Sycamore on the James

photograph of a tree reflected in the water of a riverThis tree, which I now know is a sycamore, is one my favorites.  I see it often when I walk along the river.  It’s stark, white branches majestically loom over the river and stand out from the green foliage.

I merged two separate exposures of this tree to create an HDR image.  I under exposed one shot to keep the sky darker and used a “properly” exposed image for the reflections in the river.

Cycling Along the River

photograph of cyclists riding near the James RiverRiverside Drive, in Richmond, Virginia, is one of the most scenic spots I know of for cycling.  On any given Saturday or Sunday in the summer there are far more cyclists and runners on this road than cars.  Although this stretch is flat and runs right along the James River, the road also offers several steep climbs and descents.

Tree Reflected in the River

Photograph of a tree and its reflection in the James RiverThis tree seems to own the end of this small island in the James River.  With the slow moving Autumn waters it seemed like an appropriate time to photograph the tree and its reflection in the river.

I merged two separate exposures to produce an HDR image that retained some foreground color but kept the sky from being washed out.

Great Blue Heron in a Tree

photograph of a great blue heron perched on a branchWhile photographing a tree on an island in the James River, I realized there was a Great Blue Heron perched on one of the branches.  Pleased the heron was close enough for some zoomed in shots, I took several pictures before it flew away.  This was my favorite picture of the bunch.

Like all the other pictures on my blog, you can click on this one to see a larger version of the image.

Great Blue Heron

Photograph of great blue heron standing on a rock in a stream

Here’s another picture of the great blue heron I spotted in a river near Damascus, VA.  In case you missed the first photo, you can see it here: https://blog.dougcouvillion.com/2012/07/25/great-blue-heron-taking-flight. The earlier photo was under exposed to account for the brightness of the river.  In this photo I increased the exposure to capture more detail of the heron and manually compensated for the glare on the river by editing the image later.