It was one of those March days

when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~ Charles Dickens

Except for one little weather hiccup on the first day of spring, which brought a couple inches of snow, things are looking good here in northern Illinois. The snow was completely melted by the following day and the brutally cold wind of Saturday night had calmed to a pleasant breeze. On my way to Core Mariae to visit with my Dad, I saw my first big drift of daffodils covering a south facing bank along Spring Creek Road.

I took my camera with me Friday and got a few photos as I moved from place to place during the day.

A lovely sunrise greeted me as I drove down my little lane on the way to work. The ground fog sweeps along the low lying troughs like a frothy river.

This is the Kishwaukee River very near to where I work. Clouds building all day brought snow late that evening.

The Kishwaukee River views were taken using a new (new to me) type of photo editing called tone mapping. Both images are pseudo HDR from a single photo image.

Photographs have a limited dynamic range which is inadequate to reproduce the full range of light intensities present in nature and visible to the human eye. Tone mapping is one step in the HDR (high dynamic range) editing process. Tone mapped images have more luminescence and more of a three dimensional look. I know I'm not explaining this well but it's only because I don't understand it myself:) I'd like to thank Jennie at Views From My Camera for her advice on HDR photography. Thanks Jennie, this is fun!