2012 Driskill Christmas Tree – Austin, Texas
It’s become a mini-photo tradition for me to photograph the Driskill Hotel Christmas Tree — this is the fourth year. I’ve posted images of the tree from 2009 and 2010 and part of a three tree set last year. I went downtown a couple of nights ago with my friend Mike to capture this year’s tree.
While the position of the Christmas Tree remains constant, every year the shape of the tree and the decorations vary. I’ve also used different cameras and techniques over the years. In 2009, during the beginning of my HDR phase, I shot the tree as a 3 image blend with my Canon 20D with a 29mm equivalent. The 2010 and 2011 trees were simply shot with the Sony NEX-5 with 24mm equivalent lens, down low with a table top tripod. This year, I used the Olympus E-PM2 with a 22mm equivalent lens (the Panasonic 14mm f2.5 with a wide-angle adapter) with the same table top tripod.
I decided to go back to a lightly-processed HDR technique this year and blended 3 photos. It enabled me to capture the detail in the stained glass and keep the rest of the exposure bright. I also altered the white balance to more of a warm red just to change my artistic interpretation. I’ll post more Christmas decorations from the Driskill, Austin’s grandest old hotel, over the weekend.
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As usual a stunning photograph and HDR excellently done.
Loosely coupled to this, I’m getting jealous of Austin and what seems like a very active photography community and plethoral of nighttime photo ops.
Best of wishes for the holiday season.
Ed
Thank you, Ed, for your compliments. There are a lot of photographers in Austin. Where abouts do you live?
Happy Holidays.
Sacramento and we just don’t seem to have the concentration of lights or maybe I’m just not seing.
Ed, I’ve only been to Sacramento a hand full of times. As I recall there was some activity and lights on K street but yes, overall I think it is a quieter place than Austin.
Here are the photos of Sacramento that I’ve posted so far on mostlyfotos.
http://www.mostlyfotos.com/search/label/Sacramento
The light, the shinines of the surfaces … that’s a really nice one.
One of my best (going all the way back to college days) friends gave in and bought the E-P5. I’m going to send him to you. I think he’ll need a little assistance in finding the menus. I don’t know if he even knows what he’s looking for. He’s an audio engineer, so he’s technically savvy … about audio … but not so much video. He used to take nice photos on film back in the very old days, but had been to busy recording to pay attention to the digital revolution in imaging. I think he’s still got his old Nikon and lenses. Wait till he tries ot decipher the “manual” … Heh heh heh.
Thank you, Marilyn. I will help if I can.
Happy Holidays.
Very Nice. Good interpretation on the indoor light color temp.
Happy Holidays!
The color temp was a challenge in this place. I may have to calibrate some day with a gray card.
Happy Holidays.