Mariano comes to Austin... again...

Gubrz

O.* Gonzo's & Bentley's Dad
Location
Austin, TX
Name
Eliot
I never know where to post my photos. They always feel like such a mix of different categories. So hopefully clutching desperately to the idea that these photos were all taken during my friends travel to Austin/Texas in general, will allow me to just settle them in here :)

we made it down to san antonio and wandered the riverwalk, took a boat tour, saw the alamo, i pointed out the ripleys believe it or not where my original ipad was KIDNAPPED when i set it down to take a photo of my nieces...grumble... and had a 3lb cinnamon roll. Most of these things you wont see in my photos, because they photos just looked like snap shots of memories... but hey, i did TELL you about them... dont be greedy! ;)
my sister would be rolling her eyes and saying "this picture could be taken ANYWHERE! Wheres the evidence of the trip?!" but they WERENT taken anywhere, and i know it... :)

some of these ive posted already, i think, i dunno, im so scatterbrained, but here they are as a full trip collection! :)

hope you enjoy!




a seafood restaurant hostess roasting in the heat and humidty
im not sure if i felt worse for her, or for me... i mean, we were both roasting, but she was at least getting paid for it...

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_DSC8630 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

the observation tower. im sure if we all close our eyes and imagine a beautiful panaorama of downtown san antonio that you can forgive me for being a HUGE chicken and refusing to go to the top to take a photo...

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_DSC8830 - Version 2 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

some sunlight filtering thru leaves along the riverwalk... im all obsesso over this infrared/glamour glow light thru leaves thing lately... forgive me and my excessive indulgences :)

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_DSC8939 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

we made it to one of the missions and wandered around a bit... tho i spent mebbe half the time sneaking back into the church where there was A/C! but i did love the colors in this shot, and the pop, it reminds me of why the lens and sensor in this rx1 are amazing to me. so many times my hyper processing makes me think "why didnt i just use my iphone?!" but then, this is why...

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_DSC9015 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

i believe these flowers were partiall overhanging a rolling hill of a bridge in the japanese tea gardens in san antonio. there were koi the size of a tricycle in those waters! it felt very mulan! and i expected to see a monk and his pet panda meditation around every corner
i didnt tho.... ok just in my head...

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_DSC9098 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

we stopped in a fancy pants pizza joint for some grub. we had a pizza loaded with 2345123 toppings that i matched together quite well, according to Mariano!
i also had cheesecake... omg... cheesecake... *drool*
this couple was sitting at the next table.. there was an odd shelf of granite jutting out between us, that i used to hold my ridiculous amount of STUFF i feel the need to drag around with me.. really.. when will it be okay for men to carry giant purses?! i hate backpacks! my back just gets sweaty! ;)
anyways... i thought the reflections looked great... i only wish i could have lifted the camera up more to get their full faces in the reflection, but i was being all ninja like and discreet...

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_DSC9119 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

one of my other obsesso processing styles(brought back from the past)
Austin has a fascination with food trailers, and on one day a month, gathers a bunch of them all together along the grassy slopes of The Long Center and manages to have hour long lines for each trailer... hippies love trailer food! ;D
This girl was just looking out from under the colums of the center out toward the downtown austin skyline just across the river

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_DSC9354 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

the little girl apart
sitting there eating her ice cream, staring right at the camera the whole time... whether i had it lifted or not... she just kept on staring! i tried to get a bunch of shots without the guys behind her rushing me to defend her innocence from a dirty old man... btw, they werent even her family, thats the people circled off without her to the right of the shot, lol. but they kept glancing over like i was a kidnapper. i wish they were in this shot, but oh well, lol

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_DSC9276 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

almost to the front of the line at our food truck of choice...
i saw this woman and knew i had to have a photo of her! i grabbed this snap, and one with a guy handing out some food from the other window... but liked this one more

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_DSC9463 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

FINALLY! I was STARVING!!!
i told her that i had stood in this long line just to take her photo, she cracked up and posed for me
she was great! it was nice of her to be so friendly even tho we were all roasting and dying in stupid texas heat and humidity and she was rushing her butt off trying to burn down a never ending line of cranky people demanding food :)

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_DSC9468 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

picked up my pup(actually hes an old man now, just turning 10 in mid june) from his grandmas house, where her new young puppy just runs him ragged... he was POOPED! So pooped, he actually let me take a photo where he doesnt look like i beat him with my camera... lol

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P6280012 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

Mariano wanted to see what the nightlife was like on a friday night on 6th street in downtown austin
we wandered up and down congress and 6th, and saw some characters, and some people who look like they need some friends to tell them "its time for you to stop drinking... we love you, and this is an intervention..."
this wasnt one of those people, but he was cool enuf to pose when his camera-radar BOOP... BOOP... BOOOOOOOOOOOOP'd as i lifted my camera from the other side of a parked car to get a shot of him looking all... i dunno, i wanna say cool, but i think anyone smoking looks...actually i think ill use this new skill im developing, called "filtering" and just say that he looked interesting :)

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_DSC9978 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

this man was standing in the middle of 6th street holding this flag, not saying a word, but i imagine his thoughts might have been on how silly all these drunk people are and how they should be DOING something, not trying to look cute to other people that dont DO anything... ya know? or something... he had that kinda face, to me...
i tried to get a better shot of him and the guy to the left of the shot, the big vanity muscle guy... hes always downtown whenever i get down that way, strutting and posing and trying to keep every muscled flexed to capactity as he moves... i sometimes want to film him and show him the movie and say "see... we all know how hard you are trying to look even buffer than you are, and it looks silly... just walk like a normal human being already!" for kind of a "Men of Texas: for real, for show" kinda theme.. but i can just tell if beefcake saw me taking his photo id be bombarded with extra flexing or some obnoxious "witty" banter from his certainly daily bleached teeth. and i might vomit on my rx1. now let me tell you how i REALLY feel... ;) lol!

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_DSC9956 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

ah... dallas! land of... well actually, i thought i hated dallas after living there for 3 months as my first venture into texas, before i ran for my life down to austin... but hey... it wasnt as humid.. so i kinda loved it!
we did a tour of southfork ranch and saw the house from Dallas, the tv series. it was much smaller! well, everything but the dining table... whoa that thing was HUGE!
we also did a self guided(aka, pay a fortune to wander around by yourself) tour of cowboy stadium
now, i generally dislike sports, and think those people get paid too much to play games and act like they are role models because they can do this or that with a ball... but mebbe thats the uncoordinated chubby guy in me lashing out ;) lol!
but that stadium was impressive!
it was HUGE!
im not going to say it was the same feeling i got when i saw the grand canyon, or lake michigan... but it was closer to that than to the feeling you get waking up in the morning 2 minutes before your alarm goes off.. ill give it that...

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_DSC0247 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

everyone was taking shots of people doing silly things on the star, this was as isolated as i could get of just the star...

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_DSC0273 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

dallas actually has a VERY cool zoo/aquarium downtown. its like youve wandered into a rainforest and everythings just out there with you! ok, most of the time the cages just blend in pretty darn well. bamboo bars, thin wire screanings, and there are a few birds and monkeys that are kinda just OUT there doing their thing.. so it all FEELS like its right there
there was one of those plexi tubes under water that you can walk thru, so we stopped and took photos, and this crop of the crowd was kinda fun with the reflection.

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_DSC0667 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

and of course, the end of the line dumps you off in consumerland gift shop, where i put these octopus tentacles on all my fingers to send a silly snapshot to my nieces and nephew.. but when i tossed it thru my sepia street preset, i thought it looked AMAZING! this is the final process version, and i still wish i could add a bit of water surface ripple reflection light somewhere in the top right... but alas, i lack the skill!
its just my hand, tentacled up, grainy and a plain concrete floor behind it...

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_DSC0750 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

everytime wed leave the house, Mariano would say "we need to take pics of those sunflowers sometime
so we did... and it only took him mentioning it like 8 times before i finally remembered! :)
its not that i dont care, its that im easi- OH, SHINY!

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_DSC0779 by Eliĉjo Flâneur, on Flickr

today is his last day, and hes walking downstairs, finally, and we are heading out
so i may add a couple more after i drop him at the airport... but i had the time now, so i thought id whip out some shots from the rest of the trip while i could and get 99% of it all done, so i just have to add a couple at the end, ya know, before i got distr-SHINY!!!
 
E, I love your stream of conscious writing almost as much as I love your photographs.:bravo-009: Really a great set here....a lot to be proud of. Print up a couple for Mariano as a remembrance of a great visit.
 
I could not give just consideration to the pics, because of constantly wiping imaginary sweat :) Having lived and traveled extensively in Texas several times, I don't miss the heat, but really like that country (not the cities).
 
A beautiful set of photos!
hey, thanks so much! :D
E, I love your stream of conscious writing almost as much as I love your photographs.:bravo-009: Really a great set here....a lot to be proud of. Print up a couple for Mariano as a remembrance of a great visit.
well, im glad i went back over it 5 times to weed it down to this... else it might have been too much "so THIS is whats going on in yer head? im glad you keep yer trap shut usually!"
ha!
he has too many of his own photos he needs to hang up, and hasnt.. in.. oh 10 years of being in his blank walled home... lol
Great series and yes, a huge variety of shots.

I have a soft spot of the Austin area, having spent three very enjoyable years there.
it wouldnt be an eliot post if the shots didnt look like at least 3 seperate photographers did them! lol!
*rolls eyes at self*
i have a hard time sticking to a look
i love austin, i just hate that its in texas with texas weather,... LOL :D
Hey Neighbor!
Next give me holler when you're down here in San Antonio...:)

Nice shot there of the TOA...:cool:
hey there! that sounds like fun to me! i can force you to go to canyon cafe with me... i MUST eat there everytime, as austin is lacking in grilled bison meatloaf!
what days are you generally free?
AMAZING stuff! I love the little girl apart, the girl with the odd sunglasses, and the tentacles WERE something! Fun stuff.
thanks!
those 3 are def in my MUST HAZ PRINT pile!
I could not give just consideration to the pics, because of constantly wiping imaginary sweat :) Having lived and traveled extensively in Texas several times, I don't miss the heat, but really like that country (not the cities).
one day ill be able to say the same "remember back when i lived in that horrid humid hole?" hehehehe
sadly it wont be this year, or even next!
drats... foiled again!
*twirls vaudeville moustache and slinks off to the shadows...*
 
Nice stuff Eliot. Kind of a down day here in Italy, waiting for our daughter to arrive tonight and walking too many steps for the last couple of days. So taking it easy today and catching up. I like your writing almost as much as your photos!

-Ray
 
Nice stuff Eliot. Kind of a down day here in Italy, waiting for our daughter to arrive tonight and walking too many steps for the last couple of days. So taking it easy today and catching up. I like your writing almost as much as your photos!

-Ray
wow, i guess i should be allowing my inner babble out more often! lol! :D
thanks so much ray... oh, and i hate you for being in italy! you get to go to all the cool places!!! </pout>
hehehe
i spent most of today in bed trying to recoop from GOGOGOGOGOGO of 2 weeks of mariano in town. i always feel like i have to be entertaining him, lol!
make sure u do a nice hot foot soak ;)

LoL I haven't even been to Canyon Cafe' yet
OMG WHAT?!
*rolls eyes in exasperation*
rt, rt, rt, rt.... WHAT am i going to do with you?!
*throws hands in air*
hehehe


its over by the quarry mall, not sure where in town yer by
but its a must try!
they have these chips that taste like candy!
 
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