Hamilton Pool Reserve

Lyncca · Aug 28, 2008

I think I should officially be locked up in the looney ward. Yesterday, I drove 4 hours followed by 1.5 hrs of hiking in 97 degrees to take a couple of pictures and then get back in my car and drive 4 hours back.

This is the Hamilton Pool Preserve, located south of Austin. The pics of the grotto are the hardest pictures I have tried to take. The inside of the grotto is barely lit, while the outside is in full open sun. My camera only brackets 3 shots, so I had to manually take from 5-7 on these first two. The rest of the bracketed shots were only 3 (the trail shots aren't HDR).

Anyway, here they are. I tried not to over-bake them too much, but it was really hard in post processing too!

1) (7 exposures, but got cloud movement)

2. (5 exposures)

3. back of the grotto:

4. roof of the grotto

5. trails on the way

6. more trails

invisible · Aug 28, 2008

Photo number 1 is probably worth the 8 hours driving and all the hiking in the heat. The light is just perfect ant the colours bright without being saturated or HDR-overdone. I don't think the cloud movement conspires against the quality of the final product, at all.

I assume you shot it with your Tokina lens, no? Very, very nice capture.

250Gimp · Aug 28, 2008

Great shots!!

You didn't overdo the HDR at all, which is great!!

Coldow91 · Aug 28, 2008

They look great! sweet processing

Lyncca · Aug 29, 2008

invisible said:
Photo number 1 is probably worth the 8 hours driving and all the hiking in the heat. The light is just perfect ant the colours bright without being saturated or HDR-overdone. I don't think the cloud movement conspires against the quality of the final product, at all.

I assume you shot it with your Tokina lens, no? Very, very nice capture.

thank you and yes they were with the tokina lens.

250Gimp said:
Great shots!!

You didn't overdo the HDR at all, which is great!!

I reprossesed the first 2 four times before I was finally convinced they were as good as I could make them!

Coldow91 said:
They look great! sweet processing

Thank you

bikefreax · Aug 29, 2008

I LOVE #1. Perfect in every way. Wish I had someplace around here like that. Nice job.:thumbup::thumbup:

Fox Paw · Aug 29, 2008

Very nice, particularly number one. I remember Hamilton Pool well from my years in Austin. You captured it well.

manaheim · Aug 30, 2008

Wow, you did a hell of a job on these, and yeah... I can tell some of them were really tough.

I think you might have been a little heavy-handed in PP... oversharpened I think? Maybe a touch too much contrast, but that's debatable.

EDIT: btw, I think the colors may be off a hair on the first few... a bit yellow maybe?

Regardless, these look amazing. This has to be one of the more interesting places I have ever seen a picture of- totally amazing. That was WELL worth the trip. A very big :thumbup:!

Lyncca · Aug 30, 2008

bikefreax said:
I LOVE #1. Perfect in every way. Wish I had someplace around here like that. Nice job.:thumbup::thumbup:

Well, it certainly wasn't around where I live. Austin is beautiful. The most I can say about DFW is that I am getting good at shooting buildings. :lol:

Fox Paw said:
Very nice, particularly number one. I remember Hamilton Pool well from my years in Austin. You captured it well.

Thank you. I had never heard of it until an aquaintenance emailed me about it to give ideas for a place to shoot.

manaheim said:
Wow, you did a hell of a job on these, and yeah... I can tell some of them were really tough.

I think you might have been a little heavy-handed in PP... oversharpened I think? Maybe a touch too much contrast, but that's debatable.

EDIT: btw, I think the colors may be off a hair on the first few... a bit yellow maybe?

Regardless, these look amazing. This has to be one of the more interesting places I have ever seen a picture of- totally amazing. That was WELL worth the trip. A very big :thumbup:!

I didn't sharpen them, but I see what you are talking about. I think its just the HDR with so many layers. I even painted back in the original in areas to try to help with it. There is also a lot of yellow in them, but it seemed to look better that way. I may try it again later and see what I get.

manaheim · Aug 30, 2008

^^ oh I didn't realize these were HDRs. Nice job! Those have to be the best HDRs I've ever seen... because I had absolutely no idea it was an HDR! Guess I should read more carefully next time. :lol:

I was wondering how the heck you got that exposed. :lol:

invisible · Aug 30, 2008

manaheim said:
EDIT: btw, I think the colors may be off a hair on the first few... a bit yellow maybe?

Lynnca, don't pay attention to anything manaheim says about yellow casts. He sees yellow issues in every photo. A few weeks ago he told me he was going to have his eyes recalibrated, but it's apparent he hasn't yet :lol:

Lyncca · Aug 30, 2008

manaheim said:
^^ oh I didn't realize these were HDRs. Nice job! Those have to be the best HDRs I've ever seen... because I had absolutely no idea it was an HDR! Guess I should read more carefully next time.

I was wondering how the heck you got that exposed.

Wow, thanks

They have to be HDRs because from the back of the cave where I was standing is completely dark when exposed for the sky. I searched the internet all over before going for pics and there are only a few successful ones out there because of the conditions.

invisible said:
Lynnca, don't pay attention to anything manaheim says about yellow casts. He sees yellow issues in every photo. A few weeks ago he told me he was going to have his eyes recalibrated, but it's apparent he hasn't yet

:lmao:

manaheim · Aug 30, 2008

invisible said:
Lynnca, don't pay attention to anything manaheim says about yellow casts. He sees yellow issues in every photo. A few weeks ago he told me he was going to have his eyes recalibrated, but it's apparent he hasn't yet

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: