Brushy Creek Lake

— About two weeks ago, I went biking on the Brushy Creek Regional Trail in northwest Austin. The entire trail is approximately 13 miles (21 km) with only 337 feet (103 m) elevation gain. It is mostly paved with some gravel sections. Some online sources classify it as moderate, but if you stay in the concrete section, the trail is fairly easy. It can be crowded at times, particularly when you approach some city parks along the trail. However, for the most part, it is not busy. i often park at the Brushy Creek Lake park and ride from there.

If you start riding going eastbound, you will go over the dam on Brushy Creek Lake. That is where I made the photo here. Even though the Sun was getting low in the horizon, it was not quite yet sunset time. Nevertheless, with those thick clouds present, I thought this would be a perfect scene for me to try an experiment I’d had in my head. So, I put it into motion. You may want to skip this next section if it’s too nerdy for your taste.

I set my camera directly facing the Sun in order to get a sunstar. The clouds were providing the right amount of coverage for my experiment. In addition to using a very low aperture in my camera (you can see all the settings if you click on the photo above, which is true for every photo on this site), I also set my shutter speed fast. In brief, I deliberately wanted the photo to be darker than the scene actually was. On the camera screen, it appeared I had accomplished what I’d intended to do. Once I downloaded the photo to my computer, I was pleased with the results. Yes, the photo was darker as expected and with minor editing in Lightroom, I created the warm sunset-ish scene you see above.