New Braunfels/Landa Park for senior shoot question

[brewercm]

I have somebody that I'll be doing a senior shoot for on Saturday morning and was wondering of good spots in the park. I don't have time to get up there before Saturday to look around but this is where she wants it done.

Any thoughts of photogenic areas there at the park?

Thank you in advance.

[Saltwater Servitude]

Well, I'm a few months late for a reply, but I went out there today to scout the area so hopefully this will be used by folks who are looking for a spot for the same activities. I also swung by the Faust Street steel bridge.

First the bridge. Let me preface this by saying I was only shooting with my phone to remind myself this week where I wanted to shoot next week and only really started snapping for this site as an afterthought. Hence, I didn't take any pictures of bridge itself, and only one side of the view from it.

I parked in the lot on the east side of the bridge, but water access is on the west side. Problem is that it's by a foot path only, and the last few feet you have to step down are bare dirt. If it's been raining there's a greater than 100% chance you'll bust your rear end trying to get to the river itself. There also seems to be very little parking on the west side of the bridge.

There are several, maybe 8 total, black steel benches on the bridge itself. The wood planking is fairly worn but splintered here and there. It could be a great setting for a fashion shoot, which is what I was looking for. A picture of the bridge itself:

Bridgehunter.com | Faust Street Bridge

View facing north from the bridge to the old West Point Pepperrell, or however you spell it, dam.



The water coming over the dam is about 3-4" and you can walk across it as you'll see in a final shot. Keep in mind that I shot these at the beginning of October of 2011 so we're still right in the middle of the drought and the water level is about 10" lower than usual comparing the soak lines on the cypress trees not shown.

On the left upper corner is a cascade that comes down off the corner of the dam. Very cool spot for a swim wear shot. Also not shown down the river are several large rocks in the river that are above the surface that are perfect for posing on as well.

Standing in the cascade, looking up at the damn. It's maybe 6-7' tall?



Looking up at the cascade, low angle shot. I wish I had a better photo of this to show how wide it is.



Shot from the upper corner of the cascade, looking up the lake. If you wanted, it would be no problem to bring a small kayak or jon boat, launch it into the lake, and shoot negative edge shots of the model as she stood on the dam.



Same spot, looking back up into the lake. Clone out the tree limbs and it would be a decent enough spot for a shot.



Here's one I did shoot with the forum in mind. See that rock dead center of the image, underwater? The bigger of the two? It's about 2' under at this point, but would give you a great low angle platform to shoot up at the model on the dam under falling light. The dam runs west to east so no sunsets unfortunately, but you could get creative. The people give you a bit of scale to tell how high the dam is and that you can walk on it.

Must note that during the weekend, the place is crowded. This was a Tuesday afternoon.

[Saltwater Servitude]

Now onto Landa Park itself. I love foot bridges because it gives a subject something to put their hands on, and you get the perspective of the lines to play with. Landa has a bunch of great opportunities in my mind but it's also a tourist attraction so expect folks to be around. I shot these, and others above, between 2:30 and 4:00 pm in the afternoon so you can plan on shadow locations accordingly.

I'll start off with a spooky looking gazebo that looks out on the lake. Bad picture from the Crackberry. There's an internal bench that runs the entire inside perimeter of the gazebo, about 12" off the ground. Seems pretty low. This gazebo sits out by itself so you'll have to find it at the north end of the park. There's a road that circles around by it, but it was barricaded off at this time. I'm guessing they open it up on the weekends.



Coming back from that gazebo are two footbridges. Note on the second one the set of stone stairs at the far side.



Stone stairs:



Now before I put up one of the coolest hidden gems I found out there, I have to mention the fishing pier. It has a T head on it and you can shoot with a a water background in three directions. Up the river there's an island somewhat close, but a shallow DOF and you're golden. Up the pier facing the T head, you're shooting into a golf course. To the south (really I'm guessing on directions here) you're looking down river towards the pool and such. Nice metal handrails and the wood planking is in great shape if you wanted to do a lying down shot.

Now, my favorite hidden thing you'll have to really look for to find.



I LOVE me these archways! They're about 7-8' tall and you won't find them easily. Unless you keep reading. These are actually at the very north end of the main park and support the road just as it starts to go up the hill. If you are walking back from the lake down the gazebo path and past the two footbridges I showed previously, keep walking down towards the road. The arches are partially obscured by the trees, but the rocks are in such a way to make a nice set of stairs that you can walk down into the gully and into these neat architectural settings. There is very little graffiti in them too. This is shot looking east to west. No water running through them at this time, but on a wet year there might be.

Another footbridge. It almost points directly to the hidden arches. Actually, it does but to the wrong side you can't get down from. The blown out tree to the right side and end of the bridge almost perfectly covers up the spot where I dropped down into the gully for the arches. Yeah, I love me those arches.



Another really cool stage to shoot on is, the stage? Just look at those beautiful horizontal lines. Lovin' it.



Another shot of it.



And from reverse. I kinda like the buttressing, but not sure how to use it for a shot. I apologize, but I didn't think to look for electrical outlets for strobes. I'm sure there are some, somewhere since the stage is located on a concrete dancing pad.



This is the bathrooms, or changing rooms for our purposes. Also, nice stone wall to use as a background.



There are several covered pavilions in the park, and this one has a nice drop off behind it. Nice lines in the flooring, decent hand railing, and bench seating.



Well, that's my quick and dirty report of the north end of the park. There's a natural wading pool if you wanted to get wet or doing swim wear shooting, but there's better places for that in New Braunfels for sure.

I was also going to hit up the pavilion in the center of town, but skipped it for later on. I also swung by another park just north of Prince Solms park, something "Island" park. It has two sets of stairs with rudimentary pipe hand rails, another nice footbridge, and some great black steel ornate hand railing leading down from Prince Solms park to the water. There's a set of stones that are set just underwater so you could actually have a model lying down on them in the water and shoot across to her, about 30' or so I if had to guess.

[Saltwater Servitude]

Oh yeah, this guy was strutting too.

[brewercm]

Well, i'm just as late responding but I ended up shooting at that foot bridge alone with the stage and a little around there. I got there in the morning while the clouds were still out. They scared the crap out of me when I first got there. While I was looking around the area I heard what sounded like gun fire then realized the guys collecting trash in the morning were setting of M80's to scare of the vultures around the trash bins.