Winter at the OKC Memorial

I like shooting in winter, when the trees are empty and the sky is dark.  There is a certain moodiness in the air, and it is fun to try and capture that with my camera.  I attempted just that with this shot, which was taken in Oklahoma City, OK on my recent travels through that town.  I had the OKC Memorial nearly all to myself that afternoon - another benefit of shooting in the winter, which is that the tourists are mostly at home - and was able to wander carelessly about the grounds of this place.

When I originally looked at the brackets I took, I saw this image in sepia, but after going through the HDR process I also really liked the color, especially the gray/blue of the sky and how it plays against the yellow of the wintered earth.  I am a big color guy at heart and I find it hard to give that up.  But, the sepia just kept calling me, so I thought I would ride the fence and offer up both today.  Enjoy and thanks for looking!

The Alamo

If you have ever visited San Antonio, there's a good chance you have seen the Alamo.  It is one of the top tourist attractions in San Antonio and is pretty central to downtown so it is easy to go see.  Having spent a big chunk of my childhood there, I have seen it many times, but being into photography these days makes you look at things a bit differently.  My initial thought was to get the classic shot of the front entrance in all its HDR glory, but having arrived downtown later in the day the massive crowds forced me to rethink that idea.  In order to get a shot without a bunch of tourists in it, I believe I will have to get there pretty early in the morning.  So, having abandoned my original plan, I walked around the area and got quite a few shots of other parts of it, but kept returning to the front since I like that entrance so much (I am a fan of entryway shots).  I finally ended up with this shot, which was not even in HDR.  In fact, it came out fairly bland originally because the sky color was whitish-gray which basically matches the color of the structure itself.  So I tried this shot a few different ways and ended up going with a sepia tone as you can plainly see.  I like the idea of using sepia on "old stuff" because it often seems to work.  I also spent some time in Topaz Adjust to bring out the details in the structure, and this is how that little project ended.  If you are in the area, be sure and go pay this place a visit!

Single exposure, f/7.1, 0ev.  Converted to sepia in Aperture and utilized Topaz Adjust to accentuate some details.

The old water tower

This old water tower rises above the tiny town of Gruene, TX and is an enduring symbol of the community.  The day I took this shot was gray and overcast, but no dramatic clouds or anything - basically it was colorless.  I went ahead and took the shot, though a silvery-gray water tower did not exactly pop off the screen against a silvery-gray sky.  Anyways, once I messed with it a little and added some sepia tones, I thought it stood out rather nicely, plus it gives it that old-fashioned look and feel which is spot-on for this place.