Light fantastic

In an effort to exercise my shutter finger in preparation for my holiday to Cornwall next week I made an effort to avoid snapping yet more macro photos. Instead, trying to make the most of some great Sunlight as it dropped through some hazey distant clouds.

Lightning tree. Struck by lightning in the last storm we had a couple of weeks ago, side lit by the setting Sun against some nice brooding clouds.
Ears.
Ivy on a mossy tree, again lit by the sunset to emphasise the textures, then a few photoshop techniques to jazz things up a little (see below).
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Chippenhams version of the Apocalypse Now poster, as the burning Sun slips behind the treeline. Taken with a long zoom, daylight white balance, only photoshopping was to remove a pylon cable that was in the way.
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The Ivy pic was photoshopped using: Channel mixer - to turn to black & white, levels/curves to optimise the dynamic range, a gaussian blurred layer set to ~50% opacity, a vignette lens correction to darken the corners and a subtle colour correction to add a slight tint.