Photographer in Hudson Valley { Austin City Lights }
I took a recent business trip to Austin, and man did I have fun. My company was recently acquired, and due to this acquisition, I’m going to get a chance to travel a bit more. Now in most circumstances traveling for work sounds like a big pain, but I’m really looking forward to getting a chance to go to some other spots, and it’s cool that it’s on the company dime. Now I don’t exactly get to do portrait photography when I go out to these places, which is certainly a bummer, but I at least usually ge
t a chance to go walking around with my camera, something that I absolutely love. I frankly don’t do it enough. I really need to start going on more walkabouts, but it’s hard when I really don’t have that much time, and it’s hard for me to find new things to shoot in Hudson Valley.
With new towns comes new opportunities though. So on this trip to Austin I took a stroll down 6th street, which is Austin’s version of Hudson Valley’s 16th street mall, only with a ton more bars, and way better blues. I loved the music pouring out into the streets while I was there. The music scene in Austin is so vibrant, and the great thing is that it’s varied. You can hear blues on one block and punk on the next. I even heard someone that almost sounded like AFI, which is one of my favorite bands. I just wish I had tickets.
I wish I had felt more like doing some street photography, but it seemed a bit hard, and there were a ton of “bouncers” who were all trying to get you to stop into their watering hole. Which was frankly a bit annoying. “You deserve a drink!” No actually I just wanna do some photography, and you’re messing with my chi. I don’t do very good work when I’m drunk. Well actually I guess I’ve never really tried to do much photography when I was drunk, so maybe it’s something I should try. I would have to take a cheap camera out though. I don’t want losing my nice camera to be a buzz kill.
I was amazed at how unsafe I felt walking around some of the back streets though. Normally I’m a tank when I’m walking around at night, but for some reason the night air had me a bit spooked. I saw a drug deal go down in one of the alleys. That had me worried, not to mention the fact that I have this giant camera hanging around my neck. And it’s not like I’m a big guy, in fact I’m kinda scrawny. I would be easy pickens for sure. Sometimes I wish I had a nice little Leica, that looked like a piece, but was in fact an amazing camera. If anyone notices a nice little Leica at a garage sale, pick it up for me, and i’ll pay you back.
For some reason I like both of these shots independently. I like the out of focus nature of the first shot. And I like the motion and the feeling of the second shot. Not really sure why I can’t seem to pick a favorite, but in this case you get both because I’m so indecisive. Maybe you guys can let me know which one you like better.
Hope ya like em,
-Dave