One aspect about the Delaware Valley which I do not care for is the humidity. Once it settles in for Summer, it’s just here. We’ll have a break here and there, but mostly it just gets hot and humid and stays that way. I grew up with this, so I’m used to it, but it still isn’t fun.

To beat the heat a bit I decided to get out of the house early and take Bump for a walk. We stopped a Jeny’s Java joint for my morning coffee ¹. We then headed down to the river to see what we could see.

The temperature was still in the seventies, but the humidity was already out of control. A strong sun and no wind meant it was growing more unpleasant the longer we were out. The haze over the river also made photography a bit difficult, but it afforded me an opportunity to play with On1 Photo Raw’s excellent masking features.

The photo below, which highlights how even the geese were seeking shade at 9 AM, had a washed out sky right from the camera because I was trying to expose to bring out detail in the birds. I was able to paint in a local adjustment which reduced haze, lowered the exposure, increased contrast, and played with the highlights. I really brought out the clouds and bridge nicely, and also accentuated the reflections on the water ². I then added a color adjustment effect and painted in a mask on the foreground. This brought out the color and detail in the grass. Finally, I used the retouch brush to remove a shadow cast by a nearby street sign. I’m very pleased with the results.