I had a few inquires into last week’s photo so here is a setup photo. Light spill on the background was a issue so I came up with a crude gobo by zip tying the top of a cardboard box to the light stand.

SB600 left and right and a white bounce card on the table under to light the front of the spoon. ISO 200, f/16, 1/250. Strobes at 1/4 power.

Only an hour and a half outside of Austin in Bergheim you will find a small piece of the African plains tucked away in the Texas hill country. The Serengeti Resort is home to a variety animals and you get the chance to get up close and personal with them. They also have plenty of accommodations that can easily make this a weekend getaway.

In the spacious lodge they serve meals and have wine tastings. The dinner isn’t cheap but they did prepare a steak that could hold it’s own against any piece of meat a 5 star steakhouse could produce. During our stay there were two inches of rain that fell overnight but there is a pool, hot tub and a playground for the kiddos. I didn’t get a chance to look inside but they also offer tents that you can stay in to really get that safari feeling.

Austin is very fortunate to have so many wineries within a few hours from downtown. The Wimberley Valley Winery is only about an hour drive Southwest from Austin. While the winery has been around since 1983 in April they opened their new tasting room. The building was previously the home for the large tanks and they did a great job on the new space. They have a large open field with miniature horses and donkeys right in front of the tasting room which are pretty friendly and enjoy a little scratch behind the ears.

A friend and Cisco coworker is fighting a particularly aggressive form of late-stage cancer. We are trying to raise money to off-set personal expenses and arrange a trip to NYC next week.

He is New Yorker through and through and his wife and daughter have never been to New York and it’s Mac’s greatest desire to travel there very soon to show “his girls”, his town and to gather with his extended family one more time.

Time is of the essence for Mac and if you are able to donate anything it would be greatly appreciated. We are holding a golf tournament to raise money next week in Cedar Park. All profit/proceeds from the event will go directly to Mac.

Golf Tournament details:
· Event is scheduled for 12/6 at Twin Creeks Country Club in Cedar Park
· Shotgun start at ~11:30AM. Please arrive at 11:00
· Cost is $125 per golfer
· You can sponsor a hole for $500.00
· We will have Mulligans for sale at $80.00 a team
· The event will be catered by the club
· Bar is on premise (sorry, no open bar)

Link to more details and to donate here
http://tinyurl.com/macbits

As a former air traffic controller I have a love for airports. Pre 9/11 I used to take my scanner and tune into ATC frequencies while parked near the airport to watch and listen as the areal orchestration takes place. It probably wouldn’t even take 20 minutes for the police to show up these days. The Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg gives you the opportunity to get as close as possible to the Gillespie County Airport without actually getting in a plane and taking off.

The hotel is themed after a WWII airport hanger and is full of memorabilia giving you a feeling that you are back in the 1940′s. Each room has a candle in the window and a note on the bed from the OIC. There is an Officers’ Club with a fireplace, full bar, pool table and a grand piano. This is a perfect place to spend the evening after spending some time on the observation deck watching airplanes.

If you are an aviation enthusiast or just looking for a unique experience The Hangar Hotel is a must.

FunFunFun Fest 2011 is in the books. Sunday gave way to some wet stuff from the sky to knock down some of the dust but overall it was a perfect overcast day for a festival along with plenty of good music as far as the ear could hear. I think the choice to move the festival to Auditorium Shores from Waterloo Park worked out great. There was plenty of room for everyone all in the shadow of the Austin skyline.

Police like wrestling. It’s a fact.

Pictures from FunFunFun Fest.

Thanks to Our Game Magazine I photographed four UT women’s soccer soccer games at Michael A. Myers Stadium. At the time of this post they are preparing to play in the 2011 Big 12 tournament in San Antonio.

Click on the picture to see a video montage of some of the pictures

To promote a recent pledge drive the awesome people of KLRU came up with a great promotion. A day trip with Chet Garner of the TV show The Daytripper from Austin to three awesome barbecue joints in Lockhart and Luling which was dubbed “The Meat Up”.

Meeting outside the studios we loaded into two tour buses and headed towards Lockhart for our first stop of the day, Black’s Barbecue.

Before we departed Chet stopped by to say good morning and hello to everyone.

Even with around 100 people showing up all at once the folks at Black’s were amazingly kind and gracious, even allowing for pit tours for anyone who wanted a peek behind the scenes to see where the magic happens.

Black’s is the oldest barbecue restaurant continuously owned by the same family, every since 1932!

With some great Black’s meat in our stomach it was time to saddle up and head down the road to the Luling City Market.

After being treated to some more great Q, the “all aboard the meat train” signal was sounded. It was time to head back to Lockhart for our final stop of the day, Smitty’s Market.

You can’t help but feel some nostalgia as you are here. The walls are stained with years upon years of barbecue smoke. You can just tell that most of what you see around you is just as it was when it was the Kreuz Market 50 years ago.

My lovely wife Amy, and I.

You’ve got to have a lot of wood to keep those pits going.

The first keg departed the Saint Arnold Brewery in 1994 making them the oldest craft brewery in the state of Texas. The brewery is located in Houston in a old HISD food service building that was built in 1914. They have tours Monday through Saturday and have very large space for you to bring lunch and hang out for a few hours. And best of all, you get to drink Saint Arnold’s beer!