Random Image of the Week #53: Muddy Red Dirt Roads in West Texas

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This week’s random image is of a section of desolate back country muddy red dirt road in West Texas about 40 minutes north of Abilene, Texas.

This article was originally posted to EvolutionaryDesigns.net/photography on February 15th, 2015

Muddy Red Dirt Roads in West Texas

Back in November 2014 I took a trip to the Anson, Texas area and I couldn’t pass up the chance to do a little rural exploring on some of the muddy red dirt roads in West Texas. Normally these roads are dusty and dry. But when I arrived in town it had started raining the night before and rained on an off for two days straight.

By the end of the week I could finally get off the asphalt roads and hit up those muddy red dirt roads. Although this section of the red dirt road doesn’t look so bad, there were sections of deep sand pockets and the car barely made it through without sinking into the sand. Then there were sections that were so muddy, that I had to turn around drive another ten plus miles to another road to get where I wanted to go. One stop had what looked to be an abandoned white church (now faded to grey) surrounded by fields of previous harvested cotton. The only way in was two dirt roads that were so muddy I wouldn’t make it unless I had a Jeep or a truck with mud bogger tires. Since the hike to the old church was at least five miles or more, I marked it down on my exploration list to visit next time I am within twenty to fifty miles away.

About the Image

The image was shot by hand in the middle of the road on my hands and knees. The shot was taken in the late afternoon with clear blue skies with my Sony Nex-3N and a Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8. I then edited the image in Adobe Lightroom. Next, I post processed with Topaz Clarity to add texture, brighten, and bring out the details in the image. Then I removed the dust spots. Finally, I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the image.