Dawn breaks in Austin

As I have mentioned previously, I really enjoy looking at the Austin skyline.  Whenever I get a chance to go shoot, I find I am often drawn to downtown and am looking for a different view of the skyline.  In this case, it was reasonably early on a winter morning, and the sun was starting its ascent.  I wound up down on the Hike and Bike Trail around Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake to some; the Colorado River to a few) and walked around until I came to Lou Neff Point.  There is a gazebo there, where I am sure folks sit and enjoy the view when it is a little warmer out.  In this case, I was completely alone, except for all the ducks, which scattered as I approached (you can see some of them in the distance out on the lake).  From the gazebo the shot was slightly blocked due to some trees, so I did what any resourceful person would do and climbed around behind the thing, down to the lake.  There is a small patch of ground there which must have been created just for photographers - it was the right size for me and the tripod.

This image is a 7 exposure HDR, shot at f/11 in the early morning light, with the exposures ranging from -3 to +3.  I merged the exposures in Photomatix, which is a great product by the way, and then made some adjustments in PSE and a light polish at the end in Topaz Adjust.  I experimented with a couple of different looks in this shot.  The first showed a lot more detail in the buildings, etc, but then I changed the contrast a bit and decided I preferred this version, which sort of produced a skyline silhouette of sorts.  Hope you like it!