My Adventure in New Orleans

Once we got to New Orleans it was right to work we went. Chaz was working on getting the kitchen set up in a new bar his friend was opening called the Green Room Ultra Lounge. We spent day and night getting ready for the new opening..We definitely worked more than we slept. We made it through the grand opening with good success. I even picked up a few bartending shifts one of which was New Years Eve.. I Had a blast! I was meeting tons of nice people and having a great time.

Chaz and I escaped for a day and went out taking pictures. We took the street car uptown and walked around taking tons of fun photos. It was the first time I really had taken out my camera sense I had gotten there and it was nice that Chaz wanted to take photos as well. He had a blast taking black and whites with my 35mm while I took pictures with my Digital. We spent the whole day walking around exploring and then headed the the French Quarter to take some night photos. I was awesome because as we got down the the river the fog was beginning to set in and set it up for a beautiful image of the dinner boat.

After long and hard thought, Chaz and I decided that New Orleans was not the place for us to thrive as individuals. We realized that working in the French Quarter was tons of fun but not a life style that was for us any more. Chaz had been there sense 2000 and he was ready to leave and really work on his writing and for me as a photographer I was ready to really find myself in my art. It was hard to say goodbye and I know I will be back to visit.. I know that I need to take my mother there to show her what I fell in love with and to show her how beautiful it is of a place!

So after a month of New Orleans, Chaz and I packed up my two door car and headed west!

The Journey Begins November 2008

Well where do I begin... A lot has happened sense I last blogged and I will never let that much time pass again between writings! After the gallery show from New Orleans I spent the next months getting ready to graduate. I worked many long hours to prepare and things turned out great! I graduated in June and from there I spent the summer getting ready for my big move to New Orleans But before my big jump there was one last scheduled trip to New Orleans for Halloween with My friend Jodie and her boyfriend Nick! The trip was one crazy adventure after another! We went to clubs and danced and drank, went to the Halloween parade and took some crazy photos of floats, and I spent one of the most amazing nights at a little jazz bar with Chaz (will tell you more about him in future writings). Well after a week of beautiful weather and lots of fun.. My heart was officially set on my move to New Orleans.

The next month crawled by and finally it came the day for Chaz to land in MN and for us to set sail on my new adventure to New Orleans. Chaz and I spent a few days in MN together before we left and I showed him around town! We went to the MOA, drove around town, ate at the Nook and Shamrocks (a few times) and I took him to his first NHL hockey game..We even got to sit on the glass for the 2nd period! We had a blast!

After hid tour of Minnesota we were both ready to get out of the snow!! We left Minnesota at around Noon and drove straight through to New Orleans and arrived ate about 8am the next morning... Chaz and I had a blast driving through the night, listening to music and chatting. The drive definitely didn't feel like 19 hours!
But as we drove through the fog and into the bayous of New Orleans I was so excited to be "Home"

After the Show

So the show was an amazing success!! There where so many friends and family that showed up! I even sold my first photo!! I told the person that they couldnt have it until after I graduated seeing as though I would need to hang it in my portfolio show! But She was still happy to get it then!!

Working post production has been an horrible experience! I have had a horrible time printing my images! The paper that I am using is not liked by the printer! But when I do finally get a print out, they look absolutly beautiful!

Well Ive been thinking about going back to NEw Orleans in October... atleast Brian, Jodie, MAria and I are!! We would love to go down there and shoot alittle more and also expierience Halloween down there! Kiss has a house and the air fair is cheep so it should be fun!!

The photos on this entry were taken by Jorie at the Gallery Show!

Getting home!

Well geting home was an adventure for the group! me, Brian, Brittany and Antonio were very lucky to get home when we did because, the rest of the group had a hell of a time getting home! They had lay over after layover and then they finally got home the following night late!

Coming home was not much fun! I really miss New Orleans! The people and the location is beautiful! And the images that I came home with are amazing! and the book that I will produce will show amazingly what i wanted to capture while I was there.

Writing my essay about the photos.. I got to thinking about more of the questions that I asked myself while taking the photos then really what I wanted the photos to say. So when I began to write my paper.. I wrote down as my paper the questions that I asked my self.

Well besides the paper that I had to write.. getting together the photos for the Traffic Zone Show that we had set up when we got home was super hard! How do you chose just three photos to hang! Thank god that Colleen was there to help with the decision process or else I would have been lost!

After many hours and lots of money later< I had three beautiful prints to hang for the show!!

New Orleans Full Day #3

Well I am sitting in the lobby with Jodie, Maria, and Brian bloging and listing to Disney songs! Today was a fun day so far! brian and I got an early morning start to our shooting! We took the Canal streetcar down to the cemetery district and started shooting! The sunlight was hot but made amazing shadows. We shot there for a few hours and then headed to lunch! We went to a new bar that my friend Kiss works at and we ordered in Mexican food! The food was so good! After eating and hanging out, Brian and I headed back to the hotel where I took a 3 hour nap because I am not used to the sun!

Tonight we are going to head to dinner at around 9pm and then head to Bourbon to hang out with the cool bartender we met last night!

Tomorrow Brian and I are going to hit up 2 more cemeteries and then hopefully head to the 9th word!

New Orleans Full Day #2

Yesterday morning Brian and I woke up and headed to Lafayette cemetery where we met up with a tour guide. She took us around the cemetery and told us the history of it and who was buried there. She also told us about the different movies that were filmed there. After shooting in the cemetery for an hour, Brian and I took the street car down Canal street to what they call cemetery district. We went to three different Cemeteries to shoot until we stumbled across an amazing Cemetery. This cemetery was amazing! The details and the run downness of the site was awesome. Brian and I shot there for quite a while.
After Shooting all day we headed back to the hotel where we met with Curator of the NOMA Museum. He talked to each of us about our projects and gave us some ideas about where to go with our work.
Last night Jodi, Maria and I headed down to Bourbon street and took a Haunted History Tour of the city. The tour was interesting, but it was alot more about the History than the Hauntedness. After our 2 hour waking tour we headed to get some food! WE asked some locals about where to get some good food and they told us to head to YO MOMMA'S. We headed up to the second floor and bellied up to the bar and ordered a Bleu Cheese Burger. We hung out with the coolest bartender Chris! Chris told us how he left New Orleans four months after Katrina and moved to Maui where he spent 2 years there. We sat for a few hours and talked until we were so tired we had to go back to the hotel!

So about my project- I attached a few photos of the work that I am doing. I am mostly concentrating on the light and shadows produced by the rod iron in the Cemeteries. Also concentrating onthe doors and to fences that surround the grave.

New Orleans Full Day #1

Full Day #1

Well, wake up call was at 8am, we showered and headed to the Grey Line Tours for our cemetery tour of St. Louis Cemetery. After getting to the Cemetery we listen to Chuck talk about the history and culture of the Cemeteries that are here in New Orleans. AFter hearing about the amazing info that Chuck gave us we parted ways with the tout guide and went on our own. It was weird to be in the cemetery on our own, taking pictures of the above ground tombs. After capturing everything that we could, we headed back to the hotel. At 1pm we headed toward the Ogden Museum where we had our own tour from the curator of the museum. We got a private look into the museum's collection. After leaving the museum we headed toward bourbon to meet up with my friend Kiss. Kiss moved to Minnesota after Katrina and worked at the same bar as me. Well, we met up with him for lunch and he took us to all of the bars that he works at. We had a blast! Right now we are sitting outside at our hotel editing images that we took today for a critique we are having very soon!

Write more tomorrow!