Posts Tagged: Texas
ACL 2011
This year was my first Austin City Limits Music Festival experience, since I moved to Austin less than a week AFTER last year’s ACL Fest. Here are a bunch of pictures from the first day of ACL 2011, including an ice fortress water vehicle seen while approaching the festival, a sign reminding everyone of the dangers of smoking, two guys wearing Chicago gear, the cool structure in the center of the festival surrounded by displays of each year’s lineup, the beautiful sunset, and the co-headliner, Kanye West. Overall, the experience was amazing – especially Kanye, who started his first song from a lift in the middle of the crowd. I wish I would have gone to Lollapalooza in Chicago at some point so I could compare. If you’re interested, YouTube has done a great job of covering ACL and posted a Friday recap video. Unfortunately, I won’t be going to the other two days of shows, so these are the only pictures you’ll see from me. If you ever have the chance to make it to an Austin City Limits Music Festival, I highly recommend it. (Click on any of the images for a larger version.)
The Capitol, Part 4
While i was originally going to make this a 5 part series, I’ve changed my mind and decided to post two pictures with this (final) post. I’m glad to finally have some solid “Austin” pictures, more of which can be seen on my Facebook Fan Page! But as much as I’m learning to love Austin, I can’t wait to be back in Illinois in 5 days! I’m the photographer (with help from my fiancee) for my good friend Rachel Messier’s wedding in Bloomington, IL next Saturday and then be working from my company’s HQ in the Chicago suburbs for the week after that. Then, on August 13, I’m getting married! In case you were wondering, I’m not going to be the photographer at my own wedding, but I will have all my gear with me in the unlikely scenario that something unfortunate happens. Always ready.
A variety of posts will be coming in the future, but I don’t know when due to my crazy schedule in the month of August! Maybe I’ll write about some of the gear upgrades and other stuff I’ve done to get ready to be the main photographer at a wedding for only the second time. I’ve sure learned a lot since then, and can’t wait for Rachel’s wedding. Anyways, I hope you like these last two pictures from the Texas State Captiol series. I feel like HDR always looks better while using a wide-angle lens… Click for a larger version!
The Capitol Hole (Part 3)
I’m not exactly sure what to call this architectural “thing,” but it’s basically a two story hole in the ground that alerts you of the massive underground network of government floorspace beneath the property of the Texas State Capitol. The Capitol building itself is really just the tip of the iceberg. Center-to-center, this “hole” is about 500 feet from the capitol’s dome. You can see it on Google Maps here. And for those who love Wikipedia, here’s an excerpt from the article about the TSC: “To preserve the facade and historic plaza, the new capitol extension was built as a four-story underground structure, completed during 1993. Though the extension encompasses 667,000 square feet, nearly twice the floor space of the original building, there is little evidence of such a large structure at ground level, except for extensive skylights camouflaged as planter rows.” Conveniently, they forgot to mention the structure seen below. Enjoy!
