A beautiful sunset for January 1st!

Thank you for putting this photo into the spotlight today. This is my first and I am deeply grateful!

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The Sunset Chaser rides again!

Yes, its me again! About 4:00 p.m., I looked outside and realized there could be a very nice sunset tonight. So, Wally and I decided to go chase sunsets. She loves the walks almost more than I do.

Just up the hill from where we live is a nice little park with a full west facing view. And I knew that I could frame the shot with some nice pine trees. What I wasn't sure about was how vivid the afterglow of the sunset would be since the clouds were so high and erratic.

When I got to the park, the light was fading fast. I am using my Nikon D7100 with the 18-200 mm zoom lens. I adjusted my ISO to 640, and chose to bracket 5 shots with difference of 1 EV. I chose a medium aperture and adjusted my shutter speed for the proper exposure, focused on the apex of the sunset giving the framing trees more of a silhouette and fired off the shots. My post processing consisted of merging the bracketed shots using HDR Efex, then sharpening and adding contrast to the photo.

Aside from the photo, the day has been bittersweet for my husband and I. Our daughter and her friend will be flying back to China tomorrow. We have enjoyed her company so much. We are so proud of her and happy that she has a wonderful job and friends in China. But we miss her. So, we will look forward to seeing her later in the summer when she either comes back home, or we visit her. In the meantime, we will be content with Skype, Voxer, email and Blipfoto as means of communication.

Thank you all so much for your comments, stars and hearts on yesterday's blip of Donner Lake. I was deeply touched by your comments. And thank you to all my new subscribers. You are all so wonderful and I appreciate you more than you know!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's holiday. My very best wishes for a wonderful 2014.