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.

A storm was moving over Austin the afternoon I photographed the new Austin Skyline from Congress Avenue. As the new buildings are providing an ever changing skyline, new ‘icons’ appear. For several years it has been the Frost bank building. (The ‘pointy’ building on the right of this photo.) I believe for the next few years it will be the “Austonian”. (The tall building on the left.) It’s very challenging to find a good view showing the new skyline that also includes ultimate Austin icon, the Texas Capitol.

If you would like to see a larger version of any of my images with more detail you can click on the image to take you to my Flickr site. Then, from the Flickr site choose “All sizes” just above the photo to see a larger version.
One more thing… Since you are here, please make a comment. Let me know what you think, Ideas for future photos, or just say “Hello!” I love to read the comments!
Thanks for stopping by,

John

The annual creative explosion of SXSW is about to begin again in Austin Texas. Every year at this time thousands of Music, Film & Interactive creative professionals & their fans decend upon Austin from around the world. It’s a fun time in our little town.
This shot of Sixth street was taken last year during SXSW. Just for fun I did a little tilt-shift focus manipulation to give it that toy-land feel.

Austin Texas seems to have an ever changing skyline. I do a fair amount of Austin Stock photography sales so I am always looking for new images. Yesterday the clouds were looking interesting so I decided to do a little walking around downtown looking for photo opportunities. I parked my car on Congress Avenue (the main street in downtown Austin) and this wall was directly in front of me. I’m not sure why I had never noticed it before, but it was calling my name. I particularly like the juxtaposition of the ’spear like’ Frost Bank building as though it’s providing an alternate answer to the message on the building.

Another great place to visit in Paris is the Château de Vincennes. We sorta stumbled upon the Château while walking the neighborhood where we were staying. In addition to serving as the royal residence where a couple of Kings were married & several French kings were born, it later served as a state prison for prisoners including the marquis de Sade and others. There is still graffiti left by the prisoners high on several walls. (Since the small windows were placed high on the walls, that was where the best light was.) I also photographed the Royal Chapel at Vincennes. (You can see that image here)

The last time I was in Jackson Hole Wyoming this great storm swept across the Grand Tetons. I shot some photos of the storm but never really liked any of the images. For me, these images just didn’t pop. At first, I felt they were all too monochromatic. The colors were all too muted for my taste. If anything is obvious about me from looking at my images, it’s no real secret that I like chroma. I think it is because it’s the way I see the world. It was a grey stormy day, but my images just didn’t reflect the scene the way I remembered it. Also it was before I shot virtually everything in brackets from a tripod in case I wanted HDR post processing as an option for the images. So, the images just sorta sat on my hard drive waiting to be rediscovered. When I ran across this image today I had a bit of an epiphany; Since the image is somewhat monochromatic, make it truly monochromatic. And so, by pulling out all the color and with a bit of dodging, burning & contrast enhancement, I was finally able to have the photograph more closely match the image in my memory.

Not too long ago my wife & I had the opportunity to spend a little time in Mount Gretna PA visiting family and taking photos of the surrounding area. In the mornings Sudy would fix an amazing breakfast before we left on our days outing. Then every evening upon returning, she would seemingly effortlessly throw together a dinner feast. Sitting in the kitchen window overseeing all this culinary preparation was this Bonsai tree. I’m told she has been caring for it for about 15 years. One morning the sun was hitting it just so and it called out for me to grab my camera and try and capture the moment. As you gaze at it’s glowing leaves, I would love for you to imagine like I do the scent of hot cinnamon rolls baking, fresh coffee brewing & the laughter of good friends & family.

One of Austin’s Icons is the Broken Spoke Dance Hall. Willie first played here back when he wore a crew cut & sport coat. Bob Wills played here, as have many many more country legends before & since. What I love about the Spoke is, it really hasn’t changed in the 45 or so years folks have been two steppin’ across it’s wooden floors. Regardless of if you are a fan or not of country music, you should stop by the Broken Spoke when you are in town & drink a long neck & feel history dance by. If you are interested, you can see another photo taken at the Broken Spoke (here).