My God, it's full of stars!

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

At this abandoned rock crushing facility on the outskirts of Searcy, Arkansas.

I love the monolithic quality of this... thing.

It just occurs to me that this would be a great place for star photography, to bad it's eight hours away.

Huh, according to the map, this is in Gray, Ar.

I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

The skyline of Downtown Austin, Texas as seen from atop Mount Bonnell.

I had planned on doing some star photography for the first time but mother nature thought other wise, it was thick with clouds the entire time I was in Austin that weekend. Maybe next time.

If you're ever in Austin, make sure you check this place out, it has great views of east and west Austin.

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost

...

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

On our way back to Houston, I had to stop again at this old farm house, if only long enough to take a few pictures.

I decided to include the power plant in the background and I'm so glad I did. The new perspective hives it a completely different aspect.

Click here to see the same farm house taken about six months ago by my old CyberShot:

 Old Abandoned Farmhouse - When children’s voices called, Where grasses now stand still

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

Still in Austin, Texas.

I was just starting my walk back to the car from the South Congress Ave Bridge cutting through the back lot of the Hyatt and I saw this scene. The light from the Hyatt was reflecting off that window on the building to the right and it just kinda demanded my attention.

This photo is a composite HDR/fusion of two long exposures, it wasn't nearly this bright in the alley way. I'm not completely happy with it, I may play around with the original images in Lightroom later on when free time is a bit more free.

Title quote by Francis Bacon.

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

This is a composite of 5 separate 30sec exposures taken as a cruise ship eased it's way down Lady Bird Lake in Austin Texas.

I was heading back to my car and I saw that a restaurant/cruise ship had left out of it's dock so I hurried down along the shore of the lake to see if maybe they were going to turn around and head back this way. And to my luck they did. So I sat there and waited patiently for them to make there way into my line of sight to take these shots.

Technically not the whole photo is a composite. The buildings and water are a composite of the last 4 of the 5 photos. I did this because after looking at the photos on the computer screen, I realized that the first photo was blurry, so I only used the light trail from that photo. Also the sky is a single photo, I used photomatix's natural/fusion to do the composting but I didn't like how gritty the sky looked so I selected the sky of one of the original photos. This is also how I took only the streak from the first photo, once I had an initial composite of the 4 photos, I used that composite and the blurry first photo in the photomatix process again and selected all but the streak and use the orirginal compsoite and
voila...

Title from "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

Took a trip to Austin, Texas the other night. I had planned on getting some star photography from atop Mount Bonnel(great view of downtown Austin and it's pitch-black at night). But mother nature thought otherwise; it was thick with clouds all weekend.

But I persevered and after getting some decent long exposures at Mt. Bonnel I proceeded down to Auditorium Shores and walked along Lady Bird Lake up to the South Congress Ave Bridge and got the shot you see here.

At the end of the street, where the light trails seem to emanate from, is the Texas State Capitol Building.

Title quote is from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.

This old house

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

Out cruising around in Judsonia/Providence/Steprock Ar one day during this last winter break.

According to the map, I was in Guthrie, Ar.

If columns could talk

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

This is one of my old ones, not that old I guess, only about 6 months, but I've only been at this for that long.

This is a close up of one of the columns of Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri) under a Roman summer sky.

I took this on our summer vacation across Europe last year.

You may say: "It's just a column and the sky", but this column is roughly 400 years old. It has been at the forefront of so much history.

Fly me to the moon, Let me play among the stars, Let me see what spring is like On, a Jupiter and Mars

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

Here's another at White Lake from a few weeks ago. This one is also a single exposure the I played around with in Lightroom to bring out these colors and give it more contrast. You can barely see the moon at the top of the photo due to the wide angle shot, I should have brought my 70-300mm but I was feeling lazy.

The title is the first four lines of "Fly me to the moon", a Frank Sinatra classic.

Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

A single Raw edited in Lightroom, taken at the Imperial Sugar Factory in Sugar Land, Texas.

This just goes to show how much you can do with a single RAW in Lightroom or any other photo-editing software, there wasn't nearly this much color and depth in the original shot.

If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.

Follow Highly Defined Reality on Facebook

Underneath the majestic Sam Houston Tollway(Beltway 8), and Interstate 10(not pictured).

I love light trails, I've been wanted to do this long before I got my first and current DSLR. Can't wait to do it again.

The layout of Houston's highways, specifically it's inner(Interstate 610) and outer(Beltway8) loops have become a popular metropolitan highway design for other large metro areas around the world.

Tittle quote by Pythagoras.