Sue and I spent a few days at SML this past weekend.  There was supposed to be a hot air balloon festival of sorts, they were going to launch the balloons at 8:00pm on Saturday night, after it got dark.  Should have made for some interesting photos as the burners fired in the dark.  But, it was called off because of rain and threatening weather in the afternoon.  Turned out that the weather would have been fine by 8pm, but certainly didn’t look like it earlier in the day.  I did get to photograph a really nice sunset Saturday evening though….maybe better than a bunch of hot air balloons flying around!

First up, a photo from Friday morning before we left.  I had to make a trip to Charlottesville early on Friday, so caught this one on the way.

Sunrise over a grassy field.

And this was Friday night’s sunset.  Not too bad, but Saturday night’s was better….

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake.

They were offering, for $5, tethered hot air balloon rides on Friday evening.  Not very exciting for pictures, but the lines were quite long for the rides.

Tethered hot air balloon rides.

The next two are from Portside.  We hung out there for a while and had a beer.  We should have eaten lunch there, it looked a LOT better than what we’d eaten earlier for lunch.  These two photos are pushing the HDR thing a little bit….maybe a little bit too much…..

Old boat at Portside, Smith Mountain Lake.

Portside Bar and Grill, Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Okay, we’re getting closer to the sunset.  This was Saturday afternoon….impending rain.  Can’t really blame them for canceling the hot air balloon thing.

Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia.

Another version, in black and white….

Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia in black and white

And the sunset.  No color enhancement needed.  It is slightly underexposed which punches the colors a bit, but that’s it.  The whole sky to the west was this pinkish orangeish purplish color.

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia

A few minutes after the one above…

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia.

Last one before it got dark…

Sunset and Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia

 

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