It's a beautiful day ... at Lake Benson

About the headline ... any baby boomers out there remember the San Francisco band called It's a Beautiful Day? The band's signature tune, released in 1968, was "White Bird." No? (sigh)

When I made my visit to Lake Benson Park on Oct. 1, it was, as the headline conveys, a beautiful day. As mentioned in my previous post, Lake Benson Park is located about 6 miles due east of Lake Wheeler Park in Wake County, N.C. Each has walking trails, boating, fishing, playgrounds and picnicking facilities.

Lake Benson also has the Garner Veterans Memorial, a nicely landscaped collection of stone monuments to military veterans situated near the park's entrance on Buffaloe Road.

Unlike the Lake Wheeler shoot, which I did under heavy overcast skies, I had sunshine and some picturesque cloud patterns at Lake Benson on Oct. 1. Because of the sunshine and the fact that I'd be dealing with glare on the water, I the Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens (on my Canon 6D camera) with a B+W polarizing filter. I'm sure it had much to do with the rich sky and water colors -- and the detail in the lake surface, including and especially with reflections. The photo leading off this post is a good example of that.

I had thought I'd be shooting most of my full-range lake shots from the main beach and lake access area close to the main pedestrian walk. But there were people sitting on benches there, and rather than disturb their relaxation and/or meditation, I decided to explore a dirt trail I saw heading northwest of the main beach access.

About a quarter- to a half-mile into the trail, I came upon a modest opening in the shoreline brush. The opening wasn't huge, but it was pretty easy to reach ... and plenty wide to enable me to get the lead-off photo. I took two versions of this scene. The first was taken with the lens set at 37 millimeters; for the second, I pulled back to the widest focal range -- 28 millimeters, which enabled me to incorporate more of the shoreline foliage (on the bottom).

As always, to view a larger, sharper image, click on the image. To see a full gallery of my shoot at Lake Benson, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I took three exposures of every composition to meld later in high-dynamic range (HDR) Photomatix software during post-processing. I set the camera on aperture priority and adjusted my ISO levels in dark conditions to allow for optimum shutter speeds so as not to blur images.

Because of the limited open access to the lake from the trail I was on, I decided to explore the kinds of shots I could get integrating the interfering brush and foliage. Some of my results appear in the next six photos. I probably had more "misses" than "hits," but ... I present them anyway in the spirit of at least trying ...  

One of the park residents spotted me when I took the photo above. I was quite a distance -- at least 40 yards or so, with my lens at maximum focal range (300 millimeters). But that wasn't safe enough for this guy. Within a minute or two, he was in the water with a companion and swimming away from shore (below). 

Above: In this composition, I was interested in seeing how the shallow, rusty-colored soil bottom near the shoreline would appear juxtaposed with the regular depth lake water.  

Before I reached any of the openings where I could shoot decent lake pictures, I came across some photogenic scenes along the trail. Above, the reflection on a small pond near the trail. Below, a viceroy butterfly that had just dropped onto this foliage.

Above, an insect (spider) on the edge of the aluminum rim you see below the bird feeder in the photo below. The second photo below is a closeup of the barn-like structure in the background of the first photo below.  

A portion of the playground area (above) and a long-range view of one of the shelters in the park (below). 

Above and next two photos below are scenes from the Garner Veterans Memorial near the front of the park.