Calm and Tranquility

I am a big proponent of carrying my camera with me where ever I go. However, with improvements in mobile phone technology, I am getting lazier and lazier with taking my camera along. On one such occasion, my family and I went out on a hike at Sourland Mountain in NJ.

It was a beautiful cloudy day, and we started our hike early morning. As we emerged through the forest this beautiful pond was reflecting a scene of "Calm and Tranquility". Just the mere site of this scene was enough to take one into a meditative state. But low and behold, I didn't have my trusty companion with me (my camera). I did what I could with my cell phone and took this shot. Sadly the clarity of the leaves and the dynamic range in the clouds was lost was poorly captured.
This scene was too good to lose. I edited the shot as much as possible in Photoshop and then applied the Oil Painting filter to reveal the above.
Lesson learned, cell phones are for selfies - a real camera is what you need to capture the true essence of nature.