The Medina River

Today's photos were taken from a highway overpass crossing the Medina River near Bandera, Texas this past Sunday. I didn't really enjoy the cars whizzing by me at 55MPH but I did enjoy the view! :-)

Title: "The Medina Looking South"


Title: "The Medina Looking North"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three tripod mounted exposures (-2, 2, +2) into one HDR (High Dyamic Range) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Maple Leaves

Taken this past Saturday at Lost Maples Natural Area in Vanderpool, Texas . At some point during the outing I removed my wide angle to normal zoom and replaced it with my 100-400 telephoto zoom to focus on taking more detail oriented shots. Since I had found myself in an area where the vistas just weren't what I had hoped they would be (read as: Texas isn't New England when it comes to Fall colors) I hoped to save the day by switching tactics and photographing more detailed shots. I intentionally simplified this shot (removed details) and added saturation (pushed the colors) in post-processing so that the emphasis would be on the shapes of the Maple leaves and the fall colors. Hope you like it!

Title: "Maple Leaves"


Shot data: 1/40s f/5.0 at 190.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Frio River in Fall

I took this shot Sunday morning at a Frio river crossing in Concan, Texas (near Lost Maples Natural Area). The fall colors of the Bald Cypress trees along the Frio River made this scene beautiful and I took about as many photos at this location as I did on my Lost Maples trip the day before. To get this shot I positioned my camera to sit on a flat rock near the edge of the river.

Title: "The Frio River in Fall"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to convert three exposures (-2,0,+2) to one high dynamic range (HDR) image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

Lost Maples 1

We arrived home yesterday evening from our weekend trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area near Vanderpool, Texas. This area is famous for the fall colors of its many Maple trees this time of year. We had watched the foliage reports on the Internet and knew this past weekend was supposed to be the peak time for fall colors. You don't get to see New England like fall color changes in Lost Maples to be sure but Lost Maples is about as good as it gets within convenient driving distance of Houston. You can see in today's photo that while there were some beautiful colors in the trees the majority of the foliage is ever present green.

Title: "Lost Maples 1"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three tirpod exposures (-2, 0, +2) into one High Dynamic Range (HDR) Image > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin

The Birds in Flatonia

Just in from a weekend road trip to Lost Maples. I'm just starting to process some shots. This was my last shot this weekend as we stopped for diesel at a filling station in Flatonia, Texas. The birds of course caught my eye and I needed to do something to make myself quit watching the total sale amount on the gas pump rolling ever higher, so I made a photo.

Title: "The Birds in Flatonia"


Shot data: 1/30s f/2.8 at 24.0mm iso800
Camera / lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin