Added: Gear Notes. All images taken using a Leica M240 camera set to uncompressed DNG. Two lenses utilized. The Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0 and the Voigtlander VM 75mm f1.9. Processed in Lightroom Classic. Minimal processing beyond exposure and contrast.
Eeyore's Birthday Party has evolved from a small gathering of English majors from UT to a counter culture gathering of pot heads and hippies to, finally, a family friendly, PG rated fund raiser for mainstream Austin non-profits. It's lost its cool edge but is now more accessible to more people and it maintains an Austin vibe. The pot smoke was more subdued this year. The public nudity much more restrained, the family friendly stuff made much more pervasive. Kind of kills the interest for some photographers but I'm a believer in inclusion so there is that.
I walked through and ran into Jerry Sullivan who, until recently, was the owner and operator of Precision Camera. He was sporting an M series Leica and some fun lenses. He had, in tow, Pete Holland who founded Holland Photo Lab many years ago. He retired about ten years back and he was making fun images today with a Ricoh GR111x camera. I ran into my friend from lunch the day before and he was sporting a new camera which shall, for the immediate future, remain ambiguous.
I walked down a mile from my car and carried with me a Leica M240 and a couple of lenses. It all worked well.
Since it is my blog I put in photographs that I liked. When I came home and got cleaned up B. and I went to our favorite neighborhood restaurant. It's closing for good on Tuesday. Some investor from California is raising the rent on the space the restaurant has occupied for decades by an additional 300%. Haven't they heard that Austin is imploding? Don't they want to head back home and continue messing stuff up in their own back yard?
In other notes, Austin restaurant, Jeffrey's, sold a bottle of wine a couple of weeks ago for the princely sum of $60,000. The gratuity on the bottle service was a whopping $14,000. Apparently Austin isn't out of the running for the most Ostentatious City in the Country just yet....
I like big events in the park that DON'T have: VIP tents. VIP shuttles. VIP bars. VIP early entry, etc. Eeyore's raises money for non-profits. For charities. Nobody gets rich from Eeyore's. Looking at you, trough feeders at ACL and SXSW.....
Just normal, mostly well adjusted people, collectively enjoying an afternoon in a beautiful park. With tens of thousands of other like-minded people. Nice. No valet parking. No heliports.
And kids. Lots and lots of kids. Always looking to the future.
Hope you like the photos.
