Only in Texas

This shot was a high dynamic range composite of three exposures, taken about two thirds of a stop apart. It is the Texas state history museum at twilight. I've been wanting to shoot this for a while now and felt that twilight would be the perfect time, to get that deep blue sky colour. I pushed it a bit further to get a really strong complimentary colour relationship to the orange star and deep blue sky that I think makes for a much more dramatic scene than if the sky was totally black. I found that you just have to be there at the right time to get shots like this - and the right time doesn't last very long. Ten minutes earlier than this and the sky was too light, ten minutes later and the magic was gone. The sky was black and while it still works, the result just isn't as effective. Low angle, on a tripod, Canon 17-40mm F4L at the 17mm end and stopped down quite far to get the point light sources to give that characteristic small aperture star pattern. This subject is one of those I want to capture for my Iconic Austin series. I'm beginning to question the idea of shooting all of this project with a lensbaby. I might have to revise how I'm approaching this, or expand into an Austin at Night side project.