Bastrop State Park

Two months ago, Jeff Kohn and I took a photography trip to Bastrop State Park. I had visited the park earlier this year with my family (see pics) and enjoyed shooting there, particularly in the bracken ferns. I really wanted to go back for more.

Jeff and I had been planning to get together for a serious photo outing for months, but you know how life gets busy and gets in the way of "hobbies" :-) In late September, we finally found a free weekend that didn't have excessive heat or hurricanes and made a one-day trip to the park.

click to enter gallery

I haven't seen any of Jeff's work from Bastrop yet. Maybe this post will get him movin' ;-)

Jeff doing his thing :-)

The weather was fairly nice during our trip. We hiked several miles and scouted around the park in the early afternoon. My heart sank when we arrived at the ferns and found them burned to a brown crisp. The drought conditions earlier in the summer had wiped out most of them. However, it did appear that they were making a comeback. A few bright green ferns stood proud above the crunchy forest floor.

Jeff and I made the best of it. It was good to get outdoors, talk photography, and shoot some. I certainly enjoyed it.

I got a chance to process my photos last weekend. I had shot several series of exposures attempting to capture some difficult backlit forest scenes. TuFuse worked extremely well and produced excellent results straight off. The first two photos in my photo gallery were TuFuse'd blends. I was fortunate that there was no breeze during the exposures and the trees remained perfectly still.

Those first two shots feature an oak tree beside a rock outcrop that Jeff and I became enamored with and photographed extensively. I'm looking forward to seeing his take on the scene.

I really enjoy seeing other people's work from group shoots. It's fascinating to see what different perspectives and ideas come from the same scene at the same time.

Lone Star Trail

Back in April of this year, a friend (James S.) and I hiked a portion of the Lone Star Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. We made a one-way 11.25 mile hike.

Before the hike, I decided to keep things as simple as possible and take only one camera body, one lens, and no tripod. We didn't have a lot of time for the hike which meant that I didn't have too much time for quality photography. Covering 11+ miles takes a while, especially when it's hot and humid. At least the trail was fairly level!

I took my versatile, beater lens - the Canon 28-105mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM II. I've blogged about the merits of this lens before - it's a great all-purpose, lightweight, and relatively small lens that provides pretty good results (especially at f/8). I wish it was just a tad wider (24mm would be perfect) but I really like the zoom range, close focusing distance, and having just over 100mm at the long end.

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Canon 5D, 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II
f/8, 28mm, 1/25 sec., ISO 800

James took me to a special spot to visit a mighty oak that spanned a creek. We spent some time exploring and photographing the old tree. At this point of our hike, I really wished that I'd brought my tripod.

This photo was taken hand-held with me squatting down and bracing the camera with my legs. I fired several bursts - a technique that's good for this situation. Usually, in a burst of 4 or 5 shots, the second, third, or fourth shot will be sharpest. (the act of pressing and the releasing the shutter button on the first and last shots often adds a little extra camera movement and blurring of the photo) It worked out fairly well, and I got a reasonably sharp image. I did have to shoot at ISO 800, but the 5D produces acceptable noise levels provided the image is well exposed. Shooting at f/8 was necessary to get the depth-of-field I wanted. I had brought a polarizer, but took it off for this shot to get the fastest shutter speed I could, and that was a compromise.

click for slightly larger pic

Canon 5D, 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II
f/8, 28mm, 1/25 sec., ISO 800

This shot was taken a little later in the hike, just after we crossed the East Fork of the San Jacinto River. I used the same technique as described above, except this shot was taken with me holding the camera atop my hiking stick. I usually take a 4-foot long wood dowel that serves as an impromptu monopod when needed.

I wished I could have used my polarizer (and also a lower ISO). The filter would have helped to cut the white glare off the surface of the leaves and really show the beautiful green glow that the forest canopy generates. Next time I'll definitely bring the tripod.

hike info
Double Lake Recreation Area and Big Creek Scenic Area are located just south of Coldspring, Texas inside the Sam Houston National Forest. I made a custom map (1 MB) of our route and plotted GPS waypoints. The GPS data was made before the hike using software, i.e. they're not real points taken in the field. However, during the hike, I found that those pre-plotted points were accurate.