Exploring the Nolan River

One of the areas I have spent some time exploring this summer has been the Nolan River.  It is a small river, maybe 30 miles long that runs through two counties from headwaters southwest of Burleson to the Brazos River at the north end of Lake Whitney.

This is a river few people take the time to explore.  Only a few fishermen and paddlers seem to make any use of it.

It is a river I had seen some images of once and filed away in memory to check out at some point in the future.  This summer has been that point.  After looking at Google Maps and finding what I thought was a bluff with access, I made a trip down several weeks ago and have made a few more since exploring some different areas where I could get to the river.

We have had some rain move in and out of the area over the last several days so i had high hopes from some good flow to the river and a big sunrise.  I left Fort Worth at 4:30am to be there with plenty of time for sunrise and by the time I made the one hour drive the sky went from overcast to almost completely clear.  I found the river very low, meaning the rain we had in Cowtown had not fallen further south.  I wish it had more water would have been a good thing.  I did my first image of the twilight sky and the moon.

The sunrise was a very limited small show with just a touch of color.  However, as quickly as the clouds moved off before sunrise they came back and soon we were under overcast sky again.  I actually liked this as they were moving and had texture.  I knew I would be able to make some longer exposures and get some nice movement in the sky.  So as the clouds got thicker I was able to add a mild neutral density filter and make several images in the 20-30 second range which put both some nice streaks in the sky as well as the water.

I spent a few hours along the bluff with a few images to show for it.

Then it was off to find some county roads that crossed the river and see if there were any images possible.  We had some luck and did find a nice shaded stretch with good access at  a bridge.  I was able to make a few more images of the river.  Then with a semi-successful morning of photography completed I was able to make the run to Glen Rose and get some BBQ and cobbler.  Because, hey-n


othing tops off a morning of good photography like some good eatin!