First, the longer days with that tangerine evening light and new grass in the fields.

And then the wildflowers (red clover here) on the road side.

And of course, all the birds nesting anywhere possible around the house.

Crawfish boils.

And then lots of yard puddles. 

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted any new material on my photoblog. No real reason unless laziness counts. With being absent so long it’s been a challenge to find an entry point into the blog. Spring is full on here but there is still a heap of stuff from the winter I haven’t messed with yet. The photo above was taken one morning in early spring. A friend and I went to this old decrepit dam, a dam that has been dry for several years—or at least the dozen times I’ve dropped by over the years. Since I wasn’t expecting water, I didn’t have any of my neutral density filters with me. Luckily an overcast fell heavy, and with just a polarizer and the lens stopped all the way down, I was able to catch one of those frothy shots.

One reason we drop by the dam is because all the concrete is painted with bright graffiti and makes a fun color photo. But apparently, the concrete artists have been slacking and the graffiti was a bit subdued. So without that element, I went with a more subdued processing in the tones to put the emphasis and contrast on the white waves and murky water spilling out the dam..

This is about the 3rd time in a row I sat down to work something out for Texture Thursday and ended up bypassing the step of applying a non-native texture to the image. I also keep selecting horses, an animal never lacking in texture. I started out with a black & white conversion on this one, but ended up letting a little bit of color bleed back through.

Most of these were purposely shot a bit underexposed, wanting to capture a more silhouette style on the branches & bramble but retain the deep haze of the evening overcast.

But nature will always have a splash of color for you. These berries on some brush were in such contrast it reminded me of selective coloring photographs. And then last photograph, the early buds of spring. Enjoy!

When I was setting up for the photo from the previous post, someone stopped by to put a line in the water. The day was overcast and was on the fringe of giving way to cold drizzle. I was able to snag this one, and the guy was gone the next second. I worked out a few more, and myself, was gone and headed home for some soup. I was a bit pleased when I pulled this photo up in my app. Really liked the long silk of the water in the foreground and the way the tones spoke to those cold and dreary end days of winter..

Brandon © Brasseaux

The autumn and winter season this year has been one of the rainiest in a while. The photo above is testament to the rainfall. This is Loggy Bayou, an area that connects one of the local lakes to Red River. I’m not really sure why they tabbed it a bayou. It’s mainly a flood plain. Perhaps at one time it was just a bayou until it was converted to a flood plain. Anyway, I’ve been by this place several times and have walked on the grounds of where this water now flows. There is actually a lock, (what I stood on top of to take this photo) but with the drought over the last several years, the water has never been high enough to topple the lock and flow into the plain. Ebb and flow.

This photo is a composition of 5 long exposures and then stitched together in Photoshop. Then a 1:2 crop from the meat of that stitch. Enjoy your weekend!