Even though it is dark by 5:15pm, I found myself in a wonderfully timed situation to grab some pictures of our fair city. I was headed back from picking up framing supplies in Sharpsburg when I saw the sun and clouds above Downtown Pittsburgh. I immediately scanned the map in my brain for the best place to shoot. I just so happened to be close to the 40th street bridge. I cut across, found a spot to park, grabbed the gear and headed out across the bridge before the light changed too much. The contrast of the bright sun peeking through the clouds against the river and the city was too much. I remembered that my camera had an “HDR Mode” built in, but it required me to shoot JPEGs, not RAW. I tried once with the normal settings, but it was too intense. I sighed and searched the menu for HDR Mode. A few clicks later, I was fairly satisfied with what I had gotten. The result (after very little tweaking) was this:

An Explosion Of Clouds Mirrored In The Allegheny

Feeling the need to “cleanse my palette”, I threw on the 70-200 and zoomed in for a tighter shot of the railroad bridge and the reflection. This is the result:

Forty Streets Out