Happy Labor Day! After spending a week in Glacier National Park I have a couple of thousand photos to go through and determine which ones I'll share with you. Hope you don't get tired of seeing this beautiful place. I'll start off this this shot I made as we left the park on Saturday morning. This was taken on McDonald Creek along the Going to the Sun highway. We drove past this spot several times, but never stopped until that morning. The light was really nice with low clouds blocking out the harsh sunlight, making for a pretty stellar scene along the creek. Looking at this shot makes me feel like I am right back there.
Returning to my Texas roots today with a shot I made in Longhorn Cavern State Park on Saturday where I joined three other photographers for a private tour. We were able to use or tripods and take long exposures of the cave at low ISO values for crystal clear shots to show off the beauty of this Texas treasure. Good cave photography is something I've wanted the chance to do, but most caves I've been in do not allow tripods and I'm generally with a group moving to quickly to set up, even if I could bring a tripod. Plus there are all those people that want to see the same formations, which make capturing said formations very difficult. Longhorn Cavern was formed by a river flowing through it which resulted in the swiss cheese look you see here. Unlike most caves that have stalagmite and stalactite formations, this cave has very few. On our tour we were also informed that contrary to what some folks might think, the cave did not get it's name from the name of the college team in Austin, but instead from the longhorn cattle that would fall into it. For complete information on Longhorn Cavern, visit the state park website at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/longhorn-cavern. Check out their calendar of events on their own website at http://www.longhorncaverns.com.
We spent the afternoon on Sunday driving through the Texas Hill Country. After a stop at the overcrowded Lost Maples State Park, we made the short jaunt over to Garner State Park to see what colors we might find along the Frio. We were not disappointed as you can see in this shot. I have always loved the clarity of the water in the Hill Country streams and you can see it in this shot with the roots of the cypress trees extending into the river. The deciduous trees were in full blazing glory as the sun lowered in the western sky. It really was a magical moment in one of my favorite Hill Country destinations.
