April 28th. I visited the Sweetwater Creek State Park for a good TreeWalking time and to take some photos. My last trip here, last year, was somewhat disappointing as we were in the midst of a drought and the creek was hardly more than a gurgle. But this time was a vast improvement, we have gotten a good amount of rain in the past couple of months and the creek was quite a bit more lively and interesting. I love to photograph water, especially moving water. There are several trails that run through the area – some more difficult than others, but none more than moderately difficult. I began on the Red trail which runs along the creek and is mostly easy to moderately difficult and runs about 1.5 miles. The Red trail ends at the White trail where it gets a bit more difficult, a fairly steep climb (mostly stairs) gets you from one trail to the other. After the initial roughness, it gets rather easy to navigate. The White trail is about 3.5 -4 miles long and winds through the woods, past a couple of feeder creeks, over several hills and a nice meadow. This was a great opportunity for me to try out some HDR photography techniques (my first attempts). While they aren’ t the most interesting, or technically good, they were nonetheless fun to make.
This is Sweetwater Creek near the base of the ‘falls’. This is built from 5 exposures (bracketed) and merged together. This process helps to increase the apparent volume and intensity of the creek. It almost looks like a raging rapids, though it is much tamer in person. I had used Photomatix Pro to generate the HDR algorithm (see my post on HDR) and then Photoshop to to further modify it, layer masks, curves adjustments, hue and saturation controls, etc. Overall, I am pleased with the results. Not too bad for my first HDR.
snake lounging on log beside Sweetwater Creek trail
I had come across this somewhat friendly, or completely bored, snake lounging on a log by the side of the creek. He, or she, was comfortable enough with letting me get within a few feet to photograph him/her. Now, I’m not real educated in the species recognition of snakes, so I really don’t know what kind she is. I do know that she was about 3′ long and not at all camera shy.
In addition to my friend the snake, I had also seen a large, and also lazy, tree frog, a Great Blue Heron, loads of turtles, a muskrat or two, a couple of dogs, random squirels, birds, ducks, and other commonly uninteresting animals. (The snake and the Heron were the clear highlights.)
I will be posting more images in the coming weeks.
