Thinking Local

Landscape photography is something that makes me want to get in the car and head west.  Big Bend, Grand Canyon, Yosemite.  Someplace far.  Half the fun of it might just be the drive.  

Well, unfortunately, I cannot go that far every week.  Or even every month (for that matter).  That means I have to do a lot of my photography close to home.  If you have ever looked at the archives of this blog, you know I explore the area close to home in search of a chance to get out and do some photography.

Recently, I put together a morning in a local park for a little local photography.  It is a park I knew had a couple of small creeks in and might be a spot for nice fall color.  Except it was June.  Let's just say late June-along with July and August) are not really photography season in Texas.  It is too green, too hot, too clear, and too buggy.  Basically I go out in the summer but feel photography is for the most part "out of season".   So, I did not expect much on a local morning.

I knew sunrise was at 6:30 AM and getting up at more normal 4:45 AM would give me plenty of time, especially since I expected nothing but clear skies.  Well when I took my dogs out I noticed a few clouds in the sky and suddenly realized it could be a good morning.  I departed quickly and was on location before 5:30 AM.  I was glad I was!

I did a few early images among the trees of the park but decided the sunrise needed some water.  I walked down to a bridge across one of the creeks and set up to capture a pretty good sunrise.  The stream has a rocky base and had just enough water to capture the reflection of the orange sky.

It turned out to be great light and I walked away with a good image that captured the best of the water and morning light.  I will have to think of this place in November as a possible sunrise during fall color and see what I might be able to get then.