HDR Down By The Platte River – wk28

Saturday saw the two of us down by the Platte River. Angela headed south on her recently acquired bike. I headed north towards Overland Pond. This pond is set back from the Platte River by a few hundred feet, and is popular with anglers attempting to catch some fish — the fish are probably too smart to be caught in this location. Being backlit, I decided to give this image the HDR (or High Dynamic Range Treatment), so that I could capture the full range of tones.

Overland Pond Reflections hdr

I picked picked out some more detail of the reflections here.

Overland Pond Reflection

Walking around to the far side, nearest the river, I found this composition of the reflections of branches arching out over the pond.

Overland Pond Reflection, No 2

Continuing around the lake, I encountered a Night Heron standing on a sunken branch. Close by was a Great Blue Heron, hiding in the bushes at the shore. A beaver was also to be found swimming out towards the center of the pond. I captured these reflections of branches that had fallen into the pond.

Reflections In The Pond

There was a lot of greenery along the banks of the Platte River and around the pond. I had to find some more colors to reduce the monotony! Walking along the Platte River, the footpath passed under this bridge. Here was a Canada goose, who was sitting at the side of the path, tormenting passers-by with hissing. I setup under the bridge to capture another HDR image that reveals the range of tones under the bridge and along the river banks.

Platte River Bridge

The sun was getting very low in the sky, hiding behind the distant clouds as it headed down behind the mountains. Beside the footpath is Sante Fe Drive. Here is located an RV dealership and a billboard announcing “Coaster-Rific”. With the huge range of tones at sunset in the scene, this image got another HDR treatment.

Coaster-Rific Lakeside Sunset

If you want to find more information on HDR, you can look on the Naturescapes website, Trey Radcliffe’s HDR Tutorial and the Photomatix site. Also, search Flickr for more HDR images.