#879. Hamilton Pool #2

Another shot taken last weekend at Hamilton Pool near Dripping Springs, Texas.

Title: "Hamilton Pool #2"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 15mm fisheye
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Viveza > Nik Color Efex Pro

#878. Hamilton Pool #1

Taken this past weekend at Hamilton Pool near Dripping Springs, Texas.

Title: "Hamilton Pool #1"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 15mm fisheye
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Color Efex

#857. Spidey

Taken a couple of weekends ago near Round Top, Texas. If you're one of the majority of folks who find spiders to be a little unnerving then "Happy Halloween!"

Title: "Spidey"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Silver Efex Pro

#783. Sunset on Cypress Creek

Taken a couple of weekends ago in Wimberley, Texas.

Title: "Sunset on Cypress Creek"

Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro > Photoshop CS4 > Nik Viveza 2 plugin

#555. Brazos Bend Bird on a Rail

Taken two weekends ago at Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, Texas.

Title: "Brazos Bend Bird on a Rail"


Shot data: 1/250s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso800
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Red Paw Media Beautifier plugin

#544. Comal Springs

I took this shot of Comal Springs yesterday while visiting Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. These springs are a natural release from the Edwards Aquifer. They form the Comal River and are a great place to sit and hang your feet in the water! :-)

Title: "Comal Springs"


Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photomatix Pro to combine three exposures (-2,0,+2) into one HDR (High Dynamic Range) image > Photoshop CS4 > 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

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

NY Trip - Day 9 (again)

Although we are actually 0n Day 12 of our NY trip, I'm so far behing in processing pics that I'm posting another couple of shots from Day 9. The first shot is of Lucifer Falls in Ithaca, NY. These falls are located in a narrow gorge in a breathtaking scene. I wasn't able to do the falls justice with any of my shots; this one is as close as I could get. The shot was taken from a footbridge extending over the falls.

Title: "Lucifer Falls"


This second shot is of some of the trees growing up the side of the gorge near Lucifer Falls.

Title: "Gorge Forrest"

Brazos Bend Bird

A bird from our trip to Brazos Bend State Park last weekend. I don't know what kind of bird this is; I just found it interesting. Anyone know what it is?

Title: "Brazos Bend Bird"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom

Prairie Grasses and Bokeh

Bokeh (for the non-photography types who don't know) is a photography word that refers to the aesthetic qualities of the background blur one achieves with a given lens. Using my Canon 100-400mm zoom this past weekend at Armand Bayou Nature Center I was extremely pleased with how the bokeh in these shots of prairie grasses turned the backdrop of grasses into a smooth curtain of fall colors.

Title: "Prairie Grass 1"


Title: "Prairie Grass 2"


Title: "Prairie Grass 3"


Title: "Prairie Grass 4"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Duplicate Background > Topaz Adjust plugin "Spicify" preset > Nik Viveza plugin to brighten the subject and darken the background