Austin’s newest residential tower on the Austin skyline is almost finished. At 56 stories tall, The Austonian is the tallest residential building in Texas. You can see another view of The Austonian here. Although my dogs might disagree, I could easily see myself living in the heart of downtown Austin.

Today I decided to post another image from the Chihuly exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I really love the glass of Dale Chihuly. I love the amazing color & detail he brings to his art.
This is a section of the ceiling from a hallway that joins two rooms in the Museum. As I very often do, I combined several exposures to create a High Dynamic Range or HDR  image that simply cannot be captured in any other way. You can see other images from the museum here.

Few rooms in the world are as awe inspiring as the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris. My family visited Europe when I was 16 and I still recall this room during our Paris visit. The day I shot this it was dreary & raining and I believe many of the tourist that perhaps might have been walking the wonderful grounds on a more beautiful day, were hanging out inside instead. I would love to go back and arrange for an hour or two of shooting before the crowds arrive.

I’ve done several post showing various photos of the Texas Capitol (here). This one is actually inside the Capitol looking down at the floor under the Rotunda. If you look closely, you will see the Texas DPS officers that keep an eye on things standing on the ground floor. To their credit, they have always pretty much left me alone while I photographed this beautiful building.

This is an another photo taken while waiting through a three hour layover at the Chicago O’hare airport. You can see another photo I did in the tunnel (here).
Ahhh…. if only the airlines would work this hard to make flying a pleasurable experience…

The day I shot this photograph I was not actually out “shooting” but simply playing tour guide to some out of town guest. I actually captured three marketable images that day. Two exterior shots including the garden (one vertical & one horizontal), and a photograph of the “Texas Marquee” inside. As a side note, I was not actually supposed to shoot inside the the museum, but I just could not help myself. Subsequently they became a vendor selling my images in the gift shop including the clandestinely photographed interior shot. I’ll include the Marquee images in a future post. You can see my other Texas History Museum Images here or other Austin images here.

Not too long ago I was in PA doing a bit of driving around looking for photo opportunities & passed a road closed sign blocking the turnoff that led into this tunnel. Personally, I kinda I enjoy going places that have signs telling me to go somewhere else. So, out of curiosity, I asked my hosts to pull over so I could take a few minutes to explore the road less traveled. As you can see in the photo, it’s pretty obvious why the tunnel was closed. I just hope they take the time to replace the fallen bricks with more bricks to keep the amazing character provided by the original artist and don’t just patch the scar with a big blob of concrete. To really see the detail, click on the photo to go to my Flickr site & look at the ‘Original’ size.

My favorite hotel in Austin Texas is the Driskill Hotel on 6th Street. If you find yourself in downtown Austin and want a nice quiet bar just a few feet from the night time party mayhem of Sixth street, check out this place. You can see some more of my images of the Driskill Hotel (here).