(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] In this video,
we're hitting the old Texas Barbecue Trail,
alongside music and culture photographer, Chad Wadsworth.
Along the way, we'll meet some of the best pitmasters
in Central Texas, documenting it all with a Sony a7R III
and the 24 millimeter G Master F1.4.
So dig in.
(upbeat music)
- My name is Chad Wadsworth from Austin, Texas
and I'm a photographer specializing in music culture.
Besides music, another one of my loves in Austin
is food and barbecue, specifically.
Anything where we're documenting a passion
that's related to the city you live in
is an easy project for me.
About 30 minutes outside of Austin is Lockhart, Texas.
It's really, I think, considered the heart,
the birthplace of Texas barbecue.
Making that pilgrimage to Lockhart
is something you have to do.
Smitty's has such a great atmosphere.
You literally walk in,
the pit's right on your right hand side
and the fire is licking your shoe, see now.
It had so much patina, is that the right word?
The walls were literally encrusted with soot.
From a photographer's perspective, I was just in heaven.
I shot this entire project on the Sony a7R III
and their G Master, it's the 24 mm 1.4.
That lens on the a7R III, it's like a dream combo for me
as a documentary photographer
because it's a 42 megapixel camera.
That's a lot of megapixels.
That's medium format territory.
Low light, I've got an F1.4 aperture,
I've got a 24 mm field of view,
so I could see a lot of the scene,
and I can shoot that in crop mode and all the sudden,
that 24 millimeter becomes a 35 millimeter equivalent.
That's the power I want.
That's, as a photographer, I don't wanna stop and think,
I don't wanna dig into a menu.
The combination of the lens on that sensor,
I don't know that you can get much better in this format.
It became very apparent to me
that this was gonna be a story about the people.
When we rolled in to Kreuz's,
we quickly met Roy, who's the pitmaster.
I guess he's been there for 30 years.
Roy's got the big lamb chops, looks like Elvis,
but he loves how Elvis lived as a man.
He's a student of Elvis,
and he applies that to his life and to his barbecue.
- We do it the old-fashioned way,
feel, and sight, and hard work.
That's why I love it, that's why I have pride in it.
- You walk in and it's expansive,
but it's still heavy with that barbecue vibe.
The air is literally heavy with smoke.
You order your food right in the front of the pit,
so you get to see where everything's
being prepared and cooked.
I love this Lockhart style,
this Texas style of dry-rub barbecue.
One of my favorite things is getting a good brisket
that has that bark on it, that beautifully rendered fat.
You just take that bite and it all melts in your mouth
and you get the pop from the salt and the pepper.
- When the line's disappear,
that's when it's time for me to hang up my apron.
So far they haven't.
- I'm going to Kreuz's just to go see Roy now.
He looks a little like Elvis, man.
(laughter)
- I can just say thank you very much.
- You look at Black's, and it's a much smaller space even,
but it has a really heavy family vibe.
- Come on back here, I'll show you the cooking pits.
- Kent was super interesting.
He was a lawyer for 20 years before his family
let him come back and be a part of the business.
- We're here in Lockhart, Texas and all this wood
comes from within 10 or 15 minutes of here.
It's a local wood, post oak.
- Kent is third generation, Barrett's fourth generation.
We met his mother, Norma Jean.
There's this iconic photo on the wall at Black's barbecue
and they're all around the carving table
in back of the register and we got the bright idea
that since Barrett was there and Norma Jean was there,
we could recreate that photo.
I don't know that we did it justice, but it was really fun,
and getting everyone in the right position,
and they were into it and they were so cute
as a family unit wanting to do that.
That was definitely a highlight.
Lockhart was the heritage,
Lockhart was the way its been done,
and we knew that when we got to Austin,
it was gonna be a little different.
- [Cameraman] Did you guys put in the astro turf or did--
- [Tom] No, it's a new addition, I guess.
- [Cameraman] That's new to me.
- And someone like Tom Mickelthwait,
I think, is representative of that new guard.
How did you get started?
You just making this in your backyard and--
- Yeah, started with a Weber grill.
- It was clear that he's a do-it-yourself guy,
bought his trailer for 500 bucks, redid it,
built the pit, he's figuring things out himself.
He's been to Lockhart and knows what makes it special.
He was pretty masterful at putting it all together
and making a plate that a foodie would love.
That is delicious.
- I was never trying to make a perfect brisket.
I think I was just trying to create
what good barbecue should be.
- Towards the end of it, we took a photo, a wide photo,
of the whole scene and it just felt nice.
Very chill, warm vibe.
The last place we visited was Sam's BBQ
and we met with Brian
and Brian, he's got that gift of the gab.
- Whenever you get here, you don't need no teeth.
Everybody else need teeth to chew the food,
but Sam's, you don't need no teeth.
You got a homemade pit here.
When you get you a homemade pit like this,
you can do what you wanna do.
I wanna cook everything fresh.
I've been doing it for 43 years.
- I feel like Sam' BBQ is no different
than the other barbecue places we visited
in that it is family run, it's been there for a long time,
and it's authentic, it's beautiful.
(upbeat music)
I really love capturing a portrait or a subject
to show who they are.
We got to know each of our subjects.
We spent time talking to them,
we heard their origin stories.
I'm super lucky.
Let's be honest, this is a great job
and whether it be music, art, or barbecue,
to be able to document what's happening
at any point in time, I think a lot of times,
we'll take images, as a photographer,
and you don't give them any special weight,
but then you revisit them two, three, five, 10 years later
and you're like, wow, that was a time capsule.
You are doing something important.
I think the beautiful thing about this newest technology
is it really is enabling.
This project, using that lens and camera combo,
it made everything so much easier.
(slow music)