Shadow Hunter, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Big Red is still the handsomest!  He’s still going strong, tearing up the swamps and forests of East Texas.  Sala and Cheech can keep up with him in the backyard but he leaves them in the dust when we’re in the wild.  I need to make a video of him in action.  So far we’ve been lucky to avoid Texas wildlife, and have not even seen a snake or boar.

Thanks for the constructive feedback yesterday!  I updated the photo following Doug’s advice and I like the new version better.  I also posted the original version so you can compare here (follow the link in the caption to compare).

Critiques are always welcome.  

Daily photo: January 24, 2013, taken January 18, 2013
Before Sundown, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Nini and I were treated to a beautiful sunset at Lake Sam Rayburn on MLK day.  These reflection pools are an interesting new feature to our beach that I think may have come about since the lake is very high right now due to winter rains.  The reflection pools were great for me, but for they made a muddy mess out of my dogs!

This is a single 0.8 second exposure.  I used a three-stop soft-step graduated filter and a two-stop soft-step graduated filter to reduce the exposure above the horizon and above the reflection pool.  

Critiques are always welcome.  

UPDATE:  HA!  I have coined a new phrase: "dad crop"!  I should add it to urbandictionary.com, except there is nothing urban about it.  I agree a dad crop would work well here.  I tried to achieve the effect Tom is mentioning during blue hour, moving the camera about 10 feet towards the sunset so that I was cropping the bottom reflection at the clouds.  The decision for me is always to have the horizon in the top third or bottom third.  If I can find a cool foreground I'll put the horizon in the top third, and if there is no cool foreground then I'll put the horizon in the bottom third to minimize the poor foreground.  I'll also put the horizon in the bottom third if the sky has interest all the way to the top of the frame.  But in this case there was only blue sky above where I cropped it in camera, so I decided to put the horizon in the top third and scrambled to find a decent foreground (which I'm very rarely satisfied with the foregrounds I find!).  I also agree with Doug that the detail in the foreground mud is distracting.  I played around with darkening the mud so that it was less distracting and now I'll go back and look at that again.  Thanks for the critiques!!!  I'll definitely reprocess this photo and make it better, and I'll post the blue hour photo taken shortly after this soon too.

UPDATE 2: I've updated this photo, darkening the mud to make it less distracting.  I also added in some contrast.  I'll post the original here and you can see both side by side.

Daily photo: January 23, 2013, taken January 21, 2013
Follow the Leader, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Cheech loves to walk out on this log at our favorite beach in Texas, and this time Sala decided to follow.  But Sala doesn’t have near the balance that Cheech does and when it came time to turn around, it was easier for Sala to jump off the log and get back on going the other direction!  

I have a nice time-lapse sequence from this logging adventure for the dogs.  You see both dogs head for the log, both make it to the end of the log, then Cheech hurries back, then pan back to see Sala falling in the water, getting back on the log and then running to catch back up with Cheech.  It is a really funny time-lapse I’ll have to make a video of soon.

Critiques are always welcome.  

Daily photo: January 22, 2013, taken January 18, 2013
Shadow Hunter, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Big Red is still the handsomest! He’s still going strong, tearing up the swamps and forests of East Texas. Sala and Cheech can keep up with him in the backyard but he leaves them in the dust when we’re in the wild. I need to make a video of him in action. So far we’ve been lucky to avoid Texas wildlife, and have not even seen a snake or boar.

Thanks for the constructive feedback yesterday! I updated the photo following Doug’s advice and I like the new version better. I also posted the original version so you can compare here (follow the link in the caption to compare).

Critiques are always welcome.

Daily photo: January 24, 2013, taken January 18, 2013
here (follow the link in the caption to compare). Critiques are always welcome. Daily photo: January 24, 2013, taken January 18, 2013" href="javascript:openLB(2333889467,'',XLarge,'',1024,683);">Shadow Hunter, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Big Red is still the handsomest!  He’s still going strong, tearing up the swamps and forests of East Texas.  Sala and Cheech can keep up with him in the backyard but he leaves them in the dust when we’re in the wild.  I need to make a video of him in action.  So far we’ve been lucky to avoid Texas wildlife, and have not even seen a snake or boar.

Thanks for the constructive feedback yesterday!  I updated the photo following Doug’s advice and I like the new version better.  I also posted the original version so you can compare here (follow the link in the caption to compare).

Critiques are always welcome.  

Daily photo: January 24, 2013, taken January 18, 2013
Shadow Hunter, Lake Sam Rayburn TX

Big Red is still the handsomest! He’s still going strong, tearing up the swamps and forests of East Texas. Sala and Cheech can keep up with him in the backyard but he leaves them in the dust when we’re in the wild. I need to make a video of him in action. So far we’ve been lucky to avoid Texas wildlife, and have not even seen a snake or boar.

Thanks for the constructive feedback yesterday! I updated the photo following Doug’s advice and I like the new version better. I also posted the original version so you can compare here (follow the link in the caption to compare).

Critiques are always welcome.

Daily photo: January 24, 2013, taken January 18, 2013
See photo in original gallery.