Oak Creek Blur

Before I took the previous picture, and while I was waiting for the sun to drop a little, I walked down Oak Creek to see if I could get any better vantage point. I couldn't. But what I discovered was some swiftly moving water. So while a family and their dog played in the water, I started experimenting with blurring the water in camera -- slow shutter speeds in the 1/10th of a sec range, handheld -- just seeing how things looked and if I could get things composed and sharp enough. My tripod was back on the banks waiting for the Cathedral Rock shot. And while I was taking these images, I knew they were more artistic and interesting than the classic Oak Creek/Cathedral Rock photo. Must have taken 200 photos in about 15 minutes -- playing with camera angles and compositions. These will eventually become a series, but for the photo club's water assignment this month, I took two images and blended one into the other creating a longer-than-normal image, split it into two squares, and made the diptych above. The raw file was converted twice -- one cool for the water, another warm for the yellow highlights. Another adjustment layer was added in Photoshop for the auburn colors, which were the rocks just below the surface.