Fiesta Texas Ferris Wheel

Today's photo is one that I have thought about for some time, I had an image in my mind of how this shot would come out since my last visit to Fiesta Texas (which was about 18 months ago). I knew that there was a "boardwalk" and the large ferris wheel, but I couldn't remember much else about the scene. I finally made it back up there on the 1st of January with the mindset to get this and some shots of "Holiday in the Park".

I am 99.9% happy with this shot (the only thing I would change is the trashcan in the middle of the scene, I thought about moving it but didn't feel like getting kicked out of the park when I hadn't taken all of the shots that I wanted (although, when I do make it back there, unless that trash can is bolted down, either myself or a friendly park employee is going to move it before I take any photos).

Some of the modifications that I made to this photo is the red text on the "Six Flags" sign, I purposely took a few fast shutter speed shots to capture the text without too much movement. I decided on this text from one of those shots because although it is unreadable due to some slight movement, it filled up most of the scrolling portion and I think that looks the best. I also did some HDR cheating, to get rid of some of the extreme areas of ghosting I took the results from a single RAW image and used that blended with the brackets to create people that are mostly still (there is some motion, which I think is ok, but I like having stationary people in shots whenever possible). I would like to take this shot on a cloudy day, maybe even a night shot (although I will have to get VERY lucky to have the ferris wheel not move long enough for that!) but overall, I am very happy with the results.

As always, please feel free to leave comments and feedback either here or in my smugmug gallery, and remember that you can view this (as well as other photos in my online gallery) by clicking on the photo. Thanks for stopping by!

Fiesta Texas Ferris Wheel