LADY BIRD JOHNSON WILDFLOWER CENTER

I thought that the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, located southwest of Austin, would be little more than an array of fields that would bloom in spring with wildflowers.  And there are those, although we were a bit early for the blooms.  But the facility is much more and in reality is a very well appointed and extensive botanical garden.  Having said that, I did not find it particularly photogenic, at least not without my macro lens and tripod, but that's mostly a function of the limitations of my own photographic style and abilities.  So following is something of a hodge-podge of photos of things that caught my eye.

The center was well-appointed with newer buildings and other patron-freindly structures.

And there were flowers, of course.  Here are a couple of examples.

Although the second shot is technically flawed, I did like the soft texture that the image took on by reason of the almost-wide-open aperture of f/4.5.

Here also is a shot of some cactus.

Pretty mundane, I'm afraid.

The facilities include an exhibition building, and each of the two times we visited there were very interesting artist exhibitions.  Here is just one of the pieces from our first visit.

The grounds also included a number of abstract sculptures, and I took some shots of one.  Again, I intentionally opened up my lens to limit the focus to the piece's front edge, creating an abstract.

Finally, in additional to the extensive flora, the facility sported a number of fauna, both old and young.

John

UMLAUF SCULPTURE GARDEN

Located just south of downtown, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum is one of Austin's cultural gems.  The garden space is relatively small but beautifully landscaped, providing a nice backdrop for the sculptures, which were all created by Charles Umlauf (1910-1994), who gifted the sculptures and the grounds to the city of Austin in 1985.  The grounds include a small museum that currently displays works both by Umlauf and by one of his contemporaries, Charles Williams.  Williams's work is more abstract and, because it was not available for photography, is not included in this post.

Umlauf's works are generally more representational, many of them featuring religious figures or the female form.  I thought the artist had great talent for expressing emotion, which he accomplished through posture, facial expression, and in some cases exaggerated features.

The first example, entitled Madonna & Child, is actually one of the artist's more abstract works.

I thought this, as well several others of the pieces I shot, worked better as black & whites.

Following is a more representational piece, entitled Spirit of Flight.

The sculpture includes the full figure.  However, I wanted to emphasize the detail in the figure's body and wings, as well as the expression on his face, so I included only the figure's upper right "quadrant."

Here is another piece, entitled Crucifixion, that I also shot only a portion of.  Again, I thought much of the detail would be sacrificed in an attempt to include the entire piece in the photo.  So I chose a critical portion, an arm and palm nailed to the cross.

One of the most powerful pieces was entitled War Mother.  Here I did take a shot of the entire sculpture, but for this post I have chosen to show a couple of detail shots.  The first is of the mother's face and hand, the latter of which is quite exaggerated ins size.

And the second is of the child, again with exaggerated hands.

This figure was made of a light colored cast stone, and I felt the images worked better in black & white.

Not all of the sculptures were of human figures.  A number were of animals, including this hippo, entitled Lotus.

However, it seemed that the animal figures were actually too faithful in their realism and lacked the emotion that the sculptor was able to incorporate into his human figures, as shown in the following female figures, respectively titled  Eve, Ballerina, Mother & Child, and Supplication.

One of my favorite pieces was entitled Refugees.  I thought the artist did a superb job of evoking the mother's stoicism.

Here's another shot in black & white of the mother's face in profile.

Nearly all of these photos were shot with my lens at a wide open aperture of f/4.  I have decided that this allows me to maintain adequate focus with the object while blurring out the background.

It was a real pleasure photographing these sculptures, and there were many other pieces that I could have included in this post.  Certainly, anyone interested in the arts who visits Austin should not miss a trip to this venue.

John

AUSTIN: MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Austin is one of America's fastest growing cities and is now the 11th largest city in the U.S.  That's good in that the growth creates local prosperity and a more vibrant community.  But this growth has its drawbacks, most notably to a visitor in the form of traffic congestion.  Austin is now ranked as the fourth worst city in the U.S. for vehicular traffic.  It is interesting to compare Austin with my hometown of Milwaukee.  Austin's greater metropolitan population, at 1.8 million, is only slightly larger than Milwaukee's 1.6 million.  But there is a vast difference in activity, particularly in the downtown area.  This is particularly noticeable in the form of new construction.  Austin has already developed a more impressive skyline than Milwaukee's, and there are several additional large office and residential towers currently under construction.

I haven't really attempted to make a concerted effort to capture Austin's modern architecture, in part because of the difficulty in parking in the downtown area, another symptom of its growing pains.  But in wandering around the downtown area, I have managed to collect a few images that I thought I would post here.

First is an evening shot of a portion of the skyline taken from too close a range.

Not particularly good except for the time of day and the fact that it features one of the more interesting of the modern office towers.  In fact, I found myself shooting this building on a number of occasions, as in the following.

This shot really doesn't have much going for it except that the building's glass facade was mirroring clouds similar to those posed behind it.  Here are two more shots taken in later evening.

OK, enough of that building.

I seem to have a compulsion (and not a particularly helpful one) of shooting repeating architectural patterns, even if the image doesn't seem to contain anything of interest beyond the pattern.  Following is an example.

Mildly interesting at best, perhaps because it was being lit by the late afternoon sun.  However, in this case I was able to redeem the matter a little perhaps by positioning the building behind a couple of trees that were just beginning to bud.

The lighting against the building was not as warm (because of the oblique angle of the shot), but the trees at least created some interest and context.

Following are a few more shots.  The first is of a building under construction.  I liked the contrast between the two sets of reflective panels.

And finally a couple of unorthodox shots, the first is of the city's tallest structure, at least currently, at perhaps 60 stories, a condo development, I think.

And the second is of another residential tower that I decided to shoot at an angle.

I guess my thought was to convert an otherwise mundane shot into an abstract.

John

SAN ANTONIO: THE MISSIONS

Another notable attraction that we toured during our visit to San Antonio last week was its series of Spanish missions.  There are five such missions stretching south from the downtown area on the banks of the San Antonio River, the northernmost being the Alamo.  The others are Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada.  One can actually walk from one mission to the next as a sort of pilgrimage, though we chose not to do that, as the roundtrip distance is around 18 miles, and . . . ahem . . . we only had a couple of hours.  As it was, we only had time to visit three of the missions (besides the Alamo), omitting Mission San Juan.

All of the missions were established in the first part of the 18th century, serving not just as religious centers but as refuges and military posts to deal with the Native American situation.  The missions are now maintained by the National Park Service collectively as a national historical park.  There are rangers at each location to answer questions and to provide free guided tours.

Our first stop was at Mission Concepcion, perhaps the most elaborate of the four.  Its exterior was very much in line with what I was expecting.

(Actually, we had visited the missions some 14 years ago during our only other visit to San Antonio, but the weather on that visit had been abysmal and I hadn't recalled much in the way of details.)

I wasn't sure how to capture the missions in photographs, as I was attempting to do two things at once, to document our visit and to try to take advantage of any artistic opportunities.  The day was beautiful, and provided ample opportunities for documentation.  But it was the interior that I found interesting artistically.

Here is a shot of a double doorway, if you will.  Just OK.  (I should have lowered the camera a foot or two, I think.)

It was the ceiling of the church that I felt stole the show.  I thought the light streaming through the windows really made the following shot.

(Given the low light conditions, in order to maintain sufficient depth of field and adequate shutter speed, I ramped up the ISO to 1000 for these interior shots.)

Thankfully, there was no restriction on photography in the church, and I found myself taking any number of shots of the nicely restored ceiling features.  Here are a couple more of those.

In this last shot I wanted to capture, not just the relationship of the curved features, but also the one of the upper windows.

My favorite of  the interior shots was the following.

Again, I thought the natural lighting really helped to make this symmetrical shot.

Then it was on to Mission San Jose, a couple of miles down the road.

I thought the exterior of this mission was more photogenic, especially the cross-topped dome.

This mission also featured a series of archways that offered some opportunities.

The interior of this mission's church was nicely restored and more elaborately decorated than Concepcion.

And the ceiling was, again, beautifully restored and interesting, but not quite as dramatic as Concepcion.

The church's exterior facade was also nicely restored, featuring some great religious statuary that showed nicely in the afternoon sunlight.

Then it was on to Mission Espada.  It was evident that this mission had more humble aspirations and must have served more of an agricultural, "working class" congregation.  Here are a couple of shots of the church's facade.

In this first photo I had wanted to capture all three of the bells (evidently symbolic of the Trinity) in clear silhouette, but the top bell was obscured at the bottom by some sort of structure.  In the second shot I wanted to focus on the texture of the restored stone and brick work around and above the church's doors.

As mentioned, the interior of the church as Espada was modest in size and quite rudimentary.  Here is a statue of the Christ figure at the front of the sanctuary.

My only regret is that we were not able to visit the fourth mission, San Juan.  Perhaps another time.

John

SAN ANTONIO: KING WILLIAM DISTRICT

On our trip to San Antonio one of the representatives at the visitor center suggested that we visit the King William District, located about 3/4 mile south of the Riverwalk area.  It was a great suggestion.  The area, located just east of the San Antonio River, is filled with classic homes that have been or are in the process of being restored.  We spent about an hour walking through the area before returning along the river to the Riverwalk area.  

Some of the houses that we passed were large southern colonials.

While others were more modest homes that were, nevertheless, distinctive and handsome in their own right.

Well maybe not this last one.

Many of the homes sported statuary.

And several were fronted by wrought iron fenceworks, and I couldn't resist taking a few shots of those.

These were not just museum pieces.  People were living in them and I felt a bit uncomfortable pointing my camera at them, though they are probably accustomed to that.  

Anyone who enjoys residential architecture and who finds himself in San Antonio would be well advised to visit the King Williams District.

John