Spontaneous Garden Visits Are Sweet
I have wanted to visit the Japanese Gardens at Hermann Park for years. And I truly mean years. Yet their challenging hours of operation are rather hard to work with (5PM... really?). Yesterday, I got lucky! With the garden's gates being questionably and invitingly wide open after 6PM, my accomplice and I were able to sneak right in. Daylight was quickly dwindling though and my first attempts at fighting the natural environment and overcompensating via digital camera trickery fell rather flat. So I had a revelation - why fight it? Instead, use it! I am not very good at dusk photography but I saw an opportunity for learning. Here are the first attempts... (with one fabulous action shot as well).
On a side note, the gardens are just as beautiful as I imagined. I hope to be able to be back and spend some more quality time there very soon. And possibly take some full daylight shots of it while at it. :)
A few months back, a co-worker of mine convinced me to join my company's Spartan Race team. He didn't talk it up much: he mentioned it's a long-ish run with a few fun obstacles. You know, no big deal. Something someone who runs as much as me should complete more than easily (read, you don't really need to train for it). Ha ha ha.