Faces, Places and Things - David Bowden Photography » Places

My first shot of 2012

David — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:52:30 +0000

So, I kinda have this unwritten rule. When I say I am going to do something, I actually do EVERYTHING in my power to do it.

I set some goals for 2012. I want to be more creative, shoot more than I normally do and get some landscape shots both here in the Austin area and about Texas and the Southwest.

So, I decided…. today is day 1 of 2012. Why sit on my butt and let a beautiful day go by. I need to get out and go shoot…. and I did.

Every city in the world has their icons. Things that people go see, gravitate to or give a city a presence unique to itself. The Pennybacker Bridge (or 360 Bridge) bridges Lake Austin to connect north and south Loop 360 highway, also known as the “Capital of Texas Highway” this is one of those icons.

While I was up there today (its a little hike to get to this cliff) there were two other well equipped photographers and several people with iPhones and point and shoots. This is a real scenic place here in Austin. A real popular place.

The Austin, Texas 360 Bridge

So… this is the shot. My first of 2012. I wish we would have had some clouds, but we didnt. Perhaps when we get some more weather I will try again. Until then I thought this was a decent way to start my 2012 year of being creative.

From Lemons to… Finally a Landscape Shot Worth Sharing

David — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:54:00 +0000

It’s been a rough year for me photographically. Normally, I enjoy being a landscape photographer who on occasion dabbles in Architectural photography. Since leaving Seattle it’s been the other way around. Stuck in Austin, Texas I find the landscape uninspiring and rather dull. On occasion, there is a nice sunset, but rarely does that occur with something that makes for a nice composition.

Many that know me well, know that I am a planner by nature and not very spontaneous. This has its disadvantages when photography is concerned. So, this December, I decided I would go on a New Mexico Photowalk with several friends from Google+.

I had the trip all planned and was ready to go and then work changed my plans by extending the PCI Audit I was working on. As a result, I made other plans. I decided my son and I would drive to Big Bend National Park, hang out, hike and take pictures for two days, visit my parents and then head home.

So…. we were off…

First stop was a Google+ Photowalk in San Antonio hosted by my friends Jackie Burroughs Anderson and Lotus Carroll. We had a blast shooting the San Antonio River Walk and architecture. We spent the night in San Antonio and left early the next morning for Big Bend.

That’t when the trouble started…

You see, Mother Nature wasn’t cooperating and there was heavy cloud cover, winds, rain and some really ugly light. We drove for hours, getting closer and closer only to see the weather get worse. When we arrived at the park we had decided that if the weather didn’t look promising, we would head for Alpine, Texas grab a hotel and stay the night and shoot the next day.

The weather stunk… off to Alpine we went. The back-up plan (because I ALWAYS have a back-up plan) was to get to the hotel, eat and then go to Ft. Davis and see the McDonald Observatory. Afer all it was still early and we had plenty of time. We got to Alpine, checked in and called the observatory (39 miles away) only to discover it closed in 45 min. With ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do in Alpine, I decided to call Mom and Dad and see if we could come on through. So…. we left.

As we were leaving Marfa, Texas I pulled over and took what is the ONLY landscape shot I have taken in 2011. The weather still stunk, the wind was terrible and the skys were real ugly. The sun was well into sunset when I took this shot. It had just dropped below the cloud line and was throwing some really amazing color. I had to hurry to find anything to use to compose a shot. This little mountain/hill thing was it.

I set up my tripod, composed with the highway as leading lines and shot directly west into the sunset.

Leaving Marfa

A case of the BLAH’s – Missing the North West

David — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:48:38 +0000

So.. i’m bored. Sitting here listening to music trying to entertain myself. My Google+ stream is moving kind of slow, and there isn’t much going on. I don’t feel like coding on my web site (God forbid I ever finish it) and really just want to work on my images. The problem is, I am… bored.

You know… that BLAH feeling you get when you aren’t real inspired by what you have taken, or you don’t have that OOOOOH YEAH ! shot you want to share.

It’s really kind depressing. Nothing like having the creative blues….

So…. in my moment of discontent, I decided to do something I havent’ done in awhile. I went through old images to see what I could salvage. It was there that I stumbled across my shots from Yosemite.

I went to Yosemite while moving from Seattle to Austin. Since I was driving right by, I thought it would be sacrilege not stop and pay homage to Ansel. After all I am a landscape photographer (though you would not know it from the last two years of my work). It was here in these images that I found inspiration and salvation from a night of the Blahdoms…

So… for no real reason other than I am bored out of my mind and wanted to do something with my photography I share this image.

Yosemite National Park - 2010

There was snow in the park, it was windy and honestly, the weather was TERRIBLE when I took this shot. Snow was blowing everywhere and honestly I have no idea how I made it down there in my Audi…. but I did. Here is the shot.

Thanks Ansel. It is your work that inspired me the most. The traditional master of B&W. I hope my friends of B&W find this one worthy. I was happy I looked again at these images.

Architecture in Dallas – The Dallas Convention Center

David — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:16:32 +0000

This last may, I visited Dallas. While there I drove around looking for shots. It had been a good 10 years since I had been in downtown Dallas and I had forgotten how big it is. During my search, I found the new Dallas Convention Center. The shot below is of the outside entry to the convention center. This building, originally constructed in 1957 has expanded five times since then to now be over 2,067,542 square feet of total space and almost 727,000 of contiguous exhibit space. One of the interesting highlights of this building back in 2002 during its last expansion is that it was one of the largest column free spaces at that time with over 203,000 sq ft of column free exhibit space.

The Dallas Convention Center - 2011

My shot is of the most recent addition to the center. It features concrete, steel and glass as the primary exterior elements. This makes the building well suited for a B&W image. I am only showing a portion of the new entrance. I really liked the sweeping brushed aluminium overhang to the buildings entry along with its geometry as it intersected with the building. Rather than tilt the camera for a level shot, I leveled my tripod on the hill I was shooting from. This accentuates the curved entryway and accentuates the front facade more. Dallas is a great city for Architecture. The Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan are is home to the Kimbell Museum, designed by my favorite Architect, Louis I. Khan and I.M Pei’s Fountain Place, Energy Plaza and the Dallas City Hall. Definitely worth a visit if you are in Texas and enjoy good Architecture.

Photo-Walking Downtown Austin, Texas The W Hotel

David — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:34:23 +0000

This shot was taken on a Photo-Walk for a project I am working on. The buildings are the “W” Hotel (on the left) and some Condo building on the right in downtown Austin, Texas. The W is one of my favorite pieces of Architecture in downtown Austin.

The "W" Hotel - Downtown Austin, Texas

Similar Theme here as a previous shot. I like B&W for the W hotel. It’s a relatively monochrome building to begin with and this format highlights its structure and materials better than color. Slight silver tint added in post to the shot.

The “W” A Modern Architecural Icon In Downtown Austin, Texas

David — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:49:03 +0000

Austin isn’t known for its amazing architecture, shy of perhaps the capital. This is a music town, a college town. People are nice, easy going and like to have a good time. Its hard to find what I could call iconic images from an architectural perspective here. There are some real gems though in Austin. One of them is the W hotel. This building looks to have been plucked straight from downtown Vancouver. It’s clean, sleek and modern. Designed by Arthur Andersson of Andersson-Wise Architects.

The "W"

This is a shot of the convention center portion of the hotel. What you are seeing is a view straight up of an exposed external stair. The building is clad in what appears to be a corten steel with small windows offering focused minimalistic views of Lady Bird Lake.

These photo-walks in downtown have been real productive. It’s been nice getting out and having images to work on again.

Austin, Texas From The Hyatt Regency

David — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:52:10 +0000

Recently, in Austin we have had some amazing sunsets full of nice clouds and beautiful colors. The absolute BEST view in downtown is from the Austin Hyatt Regency on Barton Springs. There you have a sweeping view of downtown Austin and the lake. I contacted Lance Stumpf, the General Manager of the Hyatt to inquire about shooting from the hotel. Lance took great care of me. He made me aware of the policies and procedures and introduced me to Jessica Higginbotham, the Rooms Executive. Jessica made sure I had the absolute best place to shoot from. I have to admit, the hotel really took good care of me, made me feel right at home (and all I was doing was taking a picture). I can only imagine that staying at the hotel is as nice as shooting from it. The image below, isn’t quite done yet. There is a great deal of editing that needs to be done. But, its a great first take.

A little bit about these shots. The first image is a wide angle shot. This is an HDR shot and represents five individual images merged into one composite. The second shot is also an HDR shot but is a Panoramic. The shot was made 6 images wide in five passes. Meaning, there are 30 total images that make up this composite image. As with any HDR shot when light is extreme there is some editing to be done. I will update the post with the final image once I am done editing. Since I am in the middle of updating my web site I am a bit behind on images and blog posting. (Yes I am coding and creating the site) so my evenings are a bit busy trying to get everything done and caught up.

Summer in Austin, Texas 2011

Summer in Austin, 2011

Thanks again to everyone at the Austin Hyatt Regency. I sincerely appreciated working everyone there and hope they like this early preview of my work. More to follow soon.

Fuzzy Flowers

David — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:52:44 +0000

On my trip to Johnson City, on my never ending quest for things to photograph, I stopped in on the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Wildlife Reserve. Ladybird Johnson had a thing for wild flowers and on this reserve there were fields of wild flowers despite the lack of rain this year. This was shot at sunset, with the sun low on the horizon. As a result it was providing a great deal of light down low. This along with the wind provided a bright and fuzzy flower.

Fuzzy Flowers

There is nothing particularly special about this shot. No prep, no lights, no reflectors. Just me, my D700 and my Nikkor 105mm f2.8. I shot this about 3.75 inches from the flower with a very narrow DOF to really kick the bokeh up. Knowing I cant get tack sharp in the field, going for more abstract form and minimal detail was the right approach. Unlike many digital photographers, no effort was placed in removing or taming the grain in the shot. This is intentional. It adds to the bokeh effect and to me is a compositional element as it provides texture to the image. This look and technique reminds me of my film days when you could push Tri-X and get this look. In an age when detail is king, there are times when soft and fuzzy are a good thing.

Architecture in Texas – (Updated)

David — Fri, 27 May 2011 05:37:20 +0000

I have blogged for a bit on the issues I have been having “finding my eye” with regard to taking pictures. Having been spoiled for the last 10 years with living in the Pacific Northwest I have found coming back home to Texas hard for me with regard to my photography. I miss the majestic landscapes of Washington and Oregon. As a result, I have had to find new things to shoot. The other issue I have with the greater Austin area other than a lack of mountains is that this is “BIG Sky Country” and usually there isn’t a darn thing in it. To put it bluntly there is nothing more boring that a flat landscape and a never ending EMPTY blue sky.Lately, I have been in luck. It has been raining in Austin off and on which means we get thunderstorms and clouds. Being that I work downtown, I am literally blocks from the Texas State Capital. Being that my first degree is in architecture, I can always seem to fall back to my first professional love and enjoy shooting building. Yesterday, the sky was nice, the sun set at the golden hour was warm and the reflection off the building and how it was lit was perfect. Luckily for me I have been carrying my camera bag on potential cloud days. So, at the end of the day, coming up on 7:30 I went over to the capital and grabbed this shot.

The Texas State Capital, Austin Texas

This is a single image shot with my Nikon D700 and my 14-28mm Nikkor wide angle lens. I set up with my tripod and waited for an hour for the light to get just right to grab the series of shots that resulted in this image. The final print once cropped is 27″ wide x 13″ tall. Shot like a panoramic, the cropping was to eliminate an underground gazebo that is in the picture but distracted from the overall composition. This is an HDR shot processed in Photoshop CS5 using Nik’s HDR Efex Pro. The full size image looks really nice. The Nik Software is excellent. For the record I did try this image in HDR Darkroom, Dynamic HRD, Photomatix and Nik’s HDR Efex Pro. Consistently the Nik Software outperforms the others in terms of look, ease of use and general operation.My search for more things to shoot continues, but I think this was a good addition.UPDATE (5/29/2011)Ok… so I hated the first image. I spent awhile playing with it, changing the tone map and looking for a series I shot with better sky. This was the result. Since I didn’t wait for the sun to drop farther, I was dealing with a harsh glow on the building. Most people don’t know that the Texas Capital is made from Sunset Red Granite from Marble Falls Texas. This means the building basically looks pink and at sunset, it throws a serious cast of red. So there was some clean up that I neglected in the original image that this one clears up. CS5 was my weapon of choice for this editing and I wasn’t disappointed. Having just recently upgraded my digital darkroom to a monster of a machine, I added new software as well which included my CS5 upgrade (worth every penny).

Home is where the heart is…

David — Sat, 21 May 2011 05:11:43 +0000

College is a funny thing. People are very devoted to their respective schools and I am no different. In my 40 some odd years I have lived in every major city in Texas and three other states. In all my time across Texas and around the country, Lubbock has always been home. I spent 5 years there, and shy or Oregon, Lubbock has been the place I have spent the most time in since I left home. So, you can say that I am attached to the place. While I was in Lubbock, I shot for the Texas Tech Year Book and school newspaper. In all the years there with a camera, I really never sat out to shoot the Administration building, the most dominant piece of architecture on the campus. So, when I was moving back to Texas from Seattle, I stopped in Lubbock and took some pictures. This shot is of the oldest building on campus.

Texas Tech Administration Building

The Administration Building is a structure on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It was one of the original buildings on the campus, and is modeled after La Universidad de Alcala de Hernales in Alcalá de Henares, Spain.^[1] The Admin building has three floors and a basement and includes twin bell towers, double wings, and a courtyard. Some of the offices housed in the building include the Chancellor’s Office, President’s Office and Board of Regents Office.I was pretty happy with how this came out. Its a decent B&W shot and has that sentimental feel to it for me. Its nice being closer to home and the school. One day I hope to move back to Lubbock.