Never Give Up!

I did something unusual today.  I purposely awoke before the sun even came up to go take some sunrise shots.  The weather has been cooler than normal, and it was very cloudy yesterday, so I hoped there would at least be some residual clouds for reflection and maybe some mist on the water in the pond.

I also wanted the boardwalk in this pond in the foreground, but found out when I got there that they had changed the boardwalk and I could not get the effect I was envisioning.  That, plus the clouds were non-existent and there was no mist.  Sounds like a disappointing morning, right?

Not really.  I did stay and get some less-than-exciting shots from the boardwalk, but I spied a couple other vantage points that I thought held promise, so just as the sun was about to peek over the trees I picked up my gear and went elsewhere.

I ended up getting several shots that I think have potential, including this one here.  This is three bracketed shots merged in HDR and converted to black-and-white.  I rarely do B&W, but this one worked.  I may post the color version, also.  Not sure yet.  I have to say that I think the flare adds to this a bit.

This was taken at a county park, Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center, near Palo, Iowa.