CharlesWSmithFineArt

Texas Borealis II

The winter skies in the Texas Hill Country are a sight to behold. This was taken from the face of Enchanted Rock, between Fredricksburg and Llano, Texas. We wer...
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The winter skies in the Texas Hill Country are a sight to behold. This was taken from the face of Enchanted Rock, between Fredricksburg and Llano, Texas. We were on our way down from the summit as the sun was setting, and the clouds to the East began their evening light show. Though I’ve never seen the real thing, I like to imagine this phenomenon as Texas’ own Aurora Borealis. (The Texas Borealis could be a thing, I guess. Maybe I just coined a new phrase!) The colors in the clouds, as they transition from yellow, to orange, red, purple, and blue, give a magical look to the already beautiful landscape of the Texas Hill Country. As the sun dipped below the horizon, I made my way across the slope, to the East, so I could have the boulders as a foreground element, with the mountain in the background. I didn’t have my tripod with me, so I set the ISO to 2500, the aperture to f5.6, and the shutter speed to 1-30. I sat down on the rock face to steady the camera against my knee and made a series of exposures as the light faded and the brilliant colors were lost to the cool gray of twilight. I sat there for a few moments, in the silence of the evening, humbled by the beauty that I was fortunate enough to have witnessed and then made my way back to my family, waiting on the trail leading down the slope. It was a beautiful end to a wonderful day in the Texas Hill Country.
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