After a busy holiday season, I finally had a weekend to myself, and so decided to get out and do some photo taking. I opted to go downtown, and they still had the Christmas decorations up. Although I don’t typically obsess over Christmas decorations, I did appreciate how it dressed up the typical scenes. I did a little walk from Buffalo Bayou east into downtown, and then south to City Hall and back.
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 16-35mm GM II | 16mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 8.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 16-35mm GM II | 30mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 0.8 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 16-35mm GM II | 16mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 1.6 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 16-35mm GM II | 16mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 1.6 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 16-35mm GM II | 16mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 1.6 sec
May has been a quite busy month for me. Between my SO and work, I haven’t had any free time for myself until this morning. I wanted to try a new spot this morning, but construction had closed my main route to get there. I was trying a back road when I noticed the clouds. I thought there was a chance for some colorful skies, so I opted to go to another spot I already knew to get some shots.
I was having an off morning, because this spot isn’t near parking, and it took my three trips to the vehicle to get everything ready. Fortunately, it was a calm morning which allowed for a reflection on the bayou, and I did get some good color in the sky. Here are some shots from this morning:
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 60mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 1.3 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 39mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 0.6 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 42mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 0.6 sec
The bridge I took this from definitely vibrates as traffic passes, so timing shots and getting sharp images wasn’t all that easy, but I was able to get a few shots off in between.
I do like the lush bayou banks with the city standing behind, the sky and reflections really helped.
I’ve been wanting to use the tele lens a little more lately. I really like my standard zoom for capturing the whole scene, but I need more practice on picking out the details that catch my eye.
It was a cloudy morning, but the ceiling cleared the skyscrapers considerably. The City Hall building was lit in blue, and we could see the lights on the clouds above the city.
After taking some shots of the city, I stopped by a transit station, and the bust station structure with the deep blue clouds caught my eye.
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 158mm | ISO 100 | f/5 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 215mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 400mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 400mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 100mm | ISO 100 | f/4.5 | 2.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 43mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 2.0 sec
I was woken on this morning by a thunderstorm, and thought, well I’m not going to get any pictures today. I pulled up the radar, and it was a smaller storm moving through pretty quickly. Then I thought, this might actually work out for me.
In typical Houston fashion, I tried running to one of my favorite spots only to find the streets had been closed. What made that more excruciating was that on the way, I loved the view, but I lost another 10 minutes trying to work around the road closures. When the light is changing quickly, that 10 minutes feels like a lifetime.
I didn’t park where I really should have, and was rushing to avoid any problems with the place I did park. It ended up working out because the light I wanted had passed anyways, but below are three shots from this morning.
Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 GMII | 35mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 3.2 secSony A7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GMII | 70mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 1 secSony A7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | ISO 100 | f/11 | 15 sec
As a weekend warrior, I typically don’t let the weather dissuade me from going out. This cool January morning had scattered showers rolling through all morning. Fortunately, I was prepared, and had a great time shooting. This was my first time at this particular location, and the blue hour light and clouds with the wet streets did make for a cool, moody scene.
Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 GM | 25mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 8.0 sec
Houston has a beautiful skyline, in my opinion. I really enjoyed this view with the tall skyscrapers surrounding the city hall, which was fortunately lit in blue to match the whole scene. Below is taken from the same perspective but I zoomed in to focus on the town hall with the skyscrapers providing a backdrop.
Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 GM | 43mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 3.2 sec
The previous photos are a bit more typical view of downtown, but I moved to get a view of the northern skyscrapers. This was not as photogenic with this perspective.
Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 GM | 24mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 3.2 sec