Today marked my first overnight in San Antonio since I began working for the airlines. It's somewhat surprising that it took this long, and it's also unfortunate that just a few days ago it was 70 degrees and sunny here. For my visit, it would rain all day and peak at about 43 degrees. I guess I've been lucky with my other recent trips, so I tried not to let the weather get me down and ventured out into the muck with my good camera in hopes of capturing the Christmas lights that line the riverwalk.
I first went to the Alamo just before sunset except there was no sunset because the sky was completely overcast. There was a big xmas tree in front if the Alamo and I tried to use the rain puddles and capture some reflections to justify going out on this cold, rainy evening. The dampness was bone-chilling and I spent some time in the gift shop warming up before venturing out once more.
I experimented with some digital ND filters I got for my camera to varying degrees of success. The sky wasn't dark enough for a slow shutter photo, so I tried to use a graded filter to fix that and you can see the result here. As you can see, the sky kind of abruptly changes color here, so I have to keep practicing, but it's good to know they actually work and it's not just a Sony gimmick. I hope you appreciated my photographic nerdiness.
Next I walked along the riverwalk and although the cold rain was pretty miserable, it was almost relaxing because nobody was out in this normally bustling tourist area. No one sat at the outdoor restaurants or bars. Wait staff looked quite bored. I could take my time with setting up my mini-tripod to get some long exposures without feeling like I was getting in anyone's way. After a bit, I started losing feeling in my right thumb, so manipulating the control became increasingly difficult.
After getting a few more shots, I went to Potbelly's for a sandwich and a cookie and returned to the hotel where I attempted to dry and thaw for the remainder of the evening.
