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New Orleans
December 2008
I travel quite a bit for work,
and I had two free round trips coming my way on Southwest Airlines (a
great company and my favorite airline). We had a few days off in
mid-December, so I got on the Southwest Air website and looked for a city
I thought would be warm. New Orleans sounded great, and it
was. Good food, friendly people, an interesting history, and a lot
of things to see and do. We had a great time.
So, here we go...
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| Our hotel, the Maison Dupuy, was
in the heart of the French Quarter. When Sue and I arrived on
Saturday night, after checking into the hotel we immediately went out for
a walk, some dinner, and a chance to grab some available-light evening
shots.
I guess this is what I expected to see when
I went to New Orleans, as the town is known Mardi Gras, its masks, and its
costumes. So, this is my first obligatory shot of what most of us
might consider to be typical New Orleans.
I would soon learn that there's a lot more
to New Orleans than just this sort of thing, though. |
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One of the first things we saw
in the French Quarter were the street performers. These guys were
doing amazing things. This guy slid across the floor he put down in
the middle of the street, on his head, with no hands. I got lucky
with this shot. |
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Bourbon Street on a Saturday
night. |
| Its legal to drink in the street
here, and a lot of places served drinks "to go."
The signs were great. I wish I could
take credit for a lot of these shots, but my Nikon was pretty much
figuring everything out on its own. |
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A statue in one of the stores. |
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More great neon work. |
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And more... |
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And more... |
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If you like color and evening
available light shooting, this is the place to be... |
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Another shot in the French
Quarter. I did all of these in the ISO 500 to 800 range. |
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There is lots of kitsch for
sale in the French Quarter... |
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At the Two Sisters Restaurant... |
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Motorcycles in the French
Quarter at night... |
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I could have shot a higher speed
for this one...but I like the way it turned out anyway... |
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I took a photo of the guy
holding this sign, and then he told me to give him the camera so that he
could take a picture of Sue and me while I held the sign.
I was a bit nervous for a second, and I had
reservations about handing over my Nikon to a stranger, but I figured I
could whack him with this sign if he tried to run away.
My fears were unfounded, though.
Everyone was very friendly. He got a good shot, too. I really
like this one. |
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Like I said, everybody was
friendly in New Orleans. These kids were having a good time and they
asked me to take their picture. |
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This was in the entranceway to
one of the restaurants. |
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More music in one of the
clubs in the French Quarter. |
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Another restaurant with live
entertainment. |
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This guy was part of a band
playing on the sidewalk. We saw a lot of that. |
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Several of the sidewalks in the
French Quarter have stanchions with these horse heads on top. |
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A sign for one of the stores. |
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The next morning, we got up
to walk around the French Quarter a bit more before going on one of the
three tours we had arranged. This young lady was across the street,
and she was happy to let me take her picture. She told me she had
the bike out as a gag...she was waiting for a friend on a motorcycle.
He showed up right after I
grabbed this shot. |
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The young lady's friend had a
chopped shovelhead Harley (you don't see too many shovelhead motors around
anymore).
Check out his hair. |
| Our guide, Gene, took us on a
great tour of New Orleans, including several areas hit hard by Hurricane
Katrina 3 years ago.
This home is in the Lower 9th Ward, an area
hit particularly hard. Most of the houses were either gone or just
empty shells (like this one). The X and its markings on the front
were used by crews after the Hurricane to identify that the house had been
inspected, if it had any bodies in it, and if it had any hazards. |
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A street shot in the Lower 9th
Ward. |
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This is one of the levies that
broke. The lighter section is the area that failed. |
| A deserted church showing how
high the water was in this area. Note the water line, and the
search team markings on the front door. |
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Gene took us to the Garden
District, with these beautiful old homes. |
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We also visited one of New
Orleans' famous above-ground cemeteries.
The water table is only 2 feet below ground
level, so the tombs are above ground. |
| Our hotel was on Toulouse
Street.
Many of the streets in the French Quarter
also have these signs. They show the street names during the days
the city was in Spanish hands. |
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Looking across Jackson Square
from the Mississippi River side at the St. Louis Cathedral. |
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This is Jackson Square in
New Orleans' French Quarter, looking across the square at the magnificent
St. Louis Cathedral. The building on on the left (as you face the
church) is the Cabildo, a Louisiana museum that is the original building
in which the Louisiana purchase was signed. The building on the
right is the Presbytere, a museum of the Mardi Gras. The statue in
the center is Andrew Jackson.
I used the Nikkor 28mm lens for this shot. |
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Inside the St. Louis Cathedral. |
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These are the 10
stained glass windows that are spaced around the walls in the St. Louis
Cathedral. I grabbed all of these shots using the 28mm Nikon 2.8
lens at ISO 800, and I held the camera against the pews as I walked around
the church. The detail in the full-size photos is amazing (you can
actually read the name of the outfit that made these in Germany). |
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The Mississippi River, just
behind the Cafe Du Monde (and across the street from the Plaza de Armas,
also known as Jackson Square).
The bend in the river is why they call New
Orleans the Crescent City. |
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I spotted this on the wooden
pilings along the Mississippi. |
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The famous Cafe Du Monde.
It's across the street from Jackson Square. |
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Coffee and beignets. We
ate at the Cafe Du Monde four times during our visit. |
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The Cafe Du Monde. |
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Joan of Arc, just outside the
French Market. |
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Sue inside the French
Market. Much of this was rebuilt after Katrina. |
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Masks for sale in the French
Market. |
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Cajun foods. |
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Making pecan pralines. |
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New Orleans is a damp city,
and these old doors in the French Quarter show the effects of the high
humidity.
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Ornamental iron work is
everywhere in this city. You could do a photo book just on this
topic. |
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More iron work. |
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A New Orleans Police
Department Vespa. |
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On our second day, we took the
plantation tour. We visited two plantations along the Mississippi
River.
This is the Oak Alley plantation.
The plantations in this area of Louisiana
raised sugar cane. |
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Looking out from the front
balcony of the Oak Alley plantation (easy to see how it got its name).
That's River Road out in
front, and the Mississippi River levee on the other side of the road. |
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On the banks of the Mississippi,
above River Road. |
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We next visited the Laura
plantation, which also raised sugar cane. |
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On our third day we took a swamp
tour.
Neil was our guide on the Pearl River swamp
tour. He also leads hunting and fishing parties into the
swamp. A week or two before our tour, one of his hunts nailed a
Russian boar in the swamp. Russian boar were imported into the
U.S. during the 1910s for exotic hunts, and they flourished in the
swamp.
Neil found this baby pig after his client
shot the sow. This is the real deal...a baby Russian
boar.
Neil named it Kimberly. Kimberly was
fun and cute. She squealed a lot when picked up by anyone other than
Neal, but he showed us that if you just lean it against your chest (so it
could hear your heart beat), it immediately became quiet. |
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Here's another shot of Kimberly.
Amazing, isn't it?
This little pig was pretty tame by the time
we saw her. It played with Neal's dog, which was about four times
its size.
Neil said that he thought Kimberly was
about 7 weeks old. She seemed to be a happy little pig. |
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A snapping turtle in an aquarium
at Pearl River swamp tour. |
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The swamp along the Pearl
River. |
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Another cool swamp photo. |
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These are nutria, which are
large, waterborne rodents. They look like beavers. |
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This is the shot that convinced
me I need to get a decent 70-300mm lens. I've been using a cheap
Sigma, but the image quality just isn't there compared to the Nikon and
Tokina lenses. Sometimes it does okay, but this wasn't one of them.
This could have been a great shot of this
magnificent blue heron. Next time... |
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Another shot of the blue heron. |
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This one is kind of
comical. I've never seen a blue heron shot with the bird looking
directly at me like this. |
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After the swamp tour, we headed
back into New Orleans for a great lunch (this city has wonderful
restaurants), and then we walked to the World War II museum.
You don't really need a car in New
Orleans. We didn't rent one. We walked nearly every place we
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The side walk in front of the
World War II museum is made of bricks inscribed with the names of soldiers
who were there. It was a great idea. |
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The hall immediately inside the
museum has several actual aircraft hanging from the ceiling. This is
a Douglas C-47, the workhorse cargo and paratrooper aircraft of its
day. |
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Rosy the Riveter. |
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This is a pretty cool exhibit.
Each bullet represents a thousand troops, showing the relative disparity
between the armed forces of Japan, Germany, and the U.S. at the start of
World War II. |
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The letter from Dwight D.
Eisenhower sent to all troops just before D-Day. |
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A German World War II
350cc DKW motorcycle. |
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On our last free day in New
Orleans, we just walked around town visiting the museums, art galleries,
and other interesting sites.
The Presbytere is a museum
next to the St. Louis Cathedral. It focuses on Mardi Gras.
Here's one of the costumes on
display inside the Presbytere museum. |
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Here's another brightly-colored
costume. |
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King Richard. |
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Another costume. |
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Here's a shot of Andrew
Jackson on an overcast and foggy day, with the St. Louis Cathedral in the
background. |
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The sidewalk along Jackson
Square. |
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The Cabildo is another museum
that is on the other side of the St. Louis Cathedral. It
details Louisiana's rich history. The Cabildo is the actual building
in which the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803, when the U.S. bought
New Orleans and all of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15
million. We had to borrow the money from England to do it.
This is a painting of John Michel
Fortier in the Cabildo. I just like the way the camera caught this
painting. |
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Another one of the paintings
inside the Cabildo. That's the St. Louis Cathedral in the
background. |
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General P.T.G. Beauregard. |
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The entranceway to the
Cabildo. |
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In the afternoon, after enjoying
a great Po Boy sandwich at Johnny's Po Boy, we walked over to the New
Orleans Insectarium. This is a fascinating place.
Here are two grasshoppers in the
Insectarium. |
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A mounted beetle. |
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The colors are great. I
didn't have a macro lens with me, but the 50mm Nikkor 1.4 did a great job. |
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More bug shots. |
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Here's another one I like. |
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The Insectarium's Pin Room
has awesome displays. |
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More. I like these
shots. |
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A great shot of a giant moth in
the Insectarium's Butterfly Room. Check out the colored striations
in its eyes. |
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A moth enjoying a banana.
They've got a built-in straw. |
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Wednesday was our last full day
in New Orleans.
We spent Wednesday night walking around the
French Quarter some more.
Here's a painting hanging in a French
Quarter art gallery. |
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I grabbed this shot of
Louisiana sauces in a French Quarter store. |
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And then we realized that it was
time to head back to the hotel, pack, and get ready to leave the next
day. On the way back, I grabbed one or two more photos. Here's
one I particularly like of Sue checking out a painting in one of the
French Quarter's art galleries. |
| New Orleans is a marvelous
town, and if you enjoy photography, you'd have a tough time finding a town
with as many subjects as this place. We did many more things than I
showed here, and the food in this town is even better than I had
expected. There's a lot to see and do. We had a great time.
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