Hook ' Em!

Video? I never thought of that. . . It's easy.

Miss the Oklahoma State game? That's alright. Here ya go.

29 September 2012.       Longhorns 41 - Cowboys 36

Okay, I'll work on the Longhorn D. . . West Virginia Mountaineers are coming to Austin next week and it might be interesting to introduce them to defense. At this point, I'm not sure the 'Horns are the ones to do it but we can hope. At least the offense seems to be coming back after two disappointing years.

Sunrise, Thursday

I had about 24 hours of technical difficulties, trying to add pictures to Saturday's post. I managed to ignore it all for a day then last night, when I was ready to crash, I checked and found everything was working fine.

So, these pictures below were all taken Thursday from downtown Austin on the aforementioned pedestrian bridge. I suppose I could've wandered around and taken more pictures but, having captured the last space shuttle I'm likely ever to see, I was anxious to get home and see exactly what it was I had. 

I moved back to Austin in 1979 to attend the University of Texas. We lived in a small house on the east edge of town and I remember sitting on the back step one afternoon in 1981 and watching the space shuttle Columbia on the back of its 747 carrier aircraft circling to land at Bergstrom Air Force Base southeast of town. It may have been before the first shuttle flight (STS-1) or, since the first several flights landed at Edwards AFB, it could also have been returning from Edwards to Cape Kennedy after one of the first two flight. In either case, I didn't have my camera ready. But here, last week, I got a surprise second chance to shoot it and only had to wait 31 years.

If I'd known ahead of time it was coming, I would have been down on Congress Avenue to get the shot of Endeavor passing over the state capitol. But nooooooo... I just happened to be on the pedestrian bridge to shoot the sunrise. So, you do what you can with what you've got. Above, you can see the glow of the sunrise on Endeavor's tale cone and, below, you can see it and its carrier disappearing into the west. And, just above the bird at the same altitude as the shuttle - is that bird really attacking the pigeons on the left lamppost? - you can just make out the T-38 "chase" aircraft.

With Endeavor now fading into Austin's history, I had time to focus on a small subset of her daily visitors. I already mentioned the joggers, who peacefully coexist with the cyclists - and I try hard to keep both those groups out of my pictures or anonymously small. The ones I planned all along to shoot were the kayakers and those sculling on the river (or Ladybird Lake as it's known locally).

There are far fewer of them, but they're "scenic" and the temporary patterns they leave in their wake add detail to the shots. Oh! And I was a sailor - boats are cool. . .

This last one is about the best view I could get of the Frost Bank building from the bridge. The sunrise is about as big as it can get; part of the foreground's in shadow and part of it's well-lit; and it's got lens flare up the wazoo. It may not be a great picture, but it's definitely Sunrise, Thursday.

Early for Me, But a Good Morning in Austin

I haven't been very active lately with regard to this blog specifically, or even my photography in general. But against all odds, I got up this morning with 4 hours sleep and headed downtown with my cameras to explore the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. It was built across Lady Bird Lake in 2001 in response to fatal accidents between pedestrians / cyclists who who regularly lost contests with automobile traffic on the Lamar Boulevard bridge. Clearly, it's a terrific resolution of the problem - the pickup trucks and Audis hardly ever take out a pedestrian or cyclist on this bridge and, as an added benefit, there's room for the occasional photographer to set up a tripod and get a few shots of Austin's growing skyline.

You'll note I'm still enamored with HDR, and it seems likely that I'll continue my experiments with it for a long time to come. The location of this pedestrian bridge is great, though there are a few things I'd change if it were up to me. First, I'd declare the railroad bridge next door to be prime graffiti real estate and require the artists to submit their entries in advance, insisting statements be rational and in correct English - or Spanish for that matter. Oh, and the art or messages should be colorful. (I should mention here that I'm surprised that I don't see any plea to keep Austin weird. That's okay, I'm just sayin'. . .) Next, I'd have them move the power station, or at least find some way to camouflage it. And I'd move the Frost Bank building a block or two in one direction or another - just make sure it can be seen from all the best vistas.

I should mention I was nervous this morning as I took these shots. As soon as I set up my tripod a lady jogger stopped and asked me if I was setting up to take a shot of the shuttle. I'd heard last night that the shuttle would leave Houston piggybacked on its 747 en route to LA, but I didn't hear anything about there being a flyby in Austin. So now I had to keep my head on a swivel lest I miss my last chance to catch a shuttle flyby. One more thing to remember. . .

Above is the very pleasant-to-the-eye and much safer Lamar bridge with traffic picking up as the sun climbs higher. It'll be a full-fledged rush-hour in a while, when the sun clears the skyline.

While on the west side of the bridge, I thought I'd get a shot across the bridge towards the city to catch the raised flower beds in the foreground. A nice touch.

Back to the west, I wasn't sure how the HDR would play with movement in the frame. The traffic on the Lamar bridge is blurred but there are enough other points of interest in the picture that the blurring doesn't seem to distract too much. The HDR program I use actually handled the shell, approaching the bridge from upstream, very well.

Here's the "money shot" for the morning. . . the NASA 747 and the piggybacking shuttle arriving with the sunrise. I have to admit there's a lot to be said for getting up early. . . if you don't overdo it.