Travelin' About

My daughter suggested I'd love to try a Gospel Brunch. I envisioned large, robed ladies belting out traditional Baptist hymns while I tried to swallow down a buffet of breakfast, lunch and dinner (that's NY style) and everyone getting up and swinging ans swaying yelling Halleluia! Wrong.  Well, maybe there is one like that somewhere, but Gospel Brunch at S trange Brew in South Austin was a lovely, relaxed, Sunday spiritual experience.  The Purgatory Players perform every Sunday from 11-1. The setting is a darkened coffee house where they have a large selection of coffees and teas, milk choices (Hemp milk, anyone?), breakfast tacos, pastries and an amazing sandwich menu.  Jeff Plackenhorn explained that the regular Purgatory Players were down three members on the particular Sunday that I was there - one was on the road, one was sick and one was playing elsewhere - so they had guests Stan Smith (pictured on the right, who sounds a lot like Dylan and plays o...

  I have to say, I have the best job in the world - getting to shoot all kinds of fun events where people are happy and celebrating and generally looking their best.  A five year old birthday party at the brand new Austin Aquarium   sounded, at first, like the perfect gig.  Brooklyn is a beautiful young lady who I had photographed before so I really looked forward to her party.  The only problem was, the Aquarium was dark, over crowded, and the children were far more interested at looking at the fish tanks than my camera, leaving me with only their backs to photograph. But this is where being an experienced photographer comes in handy.  I was prepared with the proper lighting set up - my flash on a bracket to give plenty of light and prevent red-eye - and a battery pack on my hip so that the flash would fire continuously.  I was able to get to the opposite side of the tanks most of the time, to try and capture the awe of seeing these bizarre ...