2014 Bluebonnet Recce???

The week started out well. Stephen came home from a week supporting an artist convention in Monterey, and I was planning a road trip to Corpus Christi to see a friend from high school whom I had not seen for over 50 years. Events conspired to make us postpone the trip, but the meeting's planned and we'll get it done. 

This panorama was done with a hand-held camera, five individual shots and, of course, Photoshop to match up the series of pictures. My estimate is that it takes in about 120 degrees, using the 28-135mm zoom lens.

The location of these pictures (all but the last) is FM 1888 west of Blanco and about 10 min from Luckenbach. The presence of the full moon when I'm out shooting sunrises on a bluebonnet hunt, reminded me of my very successful 2012 all-day hunt. But we're thinking about sunrise here, not bluebonnets.

It's a pretty road - at least as the day dawns. I'll have to check it our later in the day to confirm it, but I'm thinking it's one of several roads I discovered today that are worth revisiting.

It was also much cooler this morning than usual. . . jeans, not shorts, were the order of the day. I was thinking as I shot the picture above that the goats were probably pleased to see the sun coming up.

Luckenbach. I really didn't expect to see much at this time of day. But there was so much less. They turned out the lights; I guess the party was over. I may go back to shoot the Post Office (closed) and Tanz Halle at some point - with tourists milling about smartly - but I couldn't see the sunrise for the trees from there, so. . . this shot is the sky at sunrise over the back of the Engel Haus across the parking area for Luckenbach. I had to remove all the parking markers in the foreground, but they're probably back by now if you drive by to check.

Of course, this is just sunrise on an all-day, far-ranging expedition, right? More to follow, like it or not.