photography Archives

End of the Road – Part 2

August 13, 2011

Well, it’s back to our dramatic, exciting and revealing tale of life along the mighty Mississippi.

In case you had forgotten all about it, or are just tuning in, we’re travelling along the river, to the south of New Orleans.

When last we met, we had just passed up Jack Dempsey’s on Poland Avenue. Right across the street from Jack’s place, is ‘The Joint‘.

Never heard of it.

But it certainly looks like a fun time. Kind of.

It’s never a good idea to take pictures while you drive.

But, since there was no one behind me for miles I stopped and took a picture of the old bridge across the Industrial Canal. It helps to get the feel of the rickety nature of it all.

And this brings us to an important point. The main reason you never drive along River Road outside of New Orleans and downriver from it, is that there is no River Road to the South of New Orleans. So to see the River front you have to do some driving in and out of various neighborhoods.

It’s an interesting trip. But it’s not for everyone.

The grand view from across the Industrial Canal. Ahhh, magnifico!

Maybe not. But looking to river’s bend and the city, one wonders why those two ships on the right are sitting there. Lord only knows. They’ve become a permanent fixture. (I think I do know, but am not 100% sure.)

The Holy Cross School was located here until Katrina flooded it out. They have an unbelievably beautiful new campus in the city proper, in an area which was also flooded out. One wonders what will become of this old place.

Here are some of the new houses being built from the designs fostered by actor Brad Pitt.

A view from this part of the levee back towards the old school, also captures one of the homes which is built to look like a river boat.

Driving along, the road ends once again and you have to go up to the highway to make a few detours. Here is a part of Jackson Barracks, used by the La. National Gaurd.

One of the last places on the along this stretch of intermingled neighborhoods and industries is the Domino Sugar refinery. Where would we be without that?

Part plantation, part factory, it looks like someplace we should have visited on a field trip as children yet, for some reason, I don’t believe we did.

Well.

That wraps up Part II of this exciting tour. I know you’ll be holding your breath waiting in anxious anticipation for Part 3. But that will have to debut sometime in the coming week.

Until then enjoy life, pray greatly, and give thanks to God for His abundant goodness and mercy.

The End of the Road – Part I

August 9, 2011

Last week on my ‘day off’, which is opposed to my ‘alleged day off’, which is what it’s called when we’re really busy, I took a drive downriver. Speaking of which, a lot of people get resentful when Priest’s talk about their day off, and say thing like “I wish *I* had a day off!” And then they take the weekend off, or go on vacations with their family. Perhaps if everyone lived at work they would understand this bizarre phenomenon a bit more clearly. And speaking of which… well, let’s not even talk about Priest’s vacations.

I started this scenic tour around the French Quarter since I’ve driven the River Road from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and along the river in New Orleans so many times I could do it in my sleep. (I wouldn’t really do it in my sleep of course.) My plan was to drive along River Road to the south of New Orleans, until it ends.

I didn’t feel like parking in the Quarter, so I snapped a shot of the Treme Mansion just outside the Quarter. People used to call it that, now it’s the African American Museum.

So you drive out from the Quarter along the river, and pass some interesting sights. The post-Katrina renaissance has brought our a lot of local color. Of course it very well may have been like this before Katrina, and I would never have known about it since I haven’t driven this road since college days.

A big lesson I learned: get out of the car to take the photos. I know most photographers prefer to take photos in the morning or evening light since it’s more interesting. But a day off’s a day off and I can’t be worried about that since who knows when I may pass this way again!

Speaking of color, this shocking pink store is just – shockingly colorful.

You have to turn onto Poland Avenue to navigate this drive successfully (or at all for that matter.) Ane right there is Jack Dempsey’s. I’ve been meaning to dine there for about 30 years now. I pray that one day soon I will actually get around to actually having this fine culinary experience (there I go thinking about food again…)

Alright, well this has brought us up to the Industrial Canal, which has been made famous by such hurricanes as Betsy and Katrina. Right across the canal we encounter the remnants of Holy Cross High School, but we’ll have to get to that a bit later.

I have things to do and places to go! More on this exciting adventure a but later…

A Slide Show

August 3, 2011

Instead of taking a vacation this summer I’m glued to Scott Kelby’s online photoshop training courses. I have a long way to go, but have to start somewhere. And as usual, it’s painful and humbling, and exhilarating and exciting all at the same time to be starting something new.

That’s a roundabout way of explaining the uninspiring and even sad slideshow I’m about to post. But the good teachers over there recommend using FLickr; and sorting all of that out, along with working through several tutorials, left little time to organize the rest ~~of my life~~ of this post.

The back story is, that I’ve always meant to drive from the French Quarter in New Orleans downriver to explore the territory there and to better understand how it all fits together. It’s an interesting and fascinating drive, I’ve done parts of it before, obviously, but it’s been awhile.

One thing I hadn’t expected, is that the farther away you get from the city, the more and more the ruins of Katrina are evident and in some places just left there.

About where the road ends there’s a ferry where you can cross the river. On the other side, the West bank, the road continues south for quite awhile until you reach Venice. Fort Jackson is right there, near road’s end.

But here is a simple slide show of some of the images I took and edited a bit. I’m enjoying photography, but am painfully aware that I’m on the wrong side of the learning curve to be posting slide shows.

Mais, C’est la vie, cher!

Fourth of July

July 4, 2011

There’s nothing more American than watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. And there’s nothing more inane than me heading out with my camera trying to photograph them.

But we’re making progress here.

Obviously there’s a ways to go! But, a lesson learned: scout your location with more than a minute to go before the show. Electrical wires in the middle of the photos aren’t quite an artistic advantage.

Aside from that faux pas, I shot on complete manual, with a tripod. I ended up opening the f-stop all the way to 22 at times, then dialing it back down and playing with the ISO a bit for some of the brighter shots.

Also, I increased the contrast in several because I liked the brighter effect. But… that does kind of blow out some of the highlights.

However, I’m not trying to win a prize here, so… might as well have fun with it.

It’s not like we have fireworks shows every day.

And I have to confess, I’ve never really shot on full manual before. Here I did, and varied the shutter speed from 1 second to 5 seconds. It’s not that horrible for a complete rank amateur who knows absolutely nothing about photography, though there are obviously some things I have to work on.

But, the Fourth of July is a special day hereabouts, and fireworks are the order of the day all around.

We grew up with huge stashes of fireworks we’d set off on the front lawn, before they were illegal in the city.

After that, everyone else had them. Hahah, heheheh.

I almost really like this shot, if it weren’t for the wires.

Blowout!

Here is a shot just as the strobes started to go off and light the place up like… like… like daylight, for lack of a better analogy. I played with the aperture a bit, and the ISO setting. I think.

I remember after I had been playing music for decades, and people would tell me they were starting out with piano lessons. I encourage everyone to go for it, and recall the hours and hours and hours of practice that go into technique and artistry. Compared to my time behind keyboards (well, even without that), I’m a complete noob with a camera.

Here are the offending wires. I left for the show at 8:40, and found a spot on the levee a bit farther away than is good for these shots. Especially since it was behind the wires. I got set up right as the show started.

But all in all, a good exercise. I’d post the other hundred shots, but I’d rather go pray night prayer. I pray that the holiday was enjoyed by all.

Randomness

June 30, 2011

When I decided to take up photography, I was coming to terms with the fact that taking up cooking causes weight gain. However, the immediate result of having a camera was that I then took pictures of lots of food.

It’s a long story; it’s best left for another time.

Cleaning out old photos, I noticed a few stragglers I had meant to post but never got around to. And I hardly had time to post all 5,000 of them.

Here’s an auto that showed up on Easter Sunday; I was quite taken with it’s beauty and have about a thousand pictures of it.

Food is a lot easier to compose in a photo then is an antique car against the backdrop of a school building. I’ll have to consider that.

And here is the church steeple as twilight approaches. We have a very modern architecture here; and it works very well.

I took my shot at photographing a wedding, and decided to stick with playing the organ and, even better yet, presiding.

A beautiful statue of Mary was in the Sanctuary.

And for now, it’s off to sleep; only so much time in a day…