On Saturday the Garden held a sunrise photo walk.  I had never been to one of the Garden's monthly photo walks even though I'm a huge fan of Robin Carlson, the Garden's staff photographer, who leads the walks.  The regular walks are usually held at 9 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month and are known to draw huge crowds. I know my way around the Garden quite well and prefer to shoot on my own or in small groups.  I decided to try the sunrise walk, however, thinking it would only draw a hardy few willing to meet at 5:45 a.m.  About 20 of us hardy souls gathered and walked to the grassy knoll overlooking the Japanese Gardens.  It was still quite dark when we got there but gradually the sky began to take on beautiful color and light up.  It was so peaceful and exhilarating to watch the clouds, the colors of the morning sky and finally the sun peek from behind the tree line. A wonderful experience and one that I hope the Garden repeats. The first three shots were 5 exposures each combined in HDR software, Photomatix, with additional processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.  The last image is only one exposure processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Sunrise over Japanese Island Sunrise over Japanese Island Sunrise over Japanese Island Sunrise over Japanese Island