Hamilton Pool near Austin, Texas

At last, the final version of this image (until I learn some new tricks)! Hamilton Pool is one of the best kept secrets in Central Texas. It took me 10 years to find it but I'm very glad I did. The place is a spectacular circular swimming hole half covered over by the massive remains of the previous cave's roof. It's pretty tricky to photograph and this image is actually a composite of 4 shots taken with different exposures.

 

I spent a day last week at a fabulous Photoshop seminar by Ben Willmore during which he spent the time talking about various post-processing techniques. Armed with these new tricks, I got back to this image and have now got it to a point that I am happy with it.

 

For those interested in what's changed, I've added a play-by-play account on my blog here.

 

Now all I need is to find a cloud that isn't burned out and drop that in..... :-)

 

EDIT 1/25/11: OK - I couldn't leave that sky alone. You can find the next (dare I suggest "final"?") version here.

 

Note: This image isn't available for licensing via Getty Images since it already has active licenses. If you are interested, please drop me a FlickrMail.

 

Prints of this image are available on ImageKind or Altered Perspectives.

 

I would greatly appreciate your vote in the 2013 Photoblog Awards. Thanks!

 

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