Midnight at the Oasis

AlphaRev516, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

So the other night I set out to photograph the moon. I had all the best intentions of photographing the moon, honest I did. Moon, moon, moon, moon moon. Yup, here’s me, packing up the camera gear, getting all ready to go out and shoot the moon.

Did you ever think that sometimes you are just fighting destiny? That you are destined to do something and that, no matter how hard you try to escape, destiny will catch up with you and you will be left with no say in the matter? Yeah, that’s what this shot is.

You see, I had a run-in with Alpha Rev before. Sometime back, a while ago, I had heard Alpha Rev on the radio. I really liked the song I heard on the radio too. I even blogged about it. You might remember me blogging about it because, I guess now famously, I flubbed the lyrics. No matter, the band is great, I loved them, etc. etc. Somehow though, somehow deep in my photographic heart, I knew Alpha Rev was not finished with me.

Fast forward to the moon or, at least, what I thought was going to be the moon.

This year, like every year, there was a music festival going on in Austin. It’s called “South by Southwest” (in case you’re not familiar with it) and it happens every year, about this time. Tons of people come into town, from all over the world, set up shop, and start playing music. Usually, I do not take part in this festival, since it requires something called a “wrist band” which requires that you pay a lot of money to some organization so that you can then turn around and go see the tons of live acts playing around Austin. It’s great if you’re into that but, being a local, I’ve always managed to avoid this festival.

Not this year.

This year? Nope. It’s huge. South by Southwest was bigger than normal, if such a thing could be even considered normal. The paper even called it “South by SWamped.” There were like millions of people walking around Austin. Kayne West was here. Mike Tyson. Bob Geldorf. Laura Bush. It was like a zoo.

So, Saturday night, I pack up ye ole camera bag and head out to meet some friends. The plan was we were going to meet up at the Oasis, a place out by the lake, just to the west of downtown Austin. The Oasis is a lakefront property, perched high up on a hillside, offering up some of the best sunset views Austin has to offer. It’s a very pretty spot even though, as you know, I tend to shy away from that, the “P” word and all.

Ok, so after the pretty sunset, we were going to go out and shoot the moon. I was all set for this, all prepared. Batteries charged. South by Southwest crowds, we though, neatly avoided.

Nope. Wasn’t in the cards.

For starters, I get out there and it’s packed. Jam packed. Could hardly find a parking place. Phew! It was going to be that kind of a night. Then, as I was walking up, I noticed something else. I hadn’t been to the Oasis in a while, many years in fact, so many that I hardly recognized the place. It changed a lot over the years-got a lot bigger. Ok, no problem, the moon would still be there, right?

I setup to shoot the sunset and I started to do just that actually, but that’s when I noticed it. There was a band playing behind me. At first, I thought I heard a radio playing. I recognized the song. It was the song with the lyrics I had flubbed back here, back a while ago. Something about “hearing a Mona Lisa.” They have a radio on? I thought. Nope, wasn’t a radio, it was a live band. The bands playing a song from the radio, I thought? Nope, wrong again. It was the band who had written the song on the radio performing. Wait a minute, that’s Alpha Rev!

Yeah! Finally slow Carol gets to the finish line!

Oh, I get it now. It’s like some kind of South by Southwest showcase. And I’m here. With a camera. Yeah, this is so going to happen now. Destiny fulfilled, I’m shooting the band.

As it turns out, I had packed up my 7D with me that night. It’s not only water resistant but it’s good to go down to like 2000 ISO. Amazing the new technology isn’t it? 2000 ISO, a light jacket, and Alpha Rev all in one night. Phew!

So, there you have it. Somehow, early on, I should have figured that it was some kind of destiny thing. That I was just supposed to shoot this band. That it was just sort of in the cards, as it were. Maybe blogging about it made it be, I just don’t know.

And the moon, you might be wondering about the moon. Yeah, about the moon. I took a couple of shots but it wasn’t all that great. Frankly, I’ve seen better moons on better nights. The clouds were a little bit cool but the moon looked rather ordinary to me, so I didn’t bother to shoot it much. Heck, I had Alpha Rev to play with, why would I want a big old honking moon to mess around with?

So, if you shot the moon, I’m glad you did. I hope you enjoyed it and got great shots. Frankly though, I wouldn’t trade my Alpha Rev south by southwest shots for the moon. I like mine better, 2000 ISO and all.

Midnight at the Oasis. Turns out you never know what you might find there. It just might be destiny so pack a camera and enjoy the sights and sounds.

Until next time…