The Rasers – West Coast & Destination Wedding Photography » Creative Husband & Wife Photography Duo - West Coast, US, Destination

Not only had I been doing myself a disfavor as a musician and music enthusiast by never having been to Nashville, but recently Lisa and I had been hearing really great things about the city from many good friends and fellow musicians, and since we’re now only about 3 hours away we decided to get out of rural Southern Illinois for a few days, and visit the famous music city this past weekend.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and walked around downtown for quite a while, stopping at Nashville staples like Hatch Show Print and the Ryman Auditorium. We also ducked out of the chilly breeze into an ice-cream shop. . . not the best way to warm one’s self up, I know, however their homemade ice cream flavors were quite delicious, and we enjoyed the cozy atmosphere. In the evening we headed over to the west side of town to check out a Thai food restaurant we had discovered online. I had the peanut curry, which was delightful!

On Sunday we milled around German Town for most of the morning, after having breakfast at Drinkhaus (a local cafe, suggested to us by Design Sponge). In the afternoon we made our way over to the Nashville Farmers Market, which operates seven days a week, and boasts an impressive array of local produce. Especially prominent at the market this weekend were the pumpkins and squash, which of course are the seasonal favorites. The market is located at one end of the state capitol building’s long, grassy mall. After some lunch and perusing many baskets of tomatoes, and egg plants and things we headed up the mall towards the capitol building. We reached the building itself at a very beautiful time of evening, and the prospect from the to top of the hill afforded views of many of the surrounding hills and neighborhoods for miles in every direction. All in all we really loved the city, and plan on making a return visit very soon. We hope you enjoy these moments that we captured from our trip!

Hatch Show Print, the famous Nashville letterpress print shop, has been creating some of music’s most famous posters and handbills since the 1920’s.

Every third Sunday of the month there’s an impromptu swing dance session in the food court at the farmers market. We happened by as they were getting started and took the liberty of enjoying all the dancing couples as we ate our lunch.

At Drinkhaus in German Town, enjoying a very unique pear, prosciutto, and goat cheese panini.

Lisa’s shot.

On my final day in New York my father and I decided to be typical tourists, and settled on having ourselves whisked 86 stories up to the top of the Empire State Building. They actually only take you to the 80th floor on the initial elevator, and the line was so long to catch the second elevator to the top that we ended up climbing the stair case 6 flights up to the observation deck (which of course made the end result so much more satisfying, because we had worked sooo hard to get there. . .).

The view from the top is really quite spectacular. Truth be told, I am little afraid of heights, but I was so distracted by the amazing views, and preoccupied with aggressively pushing my way through crowds of other camera-toting tourists, just to catch a glimpse over the edge, that I hardly remembered to be nervous.

The day was an amazing way to cap off the trip (including of course my performance at the Rockwood Music Hall later that evening). Thanks so much for sharing in my trip with me, I hope you enjoy these photos. I hope to get back to the city soon–three days is never be quite enough to really explore. Looking forward to my next visit!

I held my camera way up over my head to get this shot out the top, transparent half of a frosted window on the 80th Floor.

Some of the very meaningful memorabilia at one of the building’s numerous gift shops. . .

My father joined me for my second day in the city, and we decided to head out together to do some walking. I had heard from some friends that you can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, which I thought sounded pretty incredible. We arrived and discovered that the bridge was actually built with a whole raised pedestrian section right down the middle, which now comes complete with both pedestrian and bike lanes! We ended up walking the entire length of the bridge into Brooklyn, and then back again, and around in some of the surrounding areas. The views of Manhattan were astounding, and the bridge itself is a remarkable structure. I’d recommend the walk to anyone who wants a unique view of the city, and also of this historic landmark. We had a great time snapping photos together, and getting some exercise at the same time. I hope you enjoy this next batch of photos!

My quintessential Brooklyn Bridge shot. . .

After walking the bridge we explored some of the surrounding area on the Manhattan side, which houses the City Hall, some beautiful small parks, and the city court houses.

Barbed-wire next to a church that I passed on my way down Central Park West my first day in town.

On my first day in New York my father was off doing some historical research in New Jersey, so I took the liberty of setting out to explore the city on my own. I ended up, among a number of places that day, at Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library (which happened to be right down the street from our apartment), the Chrysler Building, and Central Park (where I had a lovely several-hour-long walk, encountered some unusual street performers, and explored several little fingers of the park’s surprisingly large lake). I hope you enjoy these snap shots of my first day in the city.

I recently had an opportunity to visit the great city of New York, both to spend time with my father, who is here doing some historical research, and to play a show at a very cool venue here in town called the Rockwood Music Hall (this Sat. @ 6pm if anyone’s in town). I’m still here in the city, but wanted to give you a quick sneak peek of what I’ve seen so far.

More to come soon. . .