Project 365 - Day 20 - Rules are made to be broken

So, there are rules about photography.  And we all know that most of the time rules are there for a reason.  But sometimes, especially when creating something artistic, you need to break the rules.  Take today's picture for example.  I shot this today in Bronte Harbour.  I shot directly into the sun, but not at the sun.  That would be silly.  The sun is just above the lens itself.  The other rule I broke was that I did not have my lens hood on, that would reduce flare into the lens.  But the reason I did not have the lens hood on was that I had a circular polarizer on the lens itself. 

I wanted to capture the wisps of cloud that was filtering the sunlight underneath the cloud line.  I also wanted to capture the mood of the sky, it was pretty angry today.  There were high winds, and it was very cold.  I got the shot I was looking for.

In lightroom, I bumped up the contrast a bit and lowerd the exposure by 1/2 a stop. 

Yes, the top of the picture where the sun is is blown out.  It's too hot up there.  And yes, the docks in the front are too dark.  But truth be told, I don't care, and it actually adds to the overall shot.

Here's the shot:

Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm.  f9 at 1/1600.  ISO400

As an aside, I would like to say that my wife told me to go out and shoot today.  Yup, best wife ever.   :-)