Sun through the branches of a tree

When I woke this morning and had a look out of the window I saw that the sky was completely clear and I decided to try to get some landscape photographs from the field between Stevenage and Knebworth. So at about 6:00 am I pulled on some clothes and headed across the road to the track which goes under the railway line and leads to the path to Knebworth.

The good thing about taking pictures this early is that you don’t get such strong harsh light and the sun is low in the sky so you can include it in the picture if you want. In this picture I wanted to have the sun shine through the branches of the tree  and provide a star burst effect. I wasn’t sure if I’d need to provide some exposure compensation so I set the camera to bracket the exposure by +/- 1 stop and tried taking a few shots. I had to try several positions in the field to have the tree positioned on the left hand 1/3 line and have the sun shining through the gap in the branch.  After about 3 attempts I think this is probably the best version of all the shots I took.