Another sunrise at the wildlife refuge. And another sunrise without much in the way of clouds. It’s a pretty good hike up to this location but it is my favorite location for dawn. Half the time I wake up well before 5:30 AM anyway (thank you recent development of insomnia), so there was not much added effort to go jump in the truck and head out to the refuge.
I’ve had a bit of a photographic obsession with these old tree stumps on this hill side. They are left over from the prescribed burns and I think that maybe they could be a photographic subject, mainly as a foreground element to help with the background not being especially spectacular. The hill itself probably wouldn’t interest you and a picture of an old tree stump by itself is odd, but putting them together might hold a scene together. I hope the old stumps lead you to the odd looking hill in the distance.
After the sun got up it really turned everything yellow as you can see above and below. I suppose that is why they call it the golden hour. I didn’t really work the colors and white balance in these images, it was captured light. If you know where to look, there is another hiker in the photo above, I can only find him because I was there and remember where he was.
In the photo below I tried to work some deep contrast into the grasses of the extreme foreground while letting the grass wash out to yellow green in the distance. This gives me three different angles of the morning sunlight. Might be too much shadow in the final image.
After getting the obligatory hiking pebble out of my boot, I wandered around. Saw a happy bird singing for the dawn against a pastel sky and a bashful rabbit watching me from the side of the trail. The rabbit was in the shade and shot at ISO16000, which is very high and can result in terribly noisy images. But, this image looked good especially after running denoise software on it.
Another proper Sunday started off with a hike. Thanks for reading.
Jason Frels 
A nature hike is a great way to start a Sunday, in my view. And early in the morning, most people are in bed snoozing, or getting ready for church. That leaves the trails wide open. I love the pic of the rabbit.
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I’m glad I went as we are getting day after day of rain right now which is really weird for this time of the year.
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Rabbits are very cute without glowing orange eyes
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But with orange glowing eyes, they’re badass.
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Don’t forget the sharp venomous fangs.
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Gotta have the fangs.
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Oh, help! Yeah, couldn’t forget that. 🙈
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🤦♀️! You would think that, wouldn’t you.
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Of course. And along with them being rabbits, they should also be rabid.
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🙄
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Watching the quality of the light change at sunrise or sunset’s a delight. Clearly, you weren’t stumped by the challenges it offers.
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Thanks, and pun appreciated.
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I agree the best place at Balcones…..I have always loved the big bald hill across the prairie….
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It is an interesting looking hill. I wondered if it might have been artificial at first. Not aware of ancient mound-builders in these parts but what do I know.
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I’m glad you had good weather to hike. All the pictures are good. I really like the golden glow with the stump, but it’s especially nice to see an adorable rabbit. 😉
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That was one of the good rabbits. The others come out at night, and I know better than to stick around.
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🤦♀️
How wise of you. Sounds like you had a scary experience with one.
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I love those wildlife photos. 🥰
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