Delta Lake State Park

Come on!

This way!

It will be fun. Stop dragging your feet.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day! Tuesday was why I jumped at the opportunity to work the early shift. Tuesday made it all worth it.

Temperatures approaching 80 degrees. A slight breeze. A few clouds in the sky. Definitely time to go to Delta Lake and explore the trails within the park.

I raced home from work, changed my clothes, grabbed the camera and was in the park before 2pm. Yeah, I know, midday sun isn’t ideal. Says who? Images were waiting for me and I was ready to find them. The muddy colors of spring have finally turned to the greens of summer. I’ll find images to capture.

And you get to come along…

I avoided going to the beach. I walked back toward the front of the park to photograph the area near the park station. The sun was high but the trees around the water still provided shadows.

There were a pair of blue jays (I think) working on one of the houses around the water. I attempted to get a good image but my lens only went to 100mm and every image seemed too small. That is what I get for only walking around with one lens. I had left the camera bag in the car. Maybe next time. I did like the bench though…

I walked toward the boat launch area as I knew I could hop on one of the trails. I thought there might be something worth photographing near the launch ramp but nothing caught my eye. After a short time the people putting their boats in the water were probably wondering what was up with me. Time to hit the trail.

Not a lot to photograph but I did capture these two views of the trail. One with the sun to my back and the other shooting into the sun. Quick side bar…

There is a young professionals group at work. I know and work with quite a few of the “kids”. I do my share of picking on them, mostly in the “teaching them the ways of the force”. To be fair, they put up with me, and that makes them good in my eyes. I was asked to do a lunch and learn for the group. Any topic, doesn’t have to be work related and a few of them know of my photography. I captured these two images to demonstrate the importance of shadows to an image. In my head I was saying “light highlights, but shadows define.”

This trail brings me to the beach eventually. I captured a few images but my real goal was to get to the other trail on the opposite side of the beach. This body of water is lake adjacent. Not really part of the lake but the water rises and lowers as the levels in the lake change. On Tuesday, it was a sheet of glass and I cannot ignore a good reflection. Remember that little patch of yellow tree on the right. We’ll return to that on in a minute.

The trail eventually came to a dead end (due to high water) so I backtracked to work my way toward the car. I almost didn’t get this next image. I started to walk between the trees and the image was finally processed by my brain. I walked back a few yards to capture the “X”.

And now I’m on the opposite side of the water in the “Reflecting?” image.

Wow! An even better view. I stand and stare, taking it all in for a few minutes. And then I remember I’m supposed to be capturing the view. Do you remember the little yellow tree? It is now on the left. I’m fascinated by it, so obviously I need a few different views.

It was a great day for exploring. There are more trails to walk but it was getting close to dinner for the “boys” so I told myself I’ll be back to explore even more of the park.

When I reached the dead end of the trail (before the “X” image) I took a few pics with my phone so I could text my kids and gloat about being out of work already. I processed one using a few apps I have and then finished it with an app called “Prisma”. I’ll end this post with the one I tortured my kids with…