Walking the streets. Looking for gold.

I needed to go for a walk to get some exercise and clear my head. Too much detail stuff at the office. Too many chores at home. It was a hot one today so I wore my dorky Panama hat because it covers my ears and gives me the most shade. I was also breaking in a pair of lightweight hiking boots because it always hurts less finding problems close to home.

The important thing for me is to go out without having expectations of what I'll find. I walked a new way and went by the state capitol building. I hiked down Congress Ave. and over to the convention center. I tried to let the camera drift on my shoulder while I looked and walked. My latest addition to the exercise (and I think this is something I've learned by osmosis from Studio Dog) is to take time to stop and really smell the environment as well as just looking at it. A hot and toasty day downtown has it's own smell. It's different than a cool day and much different from a rainy or windy day.

I knew it was hot because I was sweating in the very first hour of the walk. The sun felt like it had its own gravity and it was working to push down on me and slow me down a little bit at a time. Walking by bars with their doors open, spewing air conditioning made the effect of little oasis sprinkled down the ribbon of sidewalk on Sixth St.

I hate being weighed down so I was carrying only one camera and one lens. The camera was the Nikon D750, which is the most assured feeling of all the digital cameras I've owned. Not the best. Just very assured. You know the battery isn't tumbling toward inconvenience and you suspect that the exposure will be just as you thought it should be.

The last time I went out I had fun working the wide end of an old, manual focus, 25 to 50mm f4.0 Nikon lens so today I went wider with a Tamron 20-40mm f2.7 to f3.5 lens. Both times I put circular polarizing filters over the front.

I saw the turquoise patterns of the mural (above) out of the corner of my eye. They were painted on an interior wall of a parking garage at the intersection of Guadalupe St. and Third St. I walked into the garage and messed around with my exposure while a shaved headed young man in a white t-shirt revved a noisy motorcycle and adjusted the music on his mobile stereo. He gave me the "hey dude" head nod and rode off in a cloud of noise and exhaust.

But I liked the mural very much and I'm glad I walked around and found it. It's nice that people are making big art in the middle of the city. I love the gold fish on the woman's head. It's a nice touch.