@46mm using speedlight on camera, Hazel kicking some leaves ... A new experiment, I lowered the shutter speed to 1/13s which is about as low as I dare go hand held and set the flash for second curtain to hopefully freeze the leaves after the motion blur ... sorta worked! The more I look at this the more I like it so free study it is!!
In RAW ... Cropped, levelled horizon even though it was actually on a hill it looked better level! Increase exposure, blacks, clarity and vibrancy a little. Open in CS3, curves, lab colour apply image, new layer on multiply, mask out everything but the trees. Resize, usm, usm again, vignette and sfw.
I don't expect this to score highly at all, maybe 5.3 ....
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It had been such a nice walk that day. Although the weather could have been nicer, Karen barely cared. The air was still, the noises of the woods had been calming, and the chance to get away from all the stresses and troubles and worries of home had been worth getting her shoes soaked and her ears frosty.
So it was with a bit of surprise, lifting her from her inner sanctity and reflection, when the leaves around her began to stir. At first she thought it was just a strange little bit of wind, like a dust devil of desert fame, kicking them up around her. She grinned at first, enjoying the dance of the dried and fallen bric-a-brac, but the grin soon ended.
In no time, the leaves had gone from just a small spattering flying in the breeze, to a virtual cyclone of the things, and they were all centered around HER. Suddenly growing a little frightened and desperate, she tried to move on from the little clearing. She was no longer amused, and as the wind increased in intensity, she let out a little cry and began to walk faster for the path home. The leaves picked up, now blowing about her waist, and she sped up to a trot, then a run, but the path never seemed to get any closer. Crying now, the leaves moving up her body, surrounding her, at chest level. Panicked, she broke into an all out run, and finally, finally she began to make some headway towards the path leading into the woods, away from these infernal leaves. Finally she could see she was almost there.
Then a wall of wind hit her head on, and stopped her dead in her tracks. With a final surge, the leaves all lifted from the ground, whirling in a maelstrom that obliterated her from view. For what seemed a lifetime, they whirled there in that spot, as screams as faint as a baby's sleeping breath came from within. Then, as quickly as it had began, the mass dropped back to the forest floor, and settled once more into pacification.
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