It’s not guaranteed that every morning in Maui will provide an amazing sunrise, but the chances are pretty good, so I got up early every morning to photograph the sunrise over the beach by our hotel.

The fifteen day cruise aboard the Holland America cruise ship Rotterdam started in Montreal Canada, passed around the  Southern tip of the United States in Key West Florida, and ended in Tampa Florida. The cruise featured stops in Quebec City, Bar Harbor, Boston, overnight in New York, and Key West.  This before and after Luminar 2018 conversion was taken on the St Lawrence river just after leaving port in Montreal Canada.

Some days the sky is filled with colors during sunset and you can’t take a bad photo. Most other days, the sun just sets, and there is nothing memorable about it. The new Luminar Sky Replacement feature allows you to combine that amazing sunset with the location you photographed. Being that I would only have two days to capture an amazing sunset while staying in Paris, France, the ability to change the sky in Luminar with just a few quick adjustments really comes in handy. I traveled 5,568 miles from California to capture this image, and then used a sky from California to make it look better.

This photo from downtown Montreal Canada just a block from the home of the Montreal Canadians shows the straight from the camera image, and the post processed image done in Luminar 2018.
If you are wondering how to get those wavy streaks of light, the method I used was to pick up the camera off the ground before the shutter had closed. This was done by accident, as I made the image in the area between lanes and I wasn’t able to tell exactly when the exposure was completed.

Our Holland America cruise line ship docked in Quebec City, Canada on the Saint Lawrence River. As I recall it was about a 30 minute bus ride to the falls. As it was tour provided by the cruise line, we had about 20 minutes at the waterfall stop to see Montmorency falls which is 10 feet taller than Niagara Falls. The 20 minute stopped provided just enough time to walk over to the base of the falls, but not enough time to cross over the suspension bridge which crosses the falls. This before and after Luminar 4 comparison was taken just far enough away from the falls so that the camera lens didn’t get covered with mist.

Sometimes the sky is rather plain, or sometimes it’s just impossible to capture the stars at night when you exposing the image for the neon lights of London England in one image. Now with the push of a couple buttons, you can combine a night sky full of stars with city lights at night. This image from London England was made in 2016. The stars in the sky that were added using the Luminar 4 AI Sky Replacement tools from an image made in my backyard just a week ago. This is the straight out of the camera image taken at the corner of Euston Rd & A4200 across the street from Prezzo Italian restaurant in London England. The image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II at ISO 200 with a 15 second exposure at f22 at 16mm. The camera was ground level on a 6 inch mini Manfrotto #482 tripod.

The fall colors serve as backdrop for St-Anne de Beaupré church in Quebec. ( Here is the original French name in case Google messed up the translation – Troisième église,St-Anne de Beaupré )  The main stop of our Holland America shore excursion was the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. I just came upon this church during our free time to explore the area.
These two photos show the after and before photos created with Luminar 4, the Lightroom replacement.

The Holland American ship we were cruising the East Coast docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia and then we boarded a bus to visit Peggy’s Cove. To say it was windy there, would be an under statement. Just as we arrived back from the excursion it started to snow in Halifax. Not a problem as we were under cover the whole way back to the ship. Then after a few minutes on the ship the sun was out, and I decided to traverse the waterfront for any interesting photos. After an hour along the shore line I returned to the ship in time to evade and even heavier snow fall.

Some areas of the country get dynamic skies such as occurred this day in the San Francisco Bay Area on a regular basis. Not so much in the Bay Area. But this day during an  El Niño winter gave us in the East Bay Area a dramatic sunset over parts of the East Bay area seen from above the Concord Navel Weapons station.

Our Holland American cruise ship docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia and then it was about a one hour drive to Peggy’s Cove by bus. The scenery was quite wonderful, but what I will remember most is the wind. It was real, real gosh darn windy by the famous lighthouse that everybody visits.
A little Google research indicates it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit the day we visited, with wind gusts up to 50 mph by the lighthouse. More research indicates that the wind chill using those weather variables gives a reading of 9 degrees Fahrenheit. It was cold and windy.

This before and after Luminar 3 conversion was taken about 1/4 mile from the Lighthouse.