The Barber
Inside an old barber shop, taking photos of a guy combing his hair. Nope, not something I normally do, but boy do I like this photo.
This is not my normal fare, but I really like this shot. I was out shooting with a client along South Congress Avenue one evening, and we wandered by the barber shop there. We popped in and asked if we could take a photo or two inside (it has a great vintage look to it), and they said sure come in and take whatever you like. After a few shots, this guy was combing his hair and we knew that was the best shot. I think we both said “hold that pose” at the same time, and captured this one. Thanks for looking!
Welcome to Texas
A shot of some beautiful leather cowboy boots, and a little bit of me musing about product photography...
I'm not a product photographer, but I'm willing to experiment.
I've never been one to try and photograph products, although I do like to shoot interesting subjects. I've never set up a mini studio at home and tried my hand at shooting "objects". I've seen plenty of incredible photos over the years, but it's admittedly not my thing.
But recently I was at Allen's Boots in downtown Austin and couldn't resist shooting all the amazing boots in the shop. I can definitely get behind the idea of shooting this sort of thing. I just love the look of leather boots. You can bring up the details and make the colors pop, etc. It's actually pretty fun to shoot and edit these.
I liked these blue boots, so I framed it up and shot. In Luminar, I added a preset, a texture, and then a bunch of gradient masks to darken the edges. It was fun! I may have to go back there and shoot some more.
Most importantly though, this has reminded me that getting in close and shooting some details is both a rewarding and interesting experience. When I travel, I am often looking at the "big picture" sort of scene and frequently overlook things like this. I am hoping this reminds me that even the smaller, close up stuff can make a worthy photograph. Lesson learned (I hope!).
Sunrise at Torchy's
Lovely morning light over Torchy's Tacos on South Congress Avenue, in downtown Austin.
South Congress Avenue in downtown Austin is one of my favorite spots in town. It's full of life, it's unique, and there is always something to point the camera at. I often shoot it at sunrise, mainly because I like the quiet stillness of that time of day.
This was from a while back when I did just that - got up early and drove downtown to capture the area alone. The light was great and I found myself wishing that Torchy's Tacos was open!
A night along South Congress Avenue
South Congress Avenue in downtown Austin is quite a fun place for photography. While I have often shot this area at sunrise, I recently changed things up a bit and shot in the evening instead. Here's a few pics to give you a taste of it! I hope you like neon!
Restaurants and hippies and neon, oh my!
Home Slice Pizza is very tasty!
I love shooting down along South Congress Avenue here in Austin. It's sort of the center of the "Keep Austin Weird" vibe, by which I mean it's an interesting sort of hippie part of town. It's awesome, and I love heading down there. It's just fun, and as you can imagine, it's a very popular part of town for locals and visitors alike.
There are cool shops and restaurants, lots of food trucks, some great graffiti and one of my loves - neon signs. In my early years of photography, I didn't get down here too often. I'm not sure why, but I only came down here once or twice in several years. But over the last couple of years, I have been down here many times with the camera and always walk away with shots I like. Perhaps I am making up for lost time!
By the way, I have been experimenting more and more with Pinterest, and am enjoying it. I am finding some great stuff (content) there, and have been sharing more and more of my own things there. So I created this image on the right which is "Pinterest-sized" and thus easier to pin there. Pin away my friends! :-)
I also enabled direct pinning to Pinterest with all my images, so you can just hover over an image and a "Pin It" graphic pops up on the top left corner.
I plan to keep experimenting with Pinterest and should I find enough good info and tips to share with you, I will do so here. If you are interested, you can find me here.
Anyways, back to this post...South Congress Avenue.
Guero's has some pretty excellent Tex-Mex food!
i just had to shoot this sign!
In my opinion, sunrise is the best time to shoot here, because you can avoid the crowds and traffic, and can literally stand in the middle of the street for a shot if you need to. I've done that many times, and will do it again. Some shots just require that you stand in the middle of the road. Don't try that in the evenings, though. You might get crushed!
But today's post is about an evening shoot I did there. I had been out that day shooting around a few spots here in town (trying to get things off my never-ending list!), and then met up with my wife and daughter for dinner nearby. After dinner, I headed out for a little bit more shooting, which is when I grabbed all these shots. It was mid-week so although it was somewhat busy, it wasn't weekend-crazy-busy.
For some reason, I don't normally shoot much at night. Usually I shoot from sunset on through blue hour, but once darkness falls I tend to call it a day. I'm not sure why, really. It's just something I have done for a long time. Anyways, I made an exception this time and I'm glad that I did. It's good to change things up and do something different at times.
I absolutely love Amy's Ice Creams - so delicious!
While sunrise is my preference, the evenings along South Congress are pretty awesome too. Yeah, you get lots of folks in the photos, but it's still a very interesting place with a lot of photo opportunities. I tried to work around the crowds as best I could, but it's unavoidable. If you enjoy street photography then you will love it here in the evenings (especially weekends) - lots of interesting people and things going on. It's not really my thing, but I understand the attraction of it.
But what is my thing? Street scenes, neon signs and things like that. So yeah, this is a kind of heaven for me. It has all that and more. It's wonderful for HDR (which is what most of these shots are, except for the neon signs which are single exposures) and with all the colors in the area, you can come up with some pretty interesting stuff!
And if you are planning a trip to Austin, take a look at my list here on the blog for all the best spots in town - there's a lot to shoot here. South Congress Avenue is definitely on the list, and frankly, it's high on my personal list of the best places to shoot here. Be sure and visit this location if you make it to Austin!
Good advice!
the continental club has been here as long as I can remember!
Skulking about SoCo at dawn
SoCo (short for South Congress) is a funky little spot in downtown Austin, and I love to go shoot there. You never know what you might get, but I'm pretty sure you can count on it being interesting. Hop on in and have a look! It's 9 HDR photos from a recent sunrise shoot there.
There's just something about shooting in the pre-dawn hours...
As you know by now, I really really really love getting up early and getting out to shoot at dawn, or preferably before dawn. That half hour or so before sunrise, when blue hour arrives, is just magical. That time of day is a gift. It seems like you are the only person in the world, and it's fabulous. I am never disappointed with an early wakeup for something like that.
So when I travel, I try and take advantage of my location and I get up early and go exploring. There is nothing quite like walking some fabulous city with no one to get in your shots. But I make an effort to do this at home too, after clearing it with the family of course. Not everyone in the house likes to get up early. :-)
And so on a fairly recent morning, I did just that. I arose and headed downtown to an area just south of the river. Technically, it's called South Congress Avenue, but everyone here calls it SoCo nowadays. In some ways that part of town is the source of the "Keep Austin Weird" vibe, or in other words, it's a fun place to go take photos.
There are myriad food trailers and lots of interesting and funky stores, all of which are great to shoot. There are a few restaurants too, and even a couple of hotels. It's all quite fun and entertaining, even without a camera (though I recommend one!).
So I wandered and shot, wandered and shot, and talked to a couple of homeless folks who passed me by. I do tend to watch my back a little closer when it's dark outside, but that's just the Boy Scout in me being prepared. I've never had an incident, and don't expect to.
I feel safe here. It's my hometown, and I love it.
And I have been adding a lot to my SmugMug site lately, which you can find here. The Austin gallery there is by far the largest, topping out at 150 photos now. More to come!
Food trailers on South Congress
South Congress Avenue in downtown Austin is quite a fun place to shoot, and arriving at sunrise means you get it all to yourself! Of course, you can't order a cupcake then, so that's no good. But the photo-taking...yep, that's pretty good.
Welcome to Austin - we're a fun bunch down here!
Austin is a great town and I am happy to call it home. There's a lot to like about this place, not the least of which is the laid-back vibe and tolerant attitudes of nearly everyone here. Our town motto is "Keep Austin Weird", which is technically a plea to support local businesses (as opposed to chain stores from elsewhere), but it's used in so many ways now that it's become part of our everyday vernacular.
One of the "weird" things here is the proliferation of food trailers, especially in South Austin. They are pretty common now in a lot of cities - and I am not claiming that it started here - but we have had a bunch of these for many years now. What started as a couple of trailers along South Congress Avenue has blossomed into something of a cottage industry. They are everywhere.
So on a recent morning, I got up way too early (according to my wife LOL) and went downtown to take some shots of the South Congress Avenue area at sunrise. It was a Sunday morning, and as expected, I had everything to myself, just like I wanted it. I hate having to deal with crowds. They suck when you are trying to get photos of places and things, which is what I prefer to shoot.
So I wandered the street, at times standing in the middle of it, and shot to my hearts content, and only had a couple of cars pass by, and one or two homeless folks who mumbled something. Not sure what it was, but I doubt it was "good morning - nice camera you have there". :-)
Questionable cat
Another random graffiti shot from the South Congress area of Austin. I just thought it was interesting...
Ninja panda
This falls squarely in the category of "you don't see that everyday". It's another shot from the South Congress area of Austin - a hippie, eclectic neighborhood and just a plain old good place to hang out. I was meandering, as I like to do, and found this work of graffiti art adorning the wall of a business. I am guessing they didn't ask to have it there, but it's a keeper right? I thought it was interesting. By the way, his head band says "Evolve".