Friday, September 11, 2009

Guadalupe River Tubers

Over the Labor Day weekend I took this shot from a bridge overlooking the Guadalupe River at a popular tubing location on Highway 306 near Canyon Lake. Due to the drought conditions in the Texas Hill Country the reduced water level made the "flow" almost nonexistent. I think it took about 45 minutes for the tubers to get from the front of the photo to the back. I had plenty of time to focus! :-)

Title: "Guadalupe River Tubers"


Post-processing: High Dynamic Range (HDR) from three hand held exposures (-2, 0, +2) using Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Red Paw Media Beautifier plugin

4 comments:

Larry said...

I like the composition on this one but to me it looks like it could be a bit sharper. How did your individual shots look? You should have gotten in the river for some "tubes-eye-view" shots!:)

Larry J. Patrick said...

I hate to admit this, but as soon as I looked at this one, I thought: "Great trees!" Did you get any shots lower with the trunks and roots of the cypress trees in the background? If you did, I would like to see them.

This one would have made a great "Summer in Texas" shot,

Cindi said...

I too thought it is the quintessential Summer in Texas shot. Hopefully after this week of rains the water is flowing freely again. Surely you didn't just photograph this scene???

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Larry, Patrick and Cindi!

Larry - The slight blurring on this shot was for effect. It wasn't tack sharp to begin with so I tried to push it in the direction of a dreamscape!

Patrick - I'll see if I have any shots that have a stronger focus on the trees; you're right in that they are impressive!

Cindi - Unfortunately, I pretty much took all my shots from this single vantage point. Not taking a large variety of shots from enough different perspectives is one of my common mistakes. Maybe I need a checklist on things to try and avoid in any given photographic situation?

Cheers!
Barry