Reedy River Falls in HDR

Liberty Bridge and Reedy River Falls

This past weekend I went back to Falls Park in Greenville, South Carolina to try to photograph the Liberty Bridge and the waterfalls again. It is one of my favorite places to photograph although I have not yet gotten "the" photograph of the bridge that I want. The bridge's unique lateral, suspension arc and position make it a difficult subject for a photograph to do justice.

This time I went to the park during the late afternoon and stayed into the early night. That was really only about an hour and a half to two hours considering how quickly the sun sets this time of year. I was hoping that would allow me to get good exposures on the sky and the surrounds. However, in actuality, the sun was close to and even sometime even in the frame due to needing a wide angle of view to encompass the entire bridge. I also had some ideas on how to get some better angles of the bridge.

Considering the bright sky and shaded areas of the park, I thought that maybe some HDR (high dynamic range) techniques might work in this situation. I took quite a few sets of bracketed exposures and later merged them using Photomatix Pro software. In the end, I still think I can get a better image. There were several problems with this set of images. I made some mistakes while shooting the brackets. I didn't pay as good attention to the compositions as I should have while shooting them. I also think I need to more practice on the HDR processing.

Still, I did get a few images that I liked even if they are not quite what I ultimately wanted. Practice, practice, practice. It is what makes hobbies fun and it gives me a reason to go back to the park again.

Keep shooting.