I had remember shooting the Governor’s mansion, Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, and of course, earlier shots of the capital building. But, I had also shot the loop 360 bridge (very photogenic place) or Pennybacker bridge as it is called, along Highway 360 on the West side of Austin.

I put my usual touches on them to give them the metal feel and high dynamic cast that the series has, so that the original files would them be available for printing to metal. If you’d like to see the full series, you can visit this portion of my catalog www.davidwarnerstudio.com/wordpress/portfolio-austin-on-metal. Hope to get a few more of these for my collection and a book that I’m going to do of the images before I head back to the Adirondacks!

Well, two and a half years later, and thousands of frames ‘processed’ on the computer, and the answer is clear to me – it’s about the images. The Adirondacks have to be one of the most beautiful and least photographed places in the United States.

The Adirondack Forest Preserve was established in 1885 by the New York State Legislature. Nine years later, the Adirondacks became the first and only wild land preserve in the United States to gain constitutional protection when New York’s voters approved the inclusion of Article VII, Section 7, the “forever wild” clause, into the state Constitution. Today, at 6 million acres and larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, and Everglades National Parks combined, the Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve is the largest park in the nation outside of Alaska. It is a photographers paradise.

In this first volume of images, I’m going to take you through my first year of discovery – of a land and its changing seasons and just how beautiful one of America’s last remote areas can be.

David E. Warner, September 2011

Available Now for only $5.00! If you’d like to preview some of the pages, you can see them here. The book looks GREAT on an iPad or other tablet device as well.

So, what does that have to do with photography? Well, for a landscape guy – everything is brown and dead or dying and if you do any urban work – 105 to 110 in the shade becomes 135-140 on the pavement! It just drains the life out of you. I miss the winter in the Adirondacks! There – I’ve gone and said it. No, not the 30 below day that we had LAST winter – but I’ll take anything from minus 10 to 20 above without any complaint EVER again!

I did get out to Lockhart Texas for lunch this weekend and stepped out around the downtown to shoot JUST a bit. Some great wall murals and one of the most fantastic courthouses in Texas.

This was the first autumn that I was up in the Adirondacks and this wasn’t REALLY in the Adirondack Park, but south of there in Cooperstown. The location was Glimmerglass State Park, and what a beautiful lake it is. My wife, brother and sister-in-law were just spending the day walking and shooting foliage.

I’m going to have to admit to taking a LOT of artistic license with this image because I had something very clear in my mind. The beach turned out great, the aircraft perfect, the water just fantastic. However, the foliage was too far away and muted for what I really wanted to see. So, digital tools to the rescue to give me back what my mind’s eye saw. In fact, I had something even more artist in mind when I was thinking of this image and working on it the other day, and that result is shown to the right.

The float plane’s days in the Adirondacks are numbered, as more and more regulations are popping up to ban their flight into the areas lakes. But for now, all of us get one more chance to enjoy the experience for JUST a little longer, with images like these.

This weekend, we traveled to Smithville, a small town about 45 minutes east of Austin. It was here that they filmed Hope Floats. It’s becoming quite the little filming location, with several small budget films and some newer ones being done there. While there are  only 3,901 people (as listed when you come into town) living there, they have an active film commission that really works hard to get folks to spend time taking or making pictures there. Either one works for them.

I spent plenty of time in the 104 degree temperatures while my wife was looking in all the antique stores. But, I think it was worthwhile, because I came back with some interesting images. I think these will look incredible on metal and they’ll become the foundation for my new collection – Small Town Texas on Metal. I’m looking forward to visiting many of the communities in the area to see just what else I can come up with. I hope you enjoy the first images from what I hope will be a fantastic collection.

This is Railroad BBQ down in Manchaca Texas, just south of Austin. One of my favorite hangouts in the old days where we used to have ‘unofficial’ company meetings. If fact, some of the license plates on the wall are my very own – from TRACON to IBT, they all bring back memories of the countless hours spent seated at those tables coming up with the ‘next big thing’ in technology.

This weekend, it was fun to meet with one of our former partners and founders of both IBT Technologies and Embella, Inc. – Brett Adams. We spent the afternoon going over content, and how it all fits with these new-fangled tablets and devices that are showing up on store shelves every day.

But, before he showed up, I just had to shoot something that would fit into my new Small Texas Towns on Metal collection. I hope everyone enjoys it and gets the same sense from looking at it as I do – I can just smell the BBQ!

I had just a fantastic evening, walking around, seeing all the people out in the parks and on the streets, along the river and up on several bridges. Must have walked about three miles with all the gear, but it was worth it. Here are four of my favorite shots from the evening.

Top left is a beautiful park area with a nice pond just south of the Long Center for the Performing Arts. First one below left is from close to the same spot, but moving in towards the downtown skyline. The center one was taken from the Lamar Street bridge (which says emergency use only – I know why! It’s a VERY narrow spot to stand with a tripod with all the traffic whizzing by). The final one below and right is of the Long Center that I mentioned earlier. They had some kind of event going on, but there was some fantastic lighting that I was able to take advantage of.

Even though I had photographed the exterior of the capital building several times, I had NEVER been inside! Wow – what a mistake THAT was! Some of the most incredible architecture I’ve ever seen and some amazing photo opportunities. I’ve posted a shot down Congress Avenue, looking at the capital building at the beginning of this post. The three below are (from left to right): Looking up at the ceiling in the rotunda from the first level, the ceiling of the Senate Chamber – incredible etched glass, and the stonework outside the front steps of the capital building.

All of these images have now become part of my “Austin on Metal” series that I’m working on. I hope you enjoy them.

In the meantime, I spent several more hours in the downtown and Austin surrounding area to come up with more that I thought would work. Even an old junkyard became prey for this idea. I’ve got to say, that there were some REALLY interesting things in there and they came out great when they were finished. A couple even inspired me to go black and white on metal (of course, I’m repeating the one I think is coolest again in the top left).

Here are some of the latest ones that I just finished this week (below).

I loved the blue color of the old Imperial and the Volkswagen (below) was a pretty cool one as well. Looks like that bonnet had been open for a LONG time. Also did another sketch type one in black and white for all the hubcaps that were lying around. They made for an interesting look as well. So, bottom line is, there are a LOT of locations where I can come up with images to pursue this line of work. Reality is, there was literally no Spring this year in Austin – worst drought in 50 years puts a serious crimp in lush landscapes abounding, so you have to improvise.