"Westbound"

Just east of my home in Bakersfield is the southern most extension of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Within 40 minutes, I can be situated in the foothills ready to shoot. Yesterday, the 19th of January, I noticed a nicely developing sky and quickly gathered up the kids and sped out to the Breckenridge Road. I have photographed this curve in the road several times before and it sets up great for the sunset. While the kids collected rocks, I shot several bracketed frames to record the entire dynamic range and, after returning home, blended the exposures manually with layer masks in Photoshop to render the entire range of light. The hills are quite dry, so they provide a rich, earthy palette at this time of day. Thanks for your thoughts!

I love it! Added it to my favorites. :o)  The orange around the sun looks a bit over saturated, but it's pretty minor and doesn't really detract from the image.  The composition is excellent.  Makes me want to take my Mustang there for some fun.  Good job!

Mark, here I come on my hobby horse again. I think that this is a stronger image cropped just below the sun. IMHO, it's a fairly ordinary sky but the glistening road sings.

Great composition and a great blend as well.  The road really is the main element, and the sun seems to be just a supporting player.  I tried Jeff's crop on my monitor and I like it.  I also like the original, so you're not going to get any useful opinion or advice from me.  Having the sun visible in the photo does, in a sense, provide a "destination" for the road, but I'm not going to fall on my sword for that observation.

very nice !!!

Great composition, you automatically travel along the road.

Floris

The layers don't appear to align properly.  The road is very fuzzy and blotchy on both sides from the middle through the back of the image, almost like an eraser tool was used without success.  The foothills look very mushy and lacking focus.        

Jeff, keep in mind 1) it's a real road, and 2) the sun has nearly set on the opposite side of the hill.

Thanks James, Jeff, Stephen, Oliver, Floris and Jeff Bryce for your comments and observations! James, it sure does look that way. Truth is, I applied no saturation to the sun area. I do everything I can to avoid blowing channels, and saturation will do that if applied to a colorful sunset. Perhaps it appears that way because of the context. It looks quite vibrant against the deep blueish hills. Jeff Grant, I agree that your crop is very effective, but like Stephen said, it seems the distant sun provides a destination for the winding road; my original intention. Yes, I have had better skies and I have certainly had worse skies! Jeff Bryce, my only response would be to look closer at the Large preview. This is a blend of three exposures; two for the sky and one for the foothills, road and everything else. I used two sky exposures because I didn't want any noise in the darker right side, but I wanted to retain the detail around the sun. The road is really a rough cut type, with many turnouts because it is almost too narrow for two way traffic. At some of the turns, you are actually seeing road and a wide turnout. You are also seeing cuts in the hills above the road. Finally, below portions of the road are steep shoulders that do not have grass, thus they are also lighter than the surrounding hills. The remainder of the scene is dried grasses. As far as the hills not looking sharp; take a look near the top of the highest hill. Those black dots are cows and in the full res version, you can actually make out the shapes of the cows, so it's fairly sharp. Thanks again for your observations!

"The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day.
Why leave me standing here?
Let me know the way."

Somehow I think the Beatles would have liked this one...  it's quite "mooovin'".  Ok, enough of that.   A superb capture from the time of day when all light turns to mush.  Excellent work... Mike

Thanks Mike! Glad you were "moooved" by this one!!

The image speaks to me.  Road trips, journey, destination, it's all there.  Quite Mooving, as Mike would say.  Aloha.

Reminds me of the Beatles," Long and Winding Road".  Another beauty by Master Mark.  Hope you'll get some rain and you'll be able to take advantage of your fields and hills filled with flowers.  But even without I am sure you'll be able to come up with some more outstanding vistas.  Take good care, rek.

Truly wonderful!

Another terrific shot which reminds me of so many american road songs. In the UK we don't have this type of landscape and it makes me want to travel. Congrats for a beautiful shot William. 

PS your shot looks great framed and hanging in my hall where everyone can admire it and the artist behind it.