Night Fall, Mount Bonnell – Austin, Texas

I’ve visited Mount Bonnell several times, particularly in April this year. I have a big, capable medium format camera, and testing it with some landscapes seemed apropos. On the other hand, I’m not a dedicated enough landscape shooter to travel far. No, Mount Bonnell is close, and sufficient enough for my purposes, at least for now.

My previous mini-series showcased street photographs shot at the park at Mount Bonnell. But, my real purpose for visiting was towards sunset. People slowly start clearing out as it gets dark, and I stand there with my tripod making images every few minutes.

I’ve learned that clear skies usually make for lackluster landscapes. The clouds mixed in with the warm evening rays add the extra drama that I’m hoping for. Whenever I saw mixed clouds towards the evening, I headed up there with anticipation, wishing for some magic. I found landscape photography to be a very fickle genre.

Today’s image doesn’t qualify as anything special, but I got to know the Fujifilm GFX 50R and its capabilities. I made this single 2-minute exposure at ISO 100. Even with heavy post-processing, to lift the shadows, I see no noise. A big sensor is awesome. Even back in my HDR days, taking multiple bracketed images, I couldn’t expect performance like this.

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