Every month we bring you a profile of a photographer who has captured the people, the food and the spaces that make up the world of barbecue.

Lisa Rawlinson – Austin, Texas

I fell into photographing barbecue through my blog, Full and Content, somewhat by happenstance. I’ve always loved eating barbecue, it’s a way of life in Texas for most people, but in 2013 I compiled a guide to eating barbecue in Austin for the Austin Food Blogger Alliance. From there I started doing more in-depth pieces, like profiles of Tom Micklethwait and John Lewis (both ended up becoming good friends, as an added bonus), and it has snowballed from there.

I consider myself to be a beginner photographer, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’ve only owned a DSLR for a short time and have been using manual settings for less than a year. I’m still learning the technical aspects of it but am now able to produce more intentional results. The extremes in light and dark – plus the smoky haze – that can often occur in one setting in barbecue joints have sometimes been a challenge for me technically, but they’ve forced me to just get in there and do it in order to learn, and that atmospheric light has become something I absolutely love in barbecue photography.

People interact with content differently on the Internet than in print, and I approach writing for my blog with that in mind. Even in my longer pieces, I try to break it up with photography so that the content is organized into more easily digestible chunks: using imagery as transitions, to create mood and setting in order to reduce the amount of written words, as well as to convey information visually about food, people, or places. Those are things I keep in mind as I’m shooting. I want the photos to be able to stand alone as interesting images, but for the context in which they will appear, the most important thing is that they help tell the story, ideally actually advancing the narrative, working in tandem with the text. My skill and style are evolving, but the story-telling aspect is a key part of it. I’m trying to live up my blog’s tagline, “Life, as told through the story of food.”

 

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Early morning light and smoke at Snow’s BBQ in Lexington

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A small portion of the 3,500 pounds of briskets
barbecued in giant smokers for the St. Louis Day Celebration in Castroville

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Pitmaster John Lewis of la Barbecue in Austin prepping a pork shoulder

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Sausage in the smoker at Tyler’s Barbecue in Amarillo

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Babyback ribs at the Lockhart Smokehouse booth at the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival

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No-nonsense diners at City Meat Market in Giddings

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Artful drips on one of the direct heat smokers at Cooper’s in Llano

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Hutchins BBQ pork ribs fresh out of the smoker at the Red Dirt Festival in Tyler

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Tom Micklethwait catching a couple of hours of sleep on the
Tyler square the night before the Red Dirt Festival

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A sloppily delicious chopped beef sandwich at Stiles Switch in Austin

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To view more of Lisa Rawlinson’s work visit www.fullandcontent.com.

Every month TMBBQ highlights a photographer with a love for barbecue as subject matter. If you’d like your photos to be included in this online gallery please contact dvaughn@texasmonthly.com