My name is Rick Budde and I am an amateur photographer from St. Louis Missouri who is fortunate to live in Driggs during the summer months. I have pretty much always been a photographer who takes a bunch of pictures and gets a few good photographs.

Regarding the photo that I have submitted:

It was taken on June 09, 2017 in Teton Valley Idaho just off Highway 33 right before you cross the Canyon Creek Bridge.

The clouds were very interesting that day and I drove up that way with the main intent to capture photos of fields of canola in bloom. After doing that, I headed back towards Driggs and as I crossed the bridge I decided to take a quick drive along the dirt road to the south that parallels the creek. After a short distance on that road, I spied this composition. The hay bale and the wonderful skies called out to me.

My first shots were of just the hale bay and the skies. As I studied the location a bit more, I decided that I could improve my composition with the inclusion of the railed fence as a foreground element. Thus the final photo has foreground, mid-ground and background elements.

The photo was taken using a 24-70 lens on my Canon 5D Mk IV. The camera was supported by a ball head on a tripod. The exposure settings and focus were established using Live View. The settings were: 34 mm, f/11, ISO 100 at 1/125 second. The RAW photo was post processed in Lightroom.