Don Mar Condo Development Downtown View Photography

In November of 2007, I was hired to photograph the view from the Don Mar condo. The building did not exist yet so the only way to create this view was to lift me up in a crane. I am not too afraid of heights so I did not think this was a big deal. That is until I had most of my gear and a couple of other guys up there at 60’. The crane was very shaky and my nerves we’re too.

Changing out a lens at 60’ gave me the “Elvis legs” ( a term I use when rock climbing and I get nervous). I did not think I was going to fall, just scared that I would drop a lens that costs a couple of clams.

The sky was very overcast. This did not show up too much in the night images, but I really had to get creative to bring out the color and a blue sky. The overcast skies grayed out most everything and made the downtown skyline look washed out. I think when I took this shot we we’re at the top and the skies looked OK for a second, so I got at it. The view shows the correct perspective that a condo owner will see from the top floor of the, soon to be, Don Mar condos.

After completing the day shots and all the views from different balconies throughout the condos, I suggested that we take the crane out over the Congress Ave.

After centering on Congress, I got some really fantastic views of downtown Austin. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this perspective before. This image is a stitched panoramic view that is huge.

One challenge was that the crane was very shaky. It was constantly moving and this made it hard to shoot longer exposure images. Not only was the longer exposure needed to create the cool light streaks on the road, but also it was needed to give me the depth of field necessary to have both the closer street views and the Capitol in focus. While shooting with a fast shutter speed to compensate for the crane’s shakiness, I would have to use a large aperture. This does not allow for the desired depth of field. Finding the balance between the two was very challenging. Overcoming these challenges make the job that much more interesting and fun.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 11:12 am and is filed under All Blog Posts, Architectural Photography, landscapes and tagged with Architectural Photography, Night Photography, Skyline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.