I’m finishing the series with another skyline converted to monochrome, like the one I featured a few days ago. The effect and look are so successful that I’ll do it more often.

We are back to where we started, next to The Republic, a new skyscraper in the topping out stage, which I showed nearly complete. The construction fencing you see in the foreground is from The Republic development. The skyscraper gets its name—most likely—from the small park across the street called Republic Square, one of the originals in Austin’s early city layout.

All the buildings you see are within a block or two of the park, forming a ring of structures with considerable height. The skyscraper on the left is currently Austin’s tallest. This city exploration at night was part of my Leica D-Lux 8 test, which the camera passed with flying colors. Shot at its lowest ISO of 200, image quality is excellent, which I usually achieve with a combination of a slow shutter speed and fast aperture, even at night.

Today’s picture was of a darker scene necessitating an ISO 1000 at a 1/15-second shutter. In addition to the visual pop of monochrome, the lack of color makes noisier images more palatable—the picture looks quite decent, even full-screen on my 27″ 5K display.

Blog readers, you’ll love my free monthly photography magazine. Signup for the free magazine to get articles and topics not discussed on the blog.