Standing tall

This is one of those moments Clark Griswold would be proud of, sort of like driving to see the Biggest Ball of String in the World.  In this case, me and a buddy had a guys' weekend to do whatever we wanted, so naturally I had a camera and we took off into the Texas Hill Country, which starts West of Austin for those of you that are unfamiliar.  I had heard of this little ranch outside of Hunt, TX where they have a replica of both Stonehenge and the statues on Easter Island.  Naturally I was curious to see these things for myself.  I mean, this is Texas so usually folks are interested in barbecue and the like, so this is downright foreign kind of stuff.  Well, once you pass through Hunt you follow a little road and then all of a sudden, here it is.  It sits in an open field, basically in the middle of nowhere.  We were the only ones there.  I don't recall even seeing a cow.

This is a 6 exposure HDR taken at f/22 in the middle of the afternoon, so there was a lot of light.  The exposures range from -3 to +2 and were merged into an HDR in Photomatix.  Afterwards I made some adjustments in PSE around Contrast and Shadows, and that is about all it took.  With the bright light coming from behind the statue, the HDR process really shines here in that you can still get all the detail in the front of it, despite that area being in shadow due to the sun's position.  I prefer to shoot HDR in lower light conditions, such as sunset, but even in mid-day it can really help you out!