Fat Tuesday, Austin Style

Austinites really know how to party. I went downtown to Sixth street last night to document the happenings of Fat Tuesday. People packed the street and loud rhythmic drum beats and music came out of the front doors and open windows of the many bars and restaurants lining the thoroughfare. Police stood guard and watched as the mass of people moved from place to place stopping to trade beads for quick glimpses of some women showing their chests for the shiny reward. Bright lights, the aroma’s of food vendors on the street and the smell of alcohol permeated the air as people continued to celebrate into the early morning hours. These images are from about midnight until 1:45am.

Hopefully it won’t take me as long to update this in the future!

Shiner, Texas and the likes

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to Shiner, Texas with my gal-pal Candace to visit the Spoetzl Brewery where they brew Shiner beer. The tour of the facilities isn’t the best brewery tour I’ve been on by far, but you do get to try four different 8oz pours of the various beer they have for the time. My favorite yesterday was the Shiner 102, an anniversary brew only made for 2011.

The brewery was also not open to photography, so I couldn’t shoot inside which is a little disappointing too. Overall it was a nice little day adventure that we enjoyed, and here are some of the pictures along the way and back home.

This is the outside of the brewery:

This is Friday’s Fried Chicken. It was recommended by the tour guide, but she must be on the payroll because it wasn’t that good. Maybe I should have ordered the catfish po’ boy instead of the fried chicken.

I spotted this flame out in a field while we were en route home to Austin. I thought it was an oil pump, but it turned out being natural gas. Having said that, there are many small oil rigs pumping through this area.

Came across this guy while photographing the gas flame. He was curious to see people I think.

The overcast sky let in some blue as we neared Austin, and the fields lit up golden brown under the clouded Texas sky.

This is a nice trip to take if you have a day off and you just want to try something different.

That’s it!

Halloweiners

This past weekend was pretty swell. It included serving enchilada’s while wearing a fake mustache at work, and being able to photograph the madness of downtown Austin, Texas during Halloween – which I soon found out is one of the most beloved holidays in the capital city.

My camera that I normally shoot with is in the shop for repair, so I’ve been shooting with my first DSLR. This baby still rocks it, just on a much slower pace. I actually kind of enjoyed shooting with it as it made me less reliant on the computer part of the camera and made me get back to focusing on making the best images that I could. I’ve always been under the school of thought that it isn’t what camera you have, but rather what you can do with what you’ve got.

So here are some of my favorite images from the night that people let it all hang out. Literally.

Scott Biram kills it at Emo’s

So last Friday night I had the chance to see a show I’ve wanted to see for a long time, Scott Biram playing live. Biram plays this old 1930s style dirty delta blues, but all originals and it’s oh-so-good. A couple other bands opened up for him, but I only caught one called Black Eyed Vermillion who were really good too. It has really been nice moving to Austin and having all of this live music around. I miss being able to play with the fella’s I left back in Indiana a lot, but going to shows like this makes up for it a little.

Here are some images from the night; the first few are Black Eyed Vermillion, and the rest are Scott Biram.

If you ever have the chance to go see this guy do it. He rules so hard.

Black Eyed Vermillion:

Scott Biram:

So this couple was just getting their picture taken in front of Biram while he was playing and I think it turned out nice.

Exploring new territories

So I’ve been in Austin for almost three weeks now, and am starting to feel like this is my home. I’m getting pretty familiar with the areas that I visit most frequently, but there are spots that I just want to explore more. For some reason, I’ve always had this inclination to photograph things that are not the beautiful scenery that many people like to look at. I like to look at the things that have a story behind them; the places that most would call ugly. Why do these places now look the way they do? It’s not the sunset, the beach or a lighthouse. It’s a run-down old structure that many people have come in and out of that has made this place the way that it is today. Not all of my shooting and exploring took me to these places, but certainly the majority did.

Here are a few images from my explorations from today.

This I thought was nice because the two girls are taking pictures of each other in front of a building that says “6th St. Cool Store.”

I was told that this place, Rabbits, has some of the best Mexican dance party’s in Austin. I want to find out terribly.

This is a row of homes all painted incredibly bright colors. The homes themselves are very small, and I’d like to photograph them from the front. There just isn’t much room without a very wide-angle lens.

The “That’s What She Said! Mart”

These next two images are from the same address. I don’t know if the place was abandoned during construction or if it’s still being built. It looked abandoned to me.

That’s it for now…off to bed

Freakshow A Go-Go

Muncie, Indiana has a few notable things about it: It was studied in the 1960’s as Middletown, USA, it has one of the best beer bars in central Indiana and once a year Muncie Gras takes place (Muncie’s take on the famous raucous holiday). Well, this year because of the snowy weather that has blasted through the local terrain, Muncie Gras has been postponed until next month. Having said that, some of the events that were scheduled still went on as planned. And I was on hand to capture it.

These are some of the images from the Freakshow A Go-Go held at the Center Stage bar in downtown Muncie.