This past week I attended the Professional Photographers Association meeting in San Antonio Texas. My first night in my hotel room was one of those misty rainy nights that make for an interesting sky as the city lights light up the low clouds above. I love it when the clouds are just at the height of the buildings. San Antonio is such a cool city and the PPA conference was great. All in all it was a great trip!

Austin is a great place to live. I live in one of those rare places that where ever you are in the world you can be speaking to a local & when you tell them you live in Austin Texas, the very predictable response is some variation of “I’ve heard that’s a cool place”. It’s true. Great city, great music, even the buildings are pretty cool. Today’s photo is of the interior of the Austin City Hall. Pretty cool space.

I’ve been meaning to do a more current photo of the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue for awhile. The challenge is getting the rather dark statue to pop out from the evening sky. This image is a combination of light painting & HDR. I did three long exposures of Stevie while lighting the statue and surrounding area with my super duper mini flashlight. You can see my other photos of the Stevie statue here.

While few long time Austinites don’t long for the time not too long ago when Austin was a smaller place without the outrageous traffic and sprawling suburbs, I do like the emerging look of the ‘new’ downtown. The Austin Skyline is developing into quite a beauty.
As a side note, don’t try a multiple exposure HDR shot like this from the middle of a busy road without an assistant (that likes you) to warn of traffic coming from behind.