New Orleans Street Scenes and Beyond

Street Scenes - Outside a New Orleans Cafe

Homeless in New Orleans - A sad reality~

For the past few days I have had the opportunity to spend a few days in New Orleans.  Other than a quick trip for a few hours, this was my first real experience in the city.  Over the years  I have heard stories of New Orleans... the wild and partying side of Bourbon Street, the street performers, the crime, the nightlife, Mardi Gras and many other things.  New Orleans appears to be a city of multifaceted people and cultures.  As in any city you will find the affluent residents, middle class people of all races and nationalities, and the youth that seem to bring the city to life.  The French Quarter was a very interesting place.  I stayed in the French Quarter during my visit and encountered many things during my adventures around.  I saw street performers scattered throughout, hoping to be discovered, trying to earn a living off of donations from locals and tourists for sharing their talent freely with the people that strolled by.  I saw individuals with robust personalities that approached random people in hopes that they could make a quick few dollars off of their trusting naive personalities.  I even got caught up in the action a time or two...  I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world, however.  New Orleans is a great city, and I'm eager to go back when I have more time.

Bourbon Street was exactly as I expected it would be.  I didn't expect it to be packed and full of life on a Thursday evening, but it was a great experience overall.  It was an amazing opportunity to sit back and watch people having a good time.

Although I knew that New Orleans was plagued with homelessness, I guess I didn't expect to see it laid out in front of me at nearly every turn.  When I first entered the outskirts of the French Quarter, I was quite frankly caught off guard at the number of people sleeping in covered parking lots... in the back of trucks, in sleeping bags, on mattresses and on the concrete.  Not just one or two people, but MANY.  We take for granted in our everyday lives that these things can never happen to us.  Who knows what circumstances or even one really bad circumstance led to these people ending up in the situation that they are in now?  It just takes one catastrophic event in our lives to end up in the same situation.

I guess the most disturbing thing to me took place just a block from my hotel.  As my husband and I were heading down to the French Market, as most tourists do, there was a man sleeping on the sidewalk, in broad daylight, while the city came to life and everyone was bustling by.  Most didn't give him a second glance.  How does a country that is so powerful and wealthy have homeless people?  How do we help other countries with their financial burdens and their crises when we can't even take care of our own?

Be thankful for all that you have in your lives, and if you ever find that you have old items you don't need, please think of donating within your local community to the organizations that give directly to the homeless, thus ensuring that the items go to those who are most in need.

Walk to End Alzheimer's - Mobile, Alabama - November 7, 2015

I had the privilege of photographing the Walk To End Alzheimer's in Mobile this past Saturday.  There was a large turnout for the event, which not only aimed to raise awareness to Alzheimer's, but also to raise money in an effort to find a cure.  There were a lot of laughs throughout the event, in addition to tears shed for those lost to the disease, or currently either battling the disease or caring for someone that is dealing with this on a daily basis.  Alzheimer's is not just a disease that targets those of advanced age.  We heard stories of a man in his mid 50's and the struggles that he and his family face on a daily basis.  Alzheimer's does not discriminate based on age, sex, race or nationality.

I am posting a few photos from Saturday's event.  Photographing these type of events allows me to do my part in bringing awareness to the cause by donating my services to cover the event and sharing the story with you.

The event may be over, but the fundraising continues.  You can donate at the following link:

Donate to the Walk to End Alzheimer's

Photo Editing Tip of the Day... Learn from my mistake!!!

If I give just one piece of advice on editing photos, it will be this....When you take photos for a charity event and invest HOURS editing photos, don't just assume that your changes will save as they always do at the end of the batch.  Let's just say a certain someone just completed editing approximately 400 images, exhaled a sigh of relief because the task was complete, and went to save the batch per usual.  Well... things didn't exactly work out that way.  The program encountered an error and shut down.  I thought... oh boy, sure hope the save option on the batch is available when I open the program again.  But... that wasn't meant to be. All of my photos were there, but the changes were not.  Technology... it's great when all works well... when things go haywire, not so much.  My lesson for today is... Save after each photo. Needless to say I will have no trouble remembering to do that from this point forward! Lesson definitely learned.

I had planned to post about the charity event and share photos on my blog entry, but that will have to wait a bit longer.  Once I get back on a level playing field I will share some of the details of the event and share some photos.

Until then...

Water Under The Bridge.... Literally....

Besides photography, which is absolutely my first love and true passion, I do love to fish.  Lately, fishing has been less than stellar, and quite a disappointment actually, but that is where I get to spend some time taking photos that I wouldn't be taking if the fish were biting :)  Whenever my husband and I have time, we like to spend a few hours fishing.  Mobile and Baldwin County both provide a wealth of fishing opportunities in many locations, including the Gulf of Mexico, Mobile Bay, and many lakes and rivers within a 50 mile radius of our home.  Last year we caught so many fish that we actually spent just as much time cleaning them as we did catching them. (Well, him more than me...)  Mullet were in abundance both via cast net and, by nothing short of a fishing miracle, catching them with corn and bread on a fishing pole in a river runoff, under a bridge, in a place you would never think that schools of mullet would gather.  So, let's fast forward to this year, where fishing has been a challenge.  For whatever reason we seem to repel fish rather than attract them.  I don't think we are alone in this entirely.  Reading some of the local forums some others seem to be having some runs of bad luck as well.

You probably are thinking... what in the world does this have to do with photography???  Well, there is where you get to be creative.  For example, that river runoff, under a bridge, where the mullet apparently like corn on hook at the end of a cane pole.... that's where I first learned to slow the flow of water and create some pretty incredible images of a less than incredible place.  It will forever be the best set of pictures I have ever taken, in my mind, because it was when I first became aware of how camera speed truly impacts movement, and if you do things just right then things look pretty amazing.  Now, in reality, they won't be the best pictures in the world... of this I am certain... however, to me they are special because I learned some valuable lessons that day when I went there to fish and, well, the fish weren't there to eat.

Below are 3 pictures, taken with my camera phone, on one of our fishing expeditions.  Now, keep in mind, this is true back roads fishing.  Not where the average person heads to fish, but it's pretty close to home and, for the most part, a great little location when you just want to unwind at the end of the day and don't have a lot of daylight left to fish in.  At any rate, these 3 pictures give you an idea of what type of environment this is and how just uninviting and unappealing it is, on first glance.

Now, let's fast forward to the creativity part of this blog post and how you can turn something not so exciting into something pretty awesome in the photography world.  These pictures give you an indication of the setting we were in and just how unappealing it truly is.  Well, even the most seemingly unappealing places to photograph do offer a glimmer of hope under the right conditions.

I was in search of a location to practice slowing the flow of water and looking for something along the lines of a waterfall.  Well, in my recollection of this area, there were no waterfalls that I had seen or heard of.  Then I remembered our little fishing spot and how I had seen water flowing from one level to another, over some rocks, creating somewhat of a waterfall effect.  Throw in a few rainy days, high water levels in the rivers and just like that you have a waterfall effect.

By being creative and using a little imagination something that was nothing spectacular at first glance became something so much better under the right conditions.  Sometimes you just have to think outside of the box to get the shots you are looking for.

Sunsets on Mobile Bay

The sunsets on Mobile Bay during October and November can be absolutely beautiful.  The right combination of orange and red hue, clear skies, and relatively haze-free conditions during the last half hour of daylight can make for some great photo opportunities.