Fireplace interior at the Oasis in Austin, Texas

So yesterday was the 3rd annual (I believe it was the 3rd) Scott Kelby Photowalk day. Throughout the world, various organized groups of photo enthusiasts head out into their towns and capture what they see. Everyone then uploads their best couple of shots from the shoot, the results are reviewed on a local level, the best images are then sent to Scott, and he then has the insanely difficult task on choosing the best of the best. Not a hat I would ever want to wear, thats for sure.

Unfortunately, I was traveling a bit yesterday as you probably know if you follow me on twitter. I’ll follow up with his posts and review of these images, and set up a link later this week. He usually has a page or 2 of the best images. Kinda cool to check out for sure.

When heading out with a few other fellow photogs, its always fun to see what everyone else sees. This image below was created during an outing I was on in Austin a few months ago. During Trey Ratcliff’s first ever workshop, we all headed out to a cool spot called the Oasis in Austin Texas to capture images. Since in was primarily an HDR workshop, the shutters were a flying. It was great fun hanging out with these fellow artists and discussing the various techniques we use. He has a DVD from the event coming out soon. Six hours of training in HDR techniques and processes from Stuck in Customs – should be well worth it! I have an advance copy arriving soon and I am sure I will post a link to it here soon on the blog.

I tried a couple of different processes on this one. From the initial multi bracket HDR capture, to the photomatix processing, to the tweak in Photoshop CS4, to the effects layer in Topaz, my goal was to retain most of the realism of the interior. Hope you like!