This or that

Yesterday was a rainy, lazy, stay inside kind of day.  I hadn't planned it to be that way, but once the weather kicked in full force I didn't have much choice.  My wife and daughter had left to visit my mother-in-law and wouldn't be home until Sunday.  Even though I had to work on a database most of Sunday morning, I thought Saturday afternoon would be all mine to go exploring.  There were a few places fairly close to the house that I was sure would provide me with some great pictures.  Oh well, best laid plans...

I decided to get a few things done around the house and then I sat down to watch some of the shows queued up on the DVR.  The rain was beating against the front window and when I turned to catch a glimpse of the show outside, this is what I saw.

I liked the way the rain distorted my view of the burning bush and thought if I could find an angle that didn't have any window glare I would have a decent picture.  It took more than one click before I achieved the picture I was hoping for.  I think it turned out OK.

Now this isn't exactly the picture I took with the camera.  I played with a few of the image settings in Adobe Photoshop's Lightroom.  Here is what came out of the camera.

There is some processing done by the camera because it saves in JPEG format but it wasn't the way I wanted it to be.  The image was a little too bright so it needed to darkened and sharpened.  I also increased the clarity and added a little to the saturation level.  The original wasn't bad but I just couldn't get it there with the camera settings.

I'm no expert and I'm sure I have 'ruined' more images than I have 'fixed' but the fun is in the trying.  Still learning so hopefully you will see an improvement as I continue.