Austin Lights

After Stephen's, we came back to our hotel. B did her 'early to bed' thing, and I was back out on the streets of downtown Austin. Stuff was really starting to pop -- just enough light from the bars, and just the right number of people to have that moment when stuff was happening.

Naturally, this was when my camera decided to break. :\

This is one of the last usable exposures I got from the evening -- was trying to capture the mood of the night life.

Sixth Street Tarot

Betsy, for all her many virtues, has one vice: she's an early sleeper (not that I blamed her after the trip across Texas!). After she dozed off, I slipped out of the hotel to walk around downtown Austin and get some pictures.

Our hotel was right by Sixth Street, which is sort of the main artery for the flow of night life through the downtown. Lots of bars, lots of clubs, and (most importantly) lots of people.

I've never really been much for loud bars or clubs, but the crowds of people going in and out of them generally end up doing really interesting things as the night progresses. On a previous trip to Austin, I'd seen it filled with a motorcycle rally, and had had a lot of fun shooting that, so I was curious to see what it was like before Memorial Day.

The answer is: sort of an upscale Bourbon Street (but with fewer raw oysters and less grain alcohol). Lots of people, lots of stuff going on -- I went back here every night I was in Austin, and would have shot there more had my camera not broken mid-visit.