Yesterday evening’s downtown Austin photo walk became a victim of the arctic weather we’ve been experiencing here since Monday night. With temperatures in the low 20s, a hardy group of 9 people gathered at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue on Lady Bird Lake and decided that we should immediately adjourn to the bar in the Driskill Hotel.
Regardless of the change of plan, we had a great time supping beers and nibbling on appetisers in the wonderful atmosphere on the 2nd floor of the hotel. If you’re in Austin, you should definitely stop by the Driskill and take a look around – it’s the epitome of what an elegant, classical hotel should look like in my opinion.
Our group contained a wonderful group of esteemed photographers. Trey Ratcliff, David Nightingale, Jack Hollingsworth, Jim Brandon, Cliff Baise, Mike Connell, Jim Mahoney, Rusty Jackson (who stayed down by the lake to take pictures!) and myself joined in the fun.
To make myself feel less guilty about calling a photo walk during which no photos were taken, I shot a few pictures inside the Driskill as we were leaving. This one shows the ornate stained glass cupola in the first floor ceiling and gave me another excuse to play with the 15mm fisheye lens.
This is awesome, Dave! Love the fishy distortion and symmetry.
That’s a pretty ridiculous gathering of photogs, must have been some great conversation!
Dave – I presume this shot was taken as you lay on the floor after the few beers!!
Of course not. Had I had a few beers, the focus wouldn’t have been as good.
Wow, I almost got vertigo looking at this photo! Great fish eye composition. Love the processing; not over the top HDR, very natural.
Wow, I want a fisheye because I saw this shot! Awesome!
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brian Matiash and Christopher Wray, Jon Stolarski. Jon Stolarski said: @dawilson New photoblog #photo Driskill Hotel Ceiling, Austin: http://bit.ly/i8yhSO « Great shot, love the fisheye effect […]
This is fantastic Dave, top notch
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I’m going to make sure you have my cell number next time…I would have turned out for the Driskill 🙂
Great shot — cool perspective and perfect processing IMO.
Michael Tuuk´s last post ..No Actual Birds Were Harmed In The Making Of These Memories…
This is really cool, Dave! Makes me want a fisheye. Thanks for the mention, it was great hanging out with everyone.
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That last comment was for Stuart – I didn’t realise that the blog didn’t thread the replies correctly. I’ll try to fix that.
Thanks, all, for the comments today. I really appreciate them.