Wednesday Walk - Blazing My Own Trail to Get the Shots

I went out for my daily hike this morning and took a trail where yesterday I saw a new little waterfall that I hadn’t previously photographed. My favorite shot for this #wednesdaywalk was one of some pink wildflowers in the foreground and with a depth of field that blurred out the waterfalls in the background.

It was a little ways off the Ridge Trail in Patapsco Valley State Park so I hadn’t noticed it in the past. I had to bushwack down The embankment a bit to get to this site, but it has some potential. Returning in the evening would put the sun on the other side of the ridge and offer better light for shooting.

In these shots I toned down the light considerably in the editing process in Affinity photo. I’ve found a tool in Affinity Photo that allows you to easily add graduated filters or paint areas where you want to bring down exposure and highlights. It is great to be able to do this in post as it prevents me from having to carry more camera filters out on the trail. My pack is already pretty heavy for my old knees.

Below is the only shot where no amount of post processing could get the exposure down to where I would have liked it. I did a lot of burning on the upper right had corner and it has almost grayed that area out.

Thanks to @tattoodjay for conceiving and supporting the #wednesdaywalk photo challenge.
Here’s a link to his walk this week.
https://steemit.com/wednesdaywalk/@tattoodjay/wednesday-walk-challenge-mondo-ponds-and-sbi-give-away