Our backpacking plans were dashed by a stomachache, so we had an unplanned weekend at home. Sunday I went out for a long bike ride, returning to Rist Canyon for the first time in years. At my turn-around spot, I felt 4-5 drops of rain, but when I returned to the valley of Bellvue I found puddles on the pavement. The culprit was in front of me- a single lonely raincloud passing through the landscape. It posed for me on top of a hogback, and this became my favorite image of the week.
The Lonely Rain Cloud
iPhone 11 Pro
Digital Darkroom. Usually in a scene such as this one, I will optimize for the ground, and then go back later and adjust the sky with a brush. For this image, I took the opposite approach. I made a number of enhancements to the cloudy sky to bring out the details- texture, dehaze, contrast, highlights (increase), shadows (decrease). Then I added a graduated filter to the ground and undid much of what I did to the clouds- decreased highlights, increased shadows, and decreased dehaze (the tool is called dehaze, but when you de- the dehaze should you call it haze?).
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 