On the last morning of our camping trip, temperatures had dropped into the high 30’s.  We were snug in our sleeping bags with the flannel inserts, inside our dome  tent, where it was nice and toasty.  But when Nature calls, you just have to get out of that warm sleeping bag, put on your shoes, and leave the tent to answer the call.

So, that’s how I happened to be outside the tent just as the sun was rising through the trees at the back of our campsite. I was able to grab the camera and get a few handheld shots from several different angles, trying to capture the glow of the early morning sunlight on the tiny flowers  in the foreground.

I took this shot in raw NEF format, and processed it to JPG in Paintshop Pro X3. I used Local Tone Mapping to bring out a little more detail in the bark of the trees, and I adjusted the brightness and contrast slightly.

Sometimes the call of Nature can be a beautiful thing!