Illuminated Anchorage

Cargo ships lie at anchor in St Brides bay on Wales’s Pembrokeshire coast. Rather than pay port fees, these ships anchor offshore awaiting instructions on where to pick up their next cargo. I suspect that with the downturn in the world economy, anchorages like this will become more and more crowded…

Canon 10D
1/640th sec at f11
50-200mm lens at 80mm
ISO100

HDR Treatment: I am a firm believer in the subtle use of HDR. I never attempt to revolutionise a photograph, rather to evolve it just a little.
Shooting into very strong light caused the sky to lose detail.

First adjustments in Lightroom: colour temperature, exposure tweaks for sea/foreground and for sky on image 2
Copied image from 1/1200th sec exposure to new layer
tweaked curves, transparency
Merged layers
tweaked curves
dodge/burn details
flattened image