A Fuzzy Fix

Orange Sky Smokie Morning, originally uploaded by Donnie Fulks.

Continuing with my spring photo trip preview, I will share one or two more from past trips to the Smokies.

This image was captured during a workshop with Tony Sweet one morning. We were driving to the morning's shoot when we encountered this scene as we rounded a bend in the road. Tony hit the brakes, made a U turn back to the nearest pullout.

We hurriedly grabbed our gear to capture the most orange sky I've ever seen. There would be several more locations to shoot before we could return to the hotel to download the files. To my great disappointment, my favorite captures were all fuzzy! My tripod was on the edge of the pavement and I remember feeling the vibrations from the steady stream of assign traffic. In the excitement of the moment I failed to understand the implications.

Later during the critique session I reluctantly showed the fuzzy mess. Tony's response was that all was not lost if I didn't mind a painterly interpretation. For the image shown here, I made a version with a painting program and another version with a fine texture overlay. Then I blended those two with the original image. While it is not the straight photograph I originally envisioned, I do like the fuzzy fix very much.