As you know, half the effort of creating an image happens in post processing. While this is a necessary task it can also be an exciting process of watching an image transform. many times I started out with an idea in mind and in the end, I was nowhere close to what I envisioned. 

This final image is an example of just that. I was up at McKenzie Pass hoping for a normal but great sunset. On the way there I saw the horrible haze of thick smoke from the many forest fires in the NW.  Initially I was disappointed but as I started to look around ideas hit me and I started shooting.

The sun was several hours until it set and was a bright orange ball against the smoky sky. That gave me the idea to shoot one of the dead tree snag in the lava fields with a long lens and get a huge red ball of the sun. The problem was I could not frame that shot due to the shape of the land. I just could not get back far enough.

So instead, i shot the tree first then the sun with my 300 mm lens which has a 480 mm effect when using the 1.6 size sensor of my 70D.  

Once back on the computer, I processed the tree image and enhanced the existing orange color of the sky, then blended in the red sun in the same place the original sun was. 

Like many images I create, I never know where I am going when I start, nor where I will finish. 

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