A Ride Up Hwy 1 - The Storm Clears

Dec 11, yesterday, was the much-awaited arrival of the strongest storm to hit California in 6 years. Not really saying much; we have hardly had ANY rain storms in 4 of those years. 5 inches of rain here, much welcomed and needed. Now what was needed, was for me to get back on my bike and enjoy the damp countryside up Hwy 1 towards Davenport. The post-storm convections promised a beautiful sunset, so I stuck my Lumix into the pack. And, I need to average 17 miles/day in the saddle to arrive at my 4,000 miles for the year. After a 4 mile run, I stuffed a banana into the back of my jersey, filled my water bottle, and mounted up. A glorious ride!

I played with this extensively in Photoshop, to alter the textures and amplify the existing colors, finally rendering in watercolor

Notice the vertical raindrops streaking down, and on which the camera seems to have auto-focused.

Texture softened with AstronomyTools actions and other Photoshop tools. It was a beautiful scene.

Hightened the local contrast to bring out the cloud boundaries, softened the interiors, a bit of saturation in colors. Otherwise, this is what it really looked like. By Solstice Day the sun may actually be setting exactly along the lines of the crop rows - nice if they're filled with rainwater as here.