Warm Summer Evening Hike

Well, it is technically spring, but this would be considered summer in most places. I hiked along the North Fork San Gabriel River from Tejas Park which is northwest of Austin. May was rainy and there was a lot of water in the river, which is often just a stream at best. Most of the wildflowers have gone to seed, but it is still nice out. Also it was a Friday evening and I mostly had the place to myself.

I am not really sure why I stopped and photographed this grass in the afternoon sun along the river bank. The light through the trees was lighting up the long grass and I got down really close with a wide angle lens. This made it very difficult to focus with any breeze as the focus depth was paper-thin. I think that photo might have been better with a deeper focus depth to see more of the grasses. I will think on how to do this better in the future.

I also stopped for some rapid water moving over a shallow part of the river. I really like the hatch-work pattern that the ripples made with white caps and shadowed troughs from the low angled sun. I wasn’t shooting with a filter, but 1/3 second was enough to kind of get what I wanted. The bugs were really keeping me company during this photo as well. Not a fantastic photo, but I like the pattern in the water as it almost looks like sand.

Along the trail there is a gnarly dead tree that I have stopped and looked at before. On this evening, it was catching a lot of the evening sunlight through gaps in the trees and was a brilliant golden brown against the greenery. I wish there wasn’t so much growth in front of it so I could get a better view, but I thought it stood out enough to photograph.

On down the path to the river where there is a low bridge that crosses to the other side.

But the river is covering the low bridge right now, so I would have to take off my shoes and walk across in probably shin-deep water. I didn’t feel like taking off my shoes, but someone did and I guess forgot to come retrieve them. I can’t imagine forgetting to get my shoes before I left.

I actually studied on this scene for a while, trying to figure how to shoot it. I like the abandoned shoes in the frame as it kind of tells a story, but it kind of leaves the picture unbalanced. I also tried getting closer and just have the water-covered part of the bridge in the foreground leading to the opposite shore. I guess I decided I like the one above best as I wonder what the story is. What do you think?

21 thoughts on “Warm Summer Evening Hike”

  1. The “sandy” water is my favorite, but each picture stood out to me. You photograph unique things like a gnarly tree and it works!
    And yes, those shoes by the water does make one wonder! I might need this picture, but you probably guessed that already. 🙂

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  2. I like the gnarly tree, best. The story behind the shoes probably involves an evil fairy who kidnapped someone, while riding a unicorn she had enslaved. The shoes had to come off, to lighten the load. There were no witnesses to this crime, except a couple of old soles sitting by the shore.

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            2. The waterfall out at Colorado Bend was running strong. I probably got 20GB of picture to start going through. I also hiked up to an overlook I hadn’t been to and on one of the rocky climbing trails. It was nice

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  3. I like the photo of the running stream; as you note it does create an interesting pattern. And that gnarled tree is also quite good; those kinds of trees always remind me of witches for some reason…

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