HDR Sunrise

I was up with the sun this morning and thinking about learning how to use HDR Stacking in Affinity Photo. However, I didn't make any HDR images that looked realistic and nice.

Below is a RAW photo that I retouched in an attempt to highlight the drama of this morning's sunrise without making it look too far removed from how my eye perceived it:

and an example of the picture with no retouching. To me, this looks thin and pale, the foreground too dark and the gray clouds too dark compared to how my eye saw it:

Also, there seems to be some odd "halo" effect around the large tree. I think that is an optical illusion due to the extreme contrast. When I zoom in on the original picture, I cannot see the halo, but when I zoom out I see it.

New Softbox Lighting

Needed a model for my new softbox lights.
Biscuit was volunteered.

Almost There

These raindrops traveled from way out in the ocean, high into the atmosphere and then down, down, down perhaps thousands of feet, only to be snared 6 feet shy of the soil. They caught in this birch that I planted 13 years ago. Then I caught them again in my eye and then my camera. Now the web.
Where to next I wonder?