With delish huckleberry pancakes and coffee warming the insides, we headed out to the cool morning. I have a habit when I walk outside, it’s to look up and then all around down the horizon. When I looked to the west, I saw the moon and stared at it for a moment. I kinda stood out in the bald sky. Then I saw The Bitterrots and the shadows created by the rising sun. Normally, I would just take a scene like this in and count my blessings. But something inside said, “lower the exp comp -2/3, shoot Dark Tone and pull the blue slider to darker in ACR.” That’s what I did, knowing the faint moon would pop more, the shadows would go black, and that I could take the memory home with me. That was cool because I normally just admire it.

When Mother Nature provides just a hint, a sliver of new snow, you can make it speak volumes with just a touch of light. It would be convenient if She did so for us, but as you can see with these clouds, no light was coming. I turn to ACR Masking for the light. I simply select Objet and, as inaccurately as I can, brush across the top ridge of the mountain. Then I see what AI comes up with for the selection. 99% of the time, the selection is just as random in these instances as if the light was coming from the heavens. Then I simply raise the White and Highlights by maybe Five and bam, the sliver of snow speaks volumes.

The tips of my ears were numb, the breeze coming down from the peaks bitter. The light walked across the mountain face as the wind pushed the clouds about. The winter storm that just hit us broke in spectacular fashion, producing photo ops in every direction. The hardest part of the photograph was braving the cold. The Z 6III was in Dark Tone Monochrome, the Z180-600 at 600mm and the rest, a great memory and rush back to the warmth of the truck. It’s with joy and awe that winter makes its appearance.