Color
I have said elsewhere and before that I am no Black and White photographer. Color! I think color. I see colors and patterns and contrasts filled with vibrancy. Pow! In your face color! No Ansel Adams waiting and exposing and patiently developing details in Zone VII. I have a completely different personality – all go, no waiting, do it now! Ha ha. I used to wait to develop slides for forever, as long as a year. That is a lot of time for a mistake to linger before you can see the error, let alone correct yourself. Ego! I was perfect. Ha ha. Not!! And, please don’t shoot me. Too many shots, not enough time for the stories.
Parenthetically, I will add, that when I shot the moose, someone in the lecture asked where? As in, he thought I had shot this moose with a gun. Ha ha. No! And I lived to tell the tale.
Ten years
…about. It’s been about ten years that I have been blog posting. It’s a lot of pictures. Let’s say thousands. I have been blogging multiple pictures a day for a long time. There’s no parsimony in me. Ha! I have had a good ride! There have been tragic events. Tumultuous? … for sure. Tremendous, stupendous? … as well. I would not trade Colleen for the world. I could not begin to summarize what the last ten years have been. It slips by in flash leaving me bewildered that it was only in the past few years that things changed so much. The Red Sea? Carol was finally happy the fish are in the rear view mirror. Ginny? She’s glad to finally see emotion when I write about Colleen. Platitudes? Nah! This blog has been a free expression of what moved me on the day I took these pictures. Looking back….no, I’m not one to do that. I close with thanks to all who read and have read this blog.
Mardi Gras
It’s Lent. Mardi Gras has been done big in New Orleans for many years. What I did not know is that much of the material from the costumes and floats are stored and repurposed. So there are elaborate figures, animals, masks and such that are store in large warehouses until such time as they are used or retooled. Hey, I’m glad they recycle. And they also hold parties there. It’s quite something to walk around among all the colorful work.
Window
New Orleans, I’m just walking up and down the French Quarter, looking for a shot. Here’s this young girl standing in the restaurant window, curtain hiding, and just peeking out on the street. She looked at me without shyness and I just took a couple shots. She never smiled. We just both moved on.
Hot Dog
This hot dog vendor is stationed in New Orleans. One thing that I can say about Saudi Arabia, it’s hard to come by a good ‘dog. The grocery sells something they call a hot dog. Even I haven’t been that hungry yet. They are an odd shape and color. And they come frozen. “Subway” (the sandwich place) sells them. They are split and put on a sandwich roll covered with cheese to which they then add all the condiments and vegetables. The kids eat them …ugh. In Maine they liked their hot dogs a bright unnaturally dyed red color…definitely bad for you. The thing is that I doubt that I will make it my business to get a ‘dog when I visit home soon.
Bush
This is the first President Bush when he addressed our national meeting in New Orleans. Have you wondered what out of office presidents do? They get a lot of money to speak… a lot. We had Gorbachov in the fall of 2004. The auditorium was packed and waiting when a member of the national neurosurgical leadership stood up. I thought he would announce the speaker. Instead he stated, “In the upcoming election Kerry and Edwards are against malpractice reform. Bush (Jr) will sign it.” End of statement and he sat down. Son of a gun, if that wasn’t a political endorsement! Bush Sr spoke some years before to our group. I guess you would have to be blind not to realize that the leadership is decidedly Republican. I’m agnostic but mostly not Republican. When George spoke, it was quite an experience. He spoke for an hour. It turned out to be a history lesson. He once spoke about how before he was president there was a Berlin Wall and after he became president there was no wall… as if he took down the wall himself. (See how this ties in with Gorbachov?) This speech he gave to our meeting was much the same. It was a rehash of his presidency. And at the 59th minute of his speech he remembered to say something relevant to neurosurgery. He said that he was planning to parachute jump from a plane and Barbara warned him that it wouldn’t be a good idea in a room full of neurosurgeons. Let’s hope he didn’t land on his head. For all the money he was paid you would at least have hoped for an original speech or even a new idea. And as for the rest, I don’t remember another word he said, it was so irrelevant.
Waterfront
New Orleans. This kid was mesmerized by the trumpet. The performer and audience were in the zone but perhaps not the same zone. I don’t know. It’s the lack of eye contact that got me.
Street Performers
Street performers in New Orleans. Here’s a couple of performers who leave you with many questions. Are they working the same corner together? Do they even know each other? Or are they just ignoring one another while plying their craft. I vote for the kid. Everyone has a soft spot for kids.
New Orleans
It’s New Orleans. There is a warehouse that hosts events and at the national meeting in 2005, I saw the figures that are part of the Mardi Gras parades. Several days later I was able to board a ferry and took a tour. There were many items stored and reused or repurposed as the themes would change from year to year.
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