Predawn and early mornings are my favorite times to be at Brazos Bend State Park. I arrange to get there before the park opens, before the day visitors arrive and while the campers are still in their camp sites. Every day can be a different world. These two photos were taken just two weeks a part.

The first image was taken on a cold crisp December twilight when a cloud bank decided to collide with the sun that was still just below the horizon. The layers of the clouds, the tree line, the low thin fog bank, and the burning reflections in the shallow water on the foreground made for a striking image. I had both a full frame sensor camera with a wide angle lens and a crop-sensor camera with a telephoto lens with me and took a series of shots with both. In reviewing the series, the ones taken with the telephoto lens at 160mm effective focal length gave the most dramatic images. This one was my favorite.

The second image was taken in early January near Old Horseshoe Lake. Dense fog provided the mood for this setting. The arch of the tree and the suspended moss provided a natural frame for the three trees in the distance. I shot the arch of the tree at an angle so that it directed the viewer into the image rather than simply frame the subjects. Finishing the image in black and white increased the moodiness of the image by toning down the bright green grass in the bottom of the frame and allowing the contrasts to define the key elements in the photo.

Both images took first place in the color and black and white categories respectively in Houston Photographic Society’s January Print Competition.

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