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Misty Blue
Autumn has arrived west coast-style. I awoke several times in the night to the sound of the rain hammering the roof. I imagined my excavations in the garden sliding away,
(“You forgot to cover them with plastic.”)
As soon as coffee was on, I walked to the end of the garden to peer down into the “moat.” No landslides.
The big living room windows afford a great view of the countryside — at least they do when it’s not obscured by smoke, as it recently was, or the fogs and mists that occasionally roll in from the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
But I’m a sucker for misty landscapes; I like them more than those unsubtle vistas lit by hard, summer light. Give me 50 shades of grey (but no sex, please; I’m British) or blue, or green. Give me washes of watercolour spilling over voluptuous hills brushed with green bristled branches. Give me slanting squalls of rain over silver seas and thirsty soil.
Give me Tony Onley.
For me, that means using post-processing techniques with the utmost restraint. In particular, I stay away from the temptations of “Presence” — Texture, Clarity (just say no to clarity), dehaze — and (over)sharpening.
Rant: The Interweb is inundated with garish, psychedelic landscape images tortured by overenthusiastic people with cameras and the latest photo app and/or “preset” pack. FOI, I only use presets that I’ve made, usually simple white balance targets for the conditions.
For this image, my edits were in the minus direction in terms of contrast, plus for all other tones. The intended result matches the view from my window, rather than something from the planet Zircon (not that I hold any particular bias against Zirconian landscapes).