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!

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.

The Beauty and the Beach

Last weekend my girlfriend and I went to Galveston, Texas to enjoy the sand and the salty water of the Gulf of Mexico. Some worry went in to whether oil would be in the water or if the ding-dong’s who made the mess had sufficiently cleaned it up. There was no oil, but it was very hazy as ozone levels were very high and the late-August sun shined down on the coast of Texas. We had a good time, and I would recommend going if you have the chance. As we stayed longer through the day, the beach got busier and we decided to leave, but not before I took my camera out a couple of times to get some images to put on here.

I’ve been shooting quite a bit lately, not quite as much as I would like, but I’ve had this desire to make everything black and white. I think that the beach is one environment that people don’t normally see black and white images come from, so here you go.

Stewart Beach, Galveston, Texas

Thanks for reading!

Indianapolis Motor Speedway: How about that

A million people all around.  Funny hats, extremely loud noise, and beer cans, both full and crushed completely absorb any ground that might be underneath.  This is the scene of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late May 2010.  I hadn’t been to the track since I was a youngster with my dad maybe fifteen years ago, and this year, somehow, I managed to go twice.

The first of my visits was a reunion between my pop, the track and myself, and the second being with my pal Evan Himelick.  My dad and I went down two weeks before the race (which is actually happening as I type), and watched some of the cars practice and get tuned up to what hopefully would put them in the front of the pack come race day.

The second visit came by chance as I got two free VIP Carb Day passes.  These were courtesy of another really good friend, Matt Krieble.  This also included me being able to witness ZZ Top playing live. Pretty cool.

Both of these days were great for taking good shots, and getting to hang out with my dad was also one of the huge highlights.  We don’t get to spend time like that together to often anymore, and I enjoy the time that we do.

Moving on to the pictures: Here are some of the images from the two days.