The Capitol, Part 1

With a new blog URL and a new design, I figured it should be time for a new blog series.  Currently, I’m on a social media hiatus, so I’m going to have to rely on my followers/readers to publish this on Twitter and share it on Facebook if you like what you see (shameless plug).  Also, while you’re at it, go “Like” my Facebook fan page!

On Saturday, Ryan Ono & Julie Young (now Julie Ono) tied the knot!  You might remember them from that really fun Austin engagement photo shoot earlier this year.  If you DON’T remember, here’s the link.  I was surprised to see how much publicity those engagement photos got at their wedding.  They made a guest book with them, framed some of them and put them on the sign-in table, and put a good number of them in their wedding slide show.  It was cool to see them printed and appreciated by others.

Anyways, earlier in the week, Ryan & Julie informed me that their wedding photographer, Allen Doberenz, was going to be leaving before their white carriage send-off and asked me to take pictures of this part of this fairy-tale ending.  It turns out that he decided to stick around (good call), so I didn’t end up taking any pictures of the actual wedding.  BUT… I did take advantage of a little spare time in between the ceremony & the reception to get some good pictures of the Texas State Capitol.  It’s not too often that I have all of my gear with me, some time to kill, and I’m in downtown Austin.  So, I set up shop and decided to revisit my HDR interests.  Each of the pictures in this series is comprised of five separate images: all spaced apart by 1EV (also known as “exposure bracketing”), merged (using Photomatix Pro 3.1), tone-mapped, and edited with Lightroom.  If you’re not familiar with HDR photography or how it differs from regular photography, check out the basic explanation on Wikipedia.  Feel free to email me with any questions about it.  I try not to “over-do” my HDR processing – my goal is to create an image that represents the real thing as closely as possible.  Let me know your thoughts on this image (click for larger view), and stay tuned for another 4 pictures of the Capitol!  I promise I won’t write as much next time.