Kinda flopped

 The smoke from the fires kept me from seeing the Milky Way and the Northern Lights. But it sure didn't keep me from trying.

I set my alarm for 1:30am and got up and dragged my sorry butt out of bed and walked to the Meadow. I had a little camp chair I took with me and set things up. 

Not much happened in the skies. So I decided to play with my headlamp to see if I could do some experimental light painting on the Hickory tree in the Meadow.

The sky was lit up with very faint colors but it was really just brown-ish from the smoke. Interestingly enough, it was very cool out and there was no evidence of fireflies anywhere.

By 3AM I gave up on the lights but was happy to faintly see the Big Dipper. So I took this last shot and decided to head inside. I got a wee Star Trail as a result. The smoke completely obliterated where the Milky Way was supposed to appear.

I must have bumped the tripod a bit when I walked away. I can see it in the photo but I kept it anyway.

So this is what the skies really looked like above 👆. However, just for fun I did something pretty awful and fun.

Same photo as the one in the Meadow with the orangish-brownish sky.
I cheated with adding a sky swap.
So of course I would title these as what I wish I had seen. However, it sadly was not true.

The scary part it the ease at which I was able to change the photo. 

Okay. Well onto a couple of other Meadow photos that are not faked. I was able to get out just before sunrise and take these as the other half was up on this morning at 4am and had eaten his breakfast and had coffee so I could get out and enjoy a few morning moments in the Meadow.

We had a very busy week last week and even busier weekend with lots of comings and goings.  

The horse we called Fifteen went to her new family where she will get tons of attention and love. 

I was surprised, I haltered her up, and led her to their tiny trailer where she loaded like a pro. To her credit, she is smart but I don't have the time for her. The last time she had loaded into a trailer was the day she came home to us 6 years ago.

The mule gals absolutely had a fit after she left. But after 24 hours, they quieted down as if nothing in their lives had changed.

Strange trends in photography

Do you want to believe your eyes?

Here is an original. A bit dullish, yet beautiful as any overcast dull fall day can be.

Photo editing programs are now coming out with sky swaps. Yes, for real. 

This next shot is sky swapped ... I made it pretty obvious. And I hit one single AI button that told the program to Use a Fall preset which automatically increased the oranges and yellows. 

Obviously, I was not out in a storm with lightening strikes as the sky image suggests. 

I could have added a tornado, a sunset, or beautiful clear skies. What really jerks my chain is I could add the MilkyWay or an Aurora Borealis. 

Now. I might do these things IF I were doing perhaps a fantasy photo. But never ever a photo of things I would be taking of a normal scene.

The best part of photography is searching for good light and interesting conditions. Saturday morning we had some incredibly thick fog. So Charlie and I took a stroll through the woods to 'find' interesting light and fog.

Of course, it never turns out exactly like I 'see' it in my mind. But if I am going to really make a large edit, I will own up to it.

I am all for art. I like well done composits that invoke a scene of fantasy. I can appreciate art for art.

But I cannot condone photographers adding another sky just because they can pick a prettier one.

What is the incentive then to actually go out during a sunrise or sunset to be awe inspired by nature and photograph it, if you can 'just make it'.

But in order to be noticed as a Pro photographer today, it seems more and more that a person has to add the wow factor. 

Here is a pretty wild edit I did quite a while ago. 

Yes, I like to mess around, but I will never pass off an artificial sky. I took this sky and added cloud brushes, a moon brush, and star brushes. I changed Siera to be pure black with the fence and grasses behind her. It was just a fun thing I did one night when I couldn't sleep.