Sunrise Along Texas Highway 29

I returned home from my nine-hour tour Saturday with hundreds of new images. The twin blessings of digital photography and multi gigabyte compact flash cards are manifest. It allows one to shoot whatever strikes his fancy at the moment, but that puts off a lot of decisions till later. Some might argue that an effective photographer should be making many of the technical decisions at the scene, rather than deferring them. I, on the other hand, prefer to "shoot 'em up" and sort it all out later. I like to take advantage of the enthusiasm that reigns when you concentrate on framing, focusing, and shooting.

Coming back with a large haul of pictures, of course, means that you will have (hopefully) more good ones from which to choose and, if you don't have an arbitrary limit on the number of images or a hard schedule, that's a good thing. Additionally, when you find yourself with time on your hands, sorting the images, composing them through judicious cropping, and performing the many other post-processing tasks that may occur to you aren't really "work", but a pleasant way of spending your time that will yield a tangible, pleasing result.

Saturday's drive started an hour before sunrise and I took the first picture several miles west of Lake Buchanan on Texas 29. Silhouettes have their place if the composition is right, probably because it's difficult for some of us to judge the early morning or late evening light. It goes back to the reason for HDR photography: the human eye is a better sensor with a wider range than the sensors in the best cameras.

You probably wouldn't guess it from my sleeping habits these days, but I'm a morning person. I've enjoyed the sunrise in all of the best Mediterranean ports, and not only because I may have had a buzz on after a night on liberty. To my eye, the quality of the light is usually better than it will be all day; there are fewer people (usually distractions) out and about, which leaves you with the feeling that this is your morning, to share or not through your images with the laggards still in bed.

The benefits of the early morning are their own reward. I can look at this picture and remember the cool breeze, the dew on the bluebonnets, and imagine the smell of fresh-cut grass. I imagine that because, when the wildflowers are at their peak, it's hard to find anybody that will cut the grass on the side of the road.

In general, I think I prefer my awe inspiring vistas or even simple landscapes without overt evidence of mankind's having been there. Occasionally, an empty road or a distant car coming or going might add something; likewise, a farmhouse or barn, properly understated, might suggest a story for the scene. But I really like fences and gates. It doesn't matter what style they are, whether they're in good repair or ramshackle. The gates may be open or closed; it may change the story, but otherwise it's of no import. And they're almost always just right, appropriate.

Here, I'm shooting over the gate and thinking how "cool" the pasture is and how "warm" the red dirt road is. For your edification, if one hadn't the foresight to use auto-exposure bracketing and a plan, there is a method for creating HDR photos from a single picture. It's best done using a "raw" image rather than a JPEG, but that usually requires some foresight as well. You take the single image and change the exposure at least twice after-the-fact to get an underexposure and an overexposure to go with the properly exposed image you started with. The usual HDR processing can then often come up with the expected improvement. In both of the "road" pictures above, I used this method to get an acceptable sky.

All day long the roadside wildflowers were beautiful, especially so along Texas 29.

By this time, you've probably surmised that this is an HDR picture. It is, but with a difference or two. For some reason I haven't yet discerned, the blown out sky of the original did not yield an HDR improvement. So I replaced it with the pale blue gradient I've used before. But, while I was doing that, I thought, "Why don't I import an appropriate sky instead of creating one?" This sky was imported from the Triple R Ranch, west of San Angelo. It's not perfect, but it worked pretty well. I was pleased with the result and wanted to keep going. The admittedly almost cartoonish quality of the scene suggested that perhaps I needed to include the Easter Bunny in the foreground. I found some hares in my files (these would be Georgia hares), selected one, and presto! But while I was looking for the rabbits, I also found some Georgia whitetail deer. . .

You see where this is going, right? I also have chipmunks, squirrels, lots of turkeys, sea gulls, turkey buzzards, a blurry fox and a pileated woodpecker in my files. Luckily, I came to my senses and went to bed.