Whoever says Austin/South don't have fall colors??

11/19/2002 07:37:23 PM · #1

(Not better than most other places, but we still have a bit of color...): Austin Fall Color

11/19/2002 07:42:59 PM · #2

Was someone disputing it ?

We are just a bit behind the times, waiting until November for anything to change :)

I drove to Lost Maples State Park at the weekend. 3+ hours there,
saw the queue of cars waiting to get in, got told it was a 1.5+hours wait
to get in, drove back instead of waiting...

Town lake has colours...

11/19/2002 07:49:55 PM · #3

Is that townlake, i don't remember seeing an automatic watering thing there which is what created the Rainbow :) (i like naturally occuring rainbows, not man made ones :) ).

Yeah Lost Maples should be good but sounds like it's way too popular. you can find patches of color in Austin. I went back to Kansas to drive my dad down to Texas 2 weekends ago, and that place is just gorgeous right now (at least the northeastern parts, Lawrence, Olathe, etc). Town Lake has patches of it... here's one with reflection at dusk (golden light + colors on water):

Reflected Colors

Originally posted by Gordon:
[i]Was someone disputing it ?

We are just a bit behind the times, waiting until November for anything to change :)

I drove to Lost Maples State Park at the weekend. 3+ hours there,
saw the queue of cars waiting to get in, got told it was a 1.5+hours wait
to get in, drove back instead of waiting...

Town lake has colours...

* This message has been edited by the author on 11/19/2002 7:52:51 PM.

11/19/2002 07:59:48 PM · #4

Originally posted by paganini:
Is that townlake, i don't remember seeing an automatic watering thing there which is what created the Rainbow :) (i like naturally occuring rainbows, not man made ones :) ).

Its called a fountain. There are lots of them around town lake...

11/19/2002 08:02:44 PM · #5

Uh, yeah. So it's not ON townlake... :) I hardly go over east of the Lamar bridge of Town lake when I am on there in a kayak, the western part is the best for these, and i don't remember fountains or watering systems on the little river that Austinite call "lake" itself :)

Originally posted by Gordon:
Originally posted by paganini:
[i]Is that townlake, i don't remember seeing an automatic watering thing there which is what created the Rainbow :) (i like naturally occuring rainbows, not man made ones :) ).

Its called a fountain. There are lots of them around town lake...

[/i]

11/19/2002 08:10:57 PM · #6

Originally posted by paganini:
Uh, yeah. So it's not ON townlake... :) I hardly go over east of the Lamar bridge of Town lake when I am on there in a kayak, the western part is the best for these, and i don't remember fountains or watering systems on the little river that Austinite call "lake" itself :)

It's about two yards to the right of where you took this picture from if you are looking for it in the future. You must have been about standing in it.

11/19/2002 09:09:05 PM · #7

Ah, that one.... doens't seem to be that big (from what i remembered and you showed in your photo)

Originally posted by Gordon:
Originally posted by paganini:
[i]Uh, yeah. So it's not ON townlake... :) I hardly go over east of the Lamar bridge of Town lake when I am on there in a kayak, the western part is the best for these, and i don't remember fountains or watering systems on the little river that Austinite call "lake" itself :)

It's about two yards to the right of where you took this picture from if you are looking for it in the future. You must have been about standing in it.
[/i]

Journey

Canon PowerShot G3

11/19/2002 09:33:50 PM · #8

Austin fall color is a nice picture, paganini. So, how did you get the fall color effect? Photoshop? What impresses me so is to see that many trees in Texas, unless you photoshopped those in as well.
I drove once through Texas (god, is Texas big!) when relocating from Silicon V to a godforsaken place i don't wish to be reminded of and i was a good 400 miles into Texas when i finally saw a tree.

(running and ducking for cover in the lush Evergreen forest of the Pac NW)

11/19/2002 09:35:44 PM · #9

Sounds about right - Austin is close to 900 miles from the nearest border or so the locals tell me. I was amazed that I had to wait until I was
in New Mexico to see my first tumbleweed (which rolled through the airport there...)

11/19/2002 09:39:44 PM · #10

No, they are REAL trees :)

The only difference is that I did increase the contrast and saturation on them. But not by much. The afternoon dusk light helps a lot to get the color out easier on camera, that's why all of the trees had a "golden" cast on them.

Austin is a lot different from the normal Texas.... it's very green here this time of the year and now the leaves are starting to change colors a bit. I had to kayak for quite a while to find the patch of trees that i liked. The Hill country is very green and hilly and that's basically where Austin is located, at least partly. (west of here) East Texas/north is anotehr story, that is dry and boring and it'll take a while before you hit a nice patch of greens (namely around the Big Bend area if you're going west to east, but even then it's not that green, still very desertish). South/Southwest Texas is green.

of course, nothing compared to Washington. I love it when I was there last summer! I couldn't believe how some of the trees could have such a BRIGHT green color.... almost blindingly green.....

Originally posted by Journey:
Austin fall color is a nice picture, paganini. So, how did you get the fall color effect? Photoshop? What impresses me so is to see that many trees in Texas, unless you photoshopped those in as well.
I drove once through Texas (god, is Texas big!) when relocating from Silicon V to a godforsaken place i don't wish to be reminded of and i was a good 400 miles into Texas when i finally saw a tree.

(running and ducking for cover in the lush Evergreen forest of the Pac NW)

11/19/2002 09:45:02 PM · #11

And btw, when i say Austin is "hilly" i don't mean it's like foothills in Washington state :-) more like "bumps" :-)

(Austinites have a sick sense of humor naming a little bump as "Mount Bonnell"... when I was vacationing in Estes Park, Colorado, a girl that worked at a coffe shop said that she went to Austin last summer and her friend took her to Mount Bonnel and she said "That's IT?????"....)

They also call the little creek that i am kayaking and sculling regularly on as a "Lake" (i.e. Town Lake....) it's not a creek but it's just a slow moving small river is what i'd call it, definitely not a lake. It goes right through downtown Austin, part of the "Colorado River" that runs through Texas (not the same Colorado River that you do white water rafting in though)

Gracious

11/19/2002 09:50:00 PM · #12

Tony, Your Autumn picture is lovely. I've spent a little time in Dallas and it sure looks a whole lot different than Austin. I couldn't wait to get back to my lush, verdant, and native NYS. Upstate New York is soooooooooo beautiful, especially in the Catskills and Adirondack Mountain regions, but really any part of upstate.
Thanks for sharing your Austin Fall colors. :-)

Journey

Canon PowerShot G3

11/19/2002 10:13:13 PM · #13

Surprised of not having been taking to task by you two abt my Texas remarks; presume you guys aren't natives :)

Oh gosh, paganini, I was just pulling your leg about the real trees. Don't you know my sick sense of humor by now?

If you don't mind me saying so (after all, what do i know about photography), I found the green and orange in the trees of the second picture just a little too bright. It marred the overall harmony of the picture somewhat imho. Maybe you could do a mask on those trees and re-do the curve on that mask, if you agree, that is. It's a fine picture otherwise.

I have never been to Austin but understand it is a nice town. Kayaking sounds very pleasant and peaceful; maybe i'll take that up next year in the Sound or at the lake here.

I live in Bellingham, WA and it is a great community. Growing fast though, lot of influx from Calif. It is right on Puget Sound, close to Mt Baker (gorgeous mountain), and proximity to Seattle and Vancouver. I live 4 miles out of town surrounded by trees; my own yard has a lot of huge cedars and an enormous maple (i note the latter because i spent the last 4 weeks endlessly raking and shredding leaves from that tree).

Journey

Canon PowerShot G3

11/19/2002 10:26:12 PM · #14

Paganini, i'm laughing about the bumps/hills. That reminds me of The Netherlands where i'm from originally. It's a flat country and half of it below sea level (that's why i moved, i got tired of standing on my toes all the time to keep my head above water :). However, it has one little hill at the border with Germany and Luxembourg. It is about 900 feet high. It's officially called the MOUNTAIN of Vaals (Vaalserberg in Dutch). In other words, that's the Dutch Alps for you.

Gracious, yes I know the Adirondacks and the Catskills. I lived for a while in upstate NY. When talking abt NY people only think of NYC and the beauty of the state of NY is a well-kept secret. I just loved it there; ditto on NYC. My favorite part though is Dutchess County. Hey, if i ever win the lotto i'm gonna buy a nice old stone house with some rolling acres there.

11/19/2002 11:30:57 PM · #15

Mt Bonnell was a joke - I expected I might have to actually hike up it
when I went :) We have steeper streets where I come from, never mind hills...

11/20/2002 01:47:59 AM · #16

The only "bump" you can hike up around here is Enchanted Rock, about 600 ft tall :) it's worth a trip if you have never been there. I think it also has good rock climbing attributes for it, behind the rock in the park.

The problem with Texas is that you have to drive 12 hours to see a mountain (i.e. Big Bend area or Guadualupe Mountains), even then it's not that impressive like the Rockies.

Originally posted by Gordon:
Mt Bonnell was a joke - I expected I might have to actually hike up it
when I went :) We have steeper streets where I come from, never mind hills...

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

11/20/2002 01:55:23 AM · #17

Seattle is a great place. Actually pacific northwest is awesome. if the high tech sector gets any worse in Austin i might have to move away :) then i will choose a nice place in proximity to the mountains and seattle would be one of the things on the top of the list.

Yeah I am not from Texas, only lived here for 4 years and before that 8 years in Kansas.

you're right asbout the "reflection" photo, i dind't bother with a graduated neutral density filter/mask and just adjusted it for the reflection, will have to play with it later. Kayaking is OK on flat water, it's really best on fast moving water. I really don't know anything about it (i.e. proper technique, etc.) because usually i go on there to do sculling (rowing, you know, the skinny long boats that the chairs move back and forth) and the only reason i took the Kayak was because there is a chance of flipping over in a scull if you're not careful and i don't want to risk my camera :) There is a chance to flip over in a kayak too but much less than the scull which is inherently unbalance... i am a member at a local club and thus i can use all of the equipment for a monthly fee. Town Lake in Austin is actually quite famous for its water in the sculling world, because it is REALLY calm and a lot of racers come down here to train and since no MOTORIZED boats can roam on Town lake, it is really ideal for these boats.

Originally posted by Journey:
Surprised of not having been taking to task by you two abt my Texas remarks; presume you guys aren't natives :)

Oh gosh, paganini, I was just pulling your leg about the real trees. Don't you know my sick sense of humor by now?

If you don't mind me saying so (after all, what do i know about photography), I found the green and orange in the trees of the second picture just a little too bright. It marred the overall harmony of the picture somewhat imho. Maybe you could do a mask on those trees and re-do the curve on that mask, if you agree, that is. It's a fine picture otherwise.

I have never been to Austin but understand it is a nice town. Kayaking sounds very pleasant and peaceful; maybe i'll take that up next year in the Sound or at the lake here.

I live in Bellingham, WA and it is a great community. Growing fast though, lot of influx from Calif. It is right on Puget Sound, close to Mt Baker (gorgeous mountain), and proximity to Seattle and Vancouver. I live 4 miles out of town surrounded by trees; my own yard has a lot of huge cedars and an enormous maple (i note the latter because i spent the last 4 weeks endlessly raking and shredding leaves from that tree).

magnetic9999

Canon EOS-20D

11/20/2002 07:59:03 AM · #18

this is about 2 weeks ago, up the hill from my place. I live in N. VA., just outside of DC. Things are dying now but the colors are still ok. this shot is unenhanced - the light was coming thru the tree in such a way as to cause the leaves to appear to 'glow' with color :)

Gracious

11/20/2002 09:00:20 AM · #19

Originally posted by Journey:
Gracious, yes I know the Adirondacks and the Catskills. I lived for a while in upstate NY. When talking abt NY people only think of NYC and the beauty of the state of NY is a well-kept secret. I just loved it there; ditto on NYC. My favorite part though is Dutchess County. Hey, if i ever win the lotto i'm gonna buy a nice old stone house with some rolling acres there. [/i]

Journey, Dutchess County is indeed lovely. Lived there a very short while myself, near Vassar College. I love the entire Hudson Valley. I was born in NYC, near the mouth of the Hudson, and for 5 years lived at the headwaters of the river in the ADKS. The last place I lived, before I moved to Florida a year ago, was Coxsackie, NY a river town. I have a very strong connection to the river. My maternal grandmother was part native American, from the Hudson region.
How I miss it!!!
I'm glad you share my appreciation for the area. Besides natural beauty, it is also rich in history.

11/20/2002 09:10:09 AM · #20

Originally posted by paganini:
The only "bump" you can hike up around here is Enchanted Rock, about 600 ft tall :) it's worth a trip if you have never been there. I think it also has good rock climbing attributes for it, behind the rock in the park.
All my Australian friends say they found Enchanted Rock to be a big let down too...

The problem with Texas is that you have to drive 12 hours to see a mountain (i.e. Big Bend area or Guadualupe Mountains), even then it's not that impressive like the Rockies.

And I grew up 5 minutes drive from the start of the Highlands in Scotland, so I need a big hill to be impressed...

Money's guide to the top 10 places to live in the US

:)

11/20/2002 10:03:32 AM · #21

11/20/2002 11:18:38 AM · #22

They obviously didn't account for allergy issues :)

Originally posted by Gordon:
Money's guide to the top 10 places to live in the US

:)

11/20/2002 11:19:43 AM · #23

Uh, every camera do enhancements :) if you grab the image from the camera it already did contrast adjustment, leveling for you. My images were shot RAW so there is no automatic adjustment.

Originally posted by magnetic9999:
[i]this is about 2 weeks ago, up the hill from my place. I live in N. VA., just outside of DC. Things are dying now but the colors are still ok. this shot is unenhanced - the light was coming thru the tree in such a way as to cause the leaves to appear to 'glow' with color :)