6th Street Glow – Austin, Texas

I always seem to end up on East 6th Street. Whenever I get a new camera. Especially when I test its low-light capabilities. The architecture is more ornate than most of Austin, and with touches of neon color, it makes for a decent testbed. There aren’t many character-filled urban night locations, despite Austin’s growth. This is no Tokyo.

Instead of my usual straight-on composition, I’ve opted for some angle. I like this section of 6th, shooting it before, because of the color. The Fuji GFX 50S II worked magnificently using a low ISO 320 at 1/3 of a second. This was possible even with the comparably slow f5.2 aperture.

The Bat Bar is no more. Located on the right and now boarded up — they didn’t survive the Pandemic. I have not surveyed the rest of 6th Street to see which bars made it. This was once the only entertainment district in Austin. But they now have stiff competition from Rainey Street, SoCo, East Austin, West 6th Street, and even The Domain. An impressive selection for a medium-sized American city.

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