Ferrari on the Streets of Austin, TX

Random Super Cars

Today is for fun! I was walking with Pamela down the street in Austin, TX during one SXSWi when I came across this random Ferrari on the Streets of Austin! I don’t know who can afford such things, but one day I hope to drive a few of these super cars and hopefully in the process learn how to properly drive them!

Photo Technical Info

Bicycles This Way…hmmmm

Bikes in the Rain

A quick photo for today. During SXSWi 2012 (boy are we going to miss SXSW 2013) I attended the Trey Ratcliff Google+ photo walk. It rained and rained and rained for the first half of South-By and the ill fated photo walk was part of this deluge. While waiting around for the even to start I caught this morose smiley-face like character indifferently directing cyclists to the Google bike racks. Enjoy!

The Driskill Bikes

Rain Falls Down

SXSWi 2012 was a wet experience…at least for the first part. It rained so much flights were delayed, attendees were waterlogged, and the general mood was dour. Would that stop photographers from going on a photowalk? Hardly! While the turnout for this particular event wasn’t mind blowing or as record setting as was hoped it was a fun opportunity to hang out with a bunch of other photographers taking pictures of Austin in the rain. Luckily by the time the walk happened, the rain had tappered down to a mild drizzle. This was of course much better the the torrential downpours that had been delaying flights.

And Now for Something Completely Different

This was a bracketed shot, but in the end I didn’t like the processing I got out of Photomatix. I ended up just using the normal exposure and processing this entire photo in Adobe Lightroom 4. I ended up using quite a bit of clarity as well as moving to a 1:1 crop. The image was shot at 35mm f2.8 on a 16-35mm, 1/1000 sec, ISO 1600.

The Texas Capitol

A Funny Thing Happened

Pamela and I experienced our second SXSW Interactive festival this year. One of the un-official events, but very high up on my list, was the photowalk put on by Google+ and Trey Ratcliff. I had never been to a photowalk before and honestly it was sort of miserable weather. It rained the whole time, it was cold and the walk was mercifully over before I even knew what happened. I didn’t get many great shots, but I know a secret. A secret I am going to share with you…I stick around after events (often fun things happen).

The After Party

I am always quiet around new people, but I wanted to meet some new photographers. I made several new friends and spent a very interesting evening hanging out with some very fun people. One of the interesting things about hanging out with a bunch of photographers is (and I think I have Karen to think for this quote) you never feel like you need to apologize for talking time to get a picture. Most people just don’t get the joy of spending 45 minutes trying to get just the right angle. Photographers understand this completely.

A Walk to the Forum

We walked to the Texas Capitol Building where I got the shot below. I ended up hand-holding this bracket at 1600 ISO…my slowest frame was 1/8th of a second. Usually I cant hand-hold at this speed, but I was using my trusty knowledge dispensed to me by the incomparable Joe McNally (via YouTube of course). Yet another reason why I need to buy Joe a beer. The other great thing is I was voted the best photograph in the “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” category. Another first for me…it was my first photo walk, my first photo-contest entry AND my first win! Not bad for a beginner!

Indispensable Advice from Joe