Trying new things on vacation

This year we ventured to Pagosa Springs, Colorado for our family vacation.  It wasn't a long trip in the amount of days but it was long in learning for myself as I grow into new areas of photography.

I have looked thru numerous photos of streams and how soft the photographer was able to make the water look.  I've always wanted to try it but there just are not many streams in the area where I live in North Texas (Unless it's a heavy downpour of rain which causes flooding).  So, when I knew we were going to Colorado I knew this was something I wanted to try.

I read everything I could on how to capture the water in a soft effect, asked my local camera club for tips and watched some YouTube videos so I would be educated.

On the day I wanted to try this, I had limited space to try this out, I ended up on a bridge to try to find the most appealing spot I could.  I set up my new tripod, changed my settings and captured the photo above on the second shot.  I did a little post processing in LR5 and then, the finished product for me.

I know I've seen photos 100% better than this one, but for shot # 2 and getting the effect I wanted I was very pleased with the outcome.

Next year we venture to the black hills of South Dakota and to Yellowstone - by then I hope to have found some places in the hill country to go down and practice streams so I can get up the beautiful states I mentioned and grab a few more photos.

So 2014 is still going as planned - a learning year.  Once you step out of your comfort zone it's amazing what you can capture.