changed how I handled a gradient filter and see if the below image is not an improvement. As for the third image foreground, I agree. I also have a similar image in landscape format, and put it for your consideration below as well. Thanks again for your constructive comments!

Nice images, the sky and light on the distant hills in the last one being my favorite. Not sure I would crop this, because you would loose some of the great cloud pattern, but those trees on the right distract me. That would be a difficult area to clone too.

I like the edits - to both of these images and especially the last one. You had some seriously neat clouds to work with and the edits makes them more prominent in both images.

Very nice shots, I especially like the first two.

I really like them all. What great scenes, and I can see the experience was better yet. You'll feel it every time you look at them.

Bart

Super cool Stephen!

Those conditions you described are tough to shoot in, but fun, and add to the adventure. Almost like we are old time explorers.

I think those last 2 are my favorites, I am really liking those, so good job on the crops.

Love that landscape version of the 3rd original and prefer the new treatment of the gradient filter.

AlanLichty said:

I like the edits - to both of these images and especially the last one. You had some seriously neat clouds to work with and the edits makes them more prominent in both images.

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Thank you Alan. Yes, was very lucky with teh clouds. Glad you like the edits. I changed the gradient filter to be more like a "reverse" GND. I must be really dense, as I don't think I had done that previously during post processing (I had used reverse GND's on the lens, of course), but for light like this with a band of bright light near the horizon, it just makes more sense and this way I avoided darkening the blue in the sky overmuch.

Bart Carrig said:

I really like them all. What great scenes, and I can see the experience was better yet. You'll feel it every time you look at them.


Bart

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Thanks Bart. Yes, the experience makes the shots more memorable and rewarding. Also nice to know no one else is around (as no one else was crazy enough to be out there). Had I seen lightning near, I would have skedaddled. However, it was only thunder and rain (and wind). Fun time!

JimFox said:

Super cool Stephen!

Those conditions you described are tough to shoot in, but fun, and add to the adventure. Almost like we are old time explorers.

I think those last 2 are my favorites, I am really liking those, so good job on the crops.

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Thanks Jim. Agreed, see my comments above. Appreciate your kind words.

Ben Egbert said:

Love that landscape version of the 3rd original and prefer the new treatment of the gradient filter.

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Thanks Ben. I originally posted the portrait version as I was trying not to make all the shots look almost the same. The color differences were so great I thought perhaps it was okay, but put in the portrait for variety. Agreed the landscape is the better orientation. Almost seems they call it "landscape" for a reason eh?