Williamson Country Courthouse – Georgetown, Texas

Anybody familiar Georgetown knows that I have omitted a key building in my coverage so far. I’ve taken pictures of the periphery of the town square, but not what’s in the middle. That’s been on purpose. I saved that for today.

Georgetown is the county seat for Williamson County, and there’s a grand old courthouse in the center, which is typical of many of the county seats throughout Texas. While I made pictures of it throughout my visit, the one I really wanted was the courthouse at blue hour.

I busted out the tripod for this one. I made multiple pictures as it got darker. My objective, catch the building at peak blue hour, which only lasts 10 – 15 minutes in Texas, despite the name. I also made slight framing adjustments along the way. The 40mm equivalent lens didn’t give me much room to play, and I couldn’t move back any further.

Unfortunately, there was an SUV in the corner. But serendipitously, I caught the tail light of a passing car, which added a red streak, contrasting most positively with the blue.

Nine years ago, I was in Georgetown, making a similar exposure. I was facing west, instead of north, and used my Canon 7D DSLR with HDR blending. Here’s the picture and the post from 2011. What’s changed? Just about everything, I suppose. I frame differently, have a newer, higher-resolution camera, and I no longer use HDR. My current blog posts are more concise, too, as you can tell from the long-winded post for nearly a decade ago.

I have a free monthly newsletter that’s perfect for busy people. Signup for the Newsletter to get the best of my posts, old and new, plus additional content not available anywhere else.