Desert Hurricane

Jake here.

Saturday was by many longtime residents' accounts the worst windstorm they've witnessed in Palm Springs.

Everyone, apparently, is fine despite the damage.

As we prepare for what forecasters are calling Round 2 tomorrow, and wondering how many more beautiful trees might be lost, it offers a chance to be glad for life and friends and happiness.

It also gave me an opportunity to test my chops as a budding photo artist: could I photograph the storm and alter the photos to reflect the storm's anger and post-apocalyptic beauty?

You be the judge below the jump:

First I cropped the original and washed it out, giving it a wilder look.

The Earlybird filter on Instagram did a wonderful job of making the shot even wilder and more chaotic.

A grunge filter can also add a feeling of claustrophobia caused by trying to walk outside in the blowing sand.

Here I wanted to darken the sky to emphasize the wed bokeh effect (the sparkles that often happen naturally by lights not in focus, or by sunbeams interacting with the lens glass).

This effect is produced by taking the first image, duplicating it, and employing an HDR effect: in this case, with a red tint. I wanted to capture that sense of the valley almost burning, rather than flooding, as happens in a normal hurricane.

I tweaked the same photo by adding lens light: golden beams that seem to blame the sun for the storm.

Truly, I hope I won't have anything dramatic to photograph tomorrow and Tuesday. In the meantime, it's time for football and gourmet burgers with IPA (India Pale Ale). Stay tuned for photos and posts of burgers and beer!