Moody Mansion

 

Houston is a very rich city.  But at the beginning of the 20th century,  Galveston was a more prosperous and cosmopolitan city than H-town.  It was the center of trade for Texas.  Then the 1900 Galveston hurricane hit, killing about 8,000 people.  Consider that for moment - slightly less than 3,000 died in the 9-11 attacks.  And in 1900 they were undoubtedly less equipped to deal with such disasters.  Another 8,000 left after the hurricane as so much of the city was in ruins.  In total Galveston lost about half of it's population and it never regained its previous stature.  Anyway, in the times when Galveston was thriving, there were a lot of amazing homes built by rich people.  Many of the homes stand today, making the place a target-rich environment for photographers.  The Moody Mansion is one of them.  Ironically, W. L. Moody purchased the mansion just days after the hurricane, for pennies on the dollar.  Now, it is a museum.  It's typically a no-photography venue.  But I got very lucky and managed to get in on a photo tour of the place.  I was pretty pumped, but honestly it was sort of a mixed bag.  The place is very dark and they did not allow tripods.  So high ISO was an absolute requirement, and good HDR  was not likely.  That said, my batch of photos turned out a lot better than I thought they would when I shot them.  I shot everything with the new Sigma 17-70mm and it performed brilliantly.