The theme for the week this week was “Post-Apocalyptic”.

While it might have been possible to shoot something run-down and partly demolished or weathered and worn, this theme really got me thinking about what I could produce in Photoshop as I’ve not done much creatively in PS for a while.

Friday saw another misty start and as I passed a field that I’d previously thought of photographing on my way to work I noticed the sun shining really brightly in the mist so I stopped to take a few snaps.  Initially I exposed more for the foreground and that produced a massive “fireball” effect in the sky – this was the point that the idea of a nuclear mushroom cloud came to me.

After a few more shots of the “fireball”, I reset and exposed more for the sky to produce a smaller intense light with darker surround thinking this might help act as the focal point or hot spot for the shot. For the rest of the way into work I was thinking about other shots I’d taken with sky and foreground and I remembered the series I took in a cornfield earlier in the summer – again on my daily commute.  This would make a great foreground image and add texture to the sky.

I’ll cover the processing steps in my next post but suffice to say after an hour or so of blending, shading, liquefying, dodging and burning I came up with my entry for Post-Apocalyptic which I was really happy with. Has to be my shot of the week.

Also last week I was looking out for more items to complete my 115 Pictures in 2015 project that I’ve mentioned before, and while I was cooking dinner I snapped a few shots to meet some of the themes there;