A quiet night in the old 'hood

Recently we had a little family outing in San Antonio, which included seeing my mother who lives there, in our same house in the same old neighborhood.  It's fun to return to your old stomping grounds, so to speak, and see things in a new way (that is, through a camera).  You certainly do look at things differently once you become addicted to camera work.  After a wonderful dinner, I started noticing the soft, warm colors in the sky and got the itch to snap a few pictures.  The spots I had in mind were either too far away to make it before dark, or closed in the case of one place in particular that we tried.  So, I asked my mother if that old neighborhood pond is still around, and of course it is.  We cruised up there and she took a little walk while I did a little photography.  It was a quiet evening, and the air was still, but it was comfortably cool outside which is just how I like it.  It's rare that I shoot in a neighborhood, but in this case I liked the light while the sun was fading and the reflections of the various lights in the water.

This is a 6 exposure HDR taken at f/5, with exposures ranging from +1 to -4.  They were merged into an HDR in Photomatix, and then I did some of my typical adjustments in PSE around Curves and Contrast.  Final touch up occurred in Aperture.  

By the way, have you heard about the IOSafe Solo?  It is an external hard drive that is both waterproof and fireproof.  It is awesome!  I recently got one and wrote a little review of it, which you can find here.  Check it out!