Looking back through our digitally archived photography for this past year has helped us realize how lucky we have been to have witnessed so many great times and great talents. We have put together this photography post just to reminisce and share some great visuals with you. enjoy.
This photo of Gary Clark Jr was taken during SXSW 2011 during his Rolling Stone showcase in Austin, TX. Albeit, this photo isnt all that great of a technical feat, I picked it out because this was an exciting time for the fam, and Gary in particular who had an amazing roster of shows for SXSW. In this picture , Gary is also wearing one of our tee shirts, which later made it into a Rolling Stone issue…so yeah.cool.
Also during SXSW we caught a seminar with ECKO founder, Marc Ecko. Marc has long been an inspiration of ours stretching from his clothing line, magazine, and his amazing community efforts.During his stay in Austin, Ecko was speaking against and set up a mobile app that would send lawmakers correspondence against paddling in schools. This pose was meant for the photographer next to me, but i stole the shot so to speak.
J.Cole was one of the performers at the B.E.T. SXSW showcase and we had a chance to snap a few pics of Jay-Z’s protege, along with a schlew of other really talented performers.
This is a behind stage shot of Gary Clark Jr during SXSW at the Hotwire/Warner Brothers showcase. This was my favorite event of SXSW. With this event we saw the fam/crew pull together and offer an amazing showcase of music and arts that was highlighted by Gary putting down some of the best guitar licks I’d ever witnessed. This was a great day.
Marsha Ambrosius also performed at the BET SXSW showcase and blew us away. Mostly known as half of the duo FLOETRY, her solo set was definitely a highlight of the evening. The soulful songstress performed amazingly, and this is one of my favorite pictures from 2011 SXSW.
This is a close up[ shot of one of those snazzy new TDK boomboxes we painted for a friend of ours.After playing with some lighting for awhile, I finally got this great photo. The reflection of the characters onto the glossy surface gives it a ghostly, coming out of the ground quality.
The annual EMERGE graffiti art show in Austin is almost always a great place for photo opportunities. I snapped this photo of artist Dave Lowell while he was painting live at the show. After about 15 different settings/flash combo, I finally came away with the shot I saw in my head originally. The light and shadows along with the intent focus of the artist is amazing.
This is another shot from EMERGE…this one definitely not as well composed, however, the content is priceless. I didnt get a chance to get the artist name that made this piece, but I heard at some point in the evening someone ran into it and broke it. Too bad.
The above and below photos of Gary Clark Jr are from San Antonio at Sam’s Burger Joint. Aside from having some delectable burgers and fries, Sam’s also has a great venue for live music. This followed Gary’s whirlwind tour of virtually everywhere in the US and beyond, and this show acted as somewhat of a homecoming show to Texas. The sold out show was a great chance to attempt this shot of Gary and the appearance of the Blues Brothers jamming right along with him. After a grip of attempts to get the lighting right in a raw form, I finally had to resort to photoshop to lighten the Blues Brothers to make them more apparent…something I don’t really like to do, but had to resort to for the sake of this shot.
The below shot was an off focus soft shot of Gary during his set that just kinda works. Sometimes you have to let the camera do its thing.
Snoop Dogg, the Doggfather. We hopped on the tour van with Phranchyze as he opened for Snoop for a few shows including New Mexico, Lubbock, and Austin. This shot was from the Lubbock show where Snoop set the party off. I was lucky enough to get right up front as well as be equipped with a newly fixed “nifty fifty” (5omm 1.8f) to shoot with and came out with some great images. Snoop on stage is an all out character and is a flat out great entertainer. It was pretty surreal to be shooting him just a few feet away as he was performing all the bangers from The Chronic and Doggystyle.
This shot of Phranchyze in Lubbock was done with the same lens as the Snoop shot. I really like this shot because it shows the focus and intent of the soulful lyrics of the song that was being performed. I also like how his head is framed by the static stage lights that offer a soft glow to one side of him.
Muggzy Flowz at Flamingo Cantina in Austin.
2MEX at Flamingo Cantina in Austin. Every time we see LA hip hopper 2MEX perform its amazing. He is the type of performer to leave it all on stage and has been touring non stop for what seems to be forever. The rapper has kept true to his “underground” style and because of that has avoided the mainstream success he surely deserves; however, because of that he is able to stay true to his roots and is able to keep his fanbase happy and supporting his projects for all of these years.
The above and below photo were from the first day of Occupy Austin. The first day saw well over 1000 protesters standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and many of the other occupations going on around the globe. The above photo shows a man who has the bill of rights tattooed on his back, which is pretty rad.
This photo is just some cool street art we came across while walking to the Pecan Street Festival on 6th street.
This super player doghouse was one of the designs being auctioned as part of Barkitechture. The program allows many well known designers and architects a chance to build creative dog houses that are later auctioned to raise money for various pet rescue agencies.
DJ Casey Cuts came out for THE GOOD LIFE x Victory Lap art exhibit. I really like this shot because of the stickers on his computer repping the 78704 in Austin where its all good.
