Magical Moment on Rabbit Ears

There's still some color left here and there on Rabbit Ears Pass and after waiting out a passing rain storm the clouds parted long enough to reward my patience with a gorgeous sunset late today.

Beautiful scene, wonderfully composed Rod.

Really nice shot!

Absolutely beautiful!

I need a good lens to capture some of those sunbursts. I like this a lot. I'm just thinking if you crop the clouds to a point just above the burst, it would pull my eye to it faster.

Wow! Really great shot Rod. This would work really well as a cover of a future book, maybe??

Oh wow, that is incredible, Rod!

You da man, Rod! This is sumptuous. Glad you stuck it out and were rewarded with a lovely sunset.

Another Hanna classic. I love the backlighting on the fall foliage.
Did you go all the way to f/22 for the rays?

This is a beauty, Rod. Well done.

Gorgeous shot Rod!

Beautiful scene captured at the perfect moment. Nice work!

The sunburst and the backlit trees work great to make a very nice shot. I agree with Jack about cropping the sky. The distant ridge beyond the lake could be darkened a little, imo.

Hi Rod...looks great and no red trees.

Sunbursting foliage, excellent!

Excellent comp and colors and a very nice sunburst!

Killer image Rod. Patience pays.

Niiiiiice backlighting!

Well, to be honest the tons of flare kills it for me, but evidently no one else minds it, so don't take it too hard I know its almost impossible to avoid in these shots....

Stan - Tons of flare? You don't like sunbursts or is it something else? We ARE looking right into the sun....

Great comp and I really like the light on the trees.

Wow, what a lovely scene. Tough to complain about seeing something like this. I assume that you will clone out some of the leaves on the middle RHS and fix the flare (rainbow artifact in trees and clouds, yellow dot on left side of lake) for the final image. Would love to see the final image when you are finished.

Well, 'tons' may be an exagerration, but the way i qualify flare depends on whether you can fix them or not. I just dont think you can fix them here cause theres too much--i see at least 6 spots and theyre widely spaced so its not like you can focus on one area. When i first viewed the shot, it looked to me like the entire bottom of the shot was covered in flare--there are red discontinuities and splotchy areas along the radials from the sun that looked to me like the consequence of flare--but id have to see the full size image to know for sure.
Again, im a lot pickier than most folks--so if your happy with the results, you can ignore my comment. Ive shot hundreds of photos directly into the sun, and maybe one or two of those im happy with. If someone can suggest a way to get a shot like this without flare (and i dont minimize, i mean eliminate) than im all ears!

You can greatly reduce or eliminate overall or area flare by (1) using a high quality lens (which I did), and by blending several exposure layers. You can eliminate spot flare by employing the healing brush. Some flare, such as the sunburst, enhances the image. Since I rushed to get this image on the forum, there's several spots that need additional work. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the results.

Great composition and sunburst, I won't nitpick the flare because I like the image so much.