Another easy Saturday...

Woke up too late for yard sales this morning. So went for coffee and then off to the Palafox Market for a cool morning stroll. Mostly I just wanted to take some pictures.

Got home. Downloaded the pictures to my computer. Edited them in Lightroom. Then did some fancy folder moving in Lightroom. Lost the folder. Completely. So I started the process all over again. Download...edit...etc. This time I paid better attention and didn't lose one! I LOVE Lightroom, but sometimes it can be very confusing. The thing that I love most about it is also the thing I hate most when I mess up.

Live by the sword. Die by the sword.

The Farmers Market...and another pelican

Went to the Farmers Market this morning. Unusually warm I think...but nice. The market is growing and growing. Love it. Then ran a few errands and I remembered a "Pelican in Paradise" that I have been meaning to photograph. It was on my way, so I stopped there, also.

But, we'll start with our tree. I'm in love with it this year. We finally got a new one. Our last one was over 10 years old! This one is 9' tall, and a little more narrow than our old one. Fuller. This picture was actually the first shot with my new lens I bought. I was testing it last night.

The true harvest of my life is intangible...

Autumn. We don't get much of it in Florida. But, none the less, you can still feel it in the air.

There are small signs. The proliferation of monarch butterflies making their journey to their promised land. My river birch beside our front porch...the leaves are starting to dry and become golden. The squirrel party every afternoon as they gather acorns dropping from our oak tree in the front yard.

All signs of autumn.

"The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Henry David Thoreau

Market Morning

I wanted to talk with one of the vendors at the market about flowers. So I took my camera and did a short walk. It was wonderful. The market has grown so much this year. I'm so happy to see that.

"I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal I cannot be comprehended except by my permission..."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Nikki Giovanni

New Orleans 2012: 14

Well. This is the last batch of photos from this trip. From the end of the night to the view of the rooftops from our hotel window.

sigh

"Codeine...bourbon..." (Tallulah Bankhead's last coherent words)."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Denis Brian, Tallulah, Darling: A Biography Of Tallulah Bankhead

New Orleans 2012: 13

This is the evening...as you will be able to tell. Nikki and I made off to Bourbon Street and had a Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's. The Hurricane will explain many of the photos :-)

"The world, although well-lighted with fluorescents and incandescent bulbs and neon, is still full of odd dark corners and unsettling nooks and crannies."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Stephen King, Firestarter

New Orleans 2012: 12

"But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises..."
 ¸.•*´¨`♥ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

New Orleans 2012: 11

"Light is more important than the lantern, The poem more important than the notebook."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Nizar Qabbani

New Orleans 2012: 10

"...folding her fingers around the delicate bowl of a porcelain teacup. Looking pale and exhausted, her blue eyes ringed with dark shadows, she swallowed a mouthful of heavily sweetened tea before continuing."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Lisa Kleypas, It Happened One Autumn

New Orleans 2012: 9

This next photo is of a man that noticed my camera, and secretly waved me over. So I went. We began a photography discussion, and at some point he pulled out this lens (I still don't exactly know what kind it was) and whipped in on my camera...over the existing lens. Then proceeded to place his eye inches from my camera and insisted I take a picture. We were so close. He did not know the meaning of personal space, and for that moment, I had to let any perception I had about personal space go. Therefore I took a picture of his eye...very close with all the wonderful bushy-ness of his eyebrow.

I only wish I had the wits about me to take a photo of him...but he had me rather at a disadvantage. He was older. Arabic. Short. Creamy brown skin with deep set wrinkles. Many smile lines. A full, gloriously white beard that went to his chest. And, you can see the twinkle in his eye.

"The seat of the soul is there where the inner and outer worlds meet."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

New Orleans 2012: 8

"Masquerades disclose the reality of souls. As long as no one sees who we are, we can tell the most intimate details of our life."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Fernando Pessoa

New Orleans 2012: 7

New Orleans 2012: 6

New Orleans 2012: 5

"As their shoulders touched, the riverboat was no longer earthbound. With only the two of them aboard, it lifted into the sky..."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer

New Orleans 2012: 4

New Orleans 2012: 3

New Orleans 2012: 2

The man outside this door said, "You know this isn't real...it's a reproduction." I just smiled and said, "I like it anyway."

A request post from Nikki

I will interrupt the regularly scheduled New Orleans posts to interject this special request from Nikki.

This next one has a bit of a story. I took a picture of Robert and Nikki, but had the background focused...not them. So I asked them to wait and let me take their picture here...after all, it was so pretty there.



Just as I get ready to snap the picture, Nikki spotted a rat the size of a hound dog, screamed and pointed, and Robert apparently was taking the old saying 'Every man for himself' seriously. I was able to capture this for eternity.

New Orleans 2012: 1

A marvelous trip to New Orleans. Left mid-day Friday and came home Sunday morning. Not enough time. Simply not enough. I, of course, took pictures. I'm going to post this trip in a chronological series. As it happened.

I could photograph New Orleans 24 hours a day, and still not get enough. I have some favorite places to photograph, and New Orleans is one of the top contenders. I could just stand in one spot and take pictures for hours. People. Details. Actions. Interactions.

But, I did not stand in one place. I walked. And walked. And walked. It was a feast for the eyes. A magical land to photograph.

Walking out of the hotel, I immediately started to photograph. And this is our trip...

Evening on the Sound

"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Kurt Vonnegut

I will love you no matter what...

"I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided to spend your time during study hall."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Lemony Snicket

"The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths."
¸.•*´¨`♥ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up

“That's the way I feel, at least: like there's a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of telling which is which.”
¸.•*´¨`♥ Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall

"He slumps back into the chair. It's quiet now. So quiet you can almost hear other people's dreams."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Gayle Forman, If I Stay

"Right now I'd like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line..."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl

"I only want to race along Beneath the bright blue sky..."
¸.•*´¨`♥Stephen King, The Waste Lands

An Evening at the Saenger Theatre

Last Saturday evening we went to the Saenger Theatre for their Classic Movie Series. We saw "Citizen Kane" on the big screen. I wish I could say I was swept away, but alas, I wasn't. I believe I had the movie so built up in my mind, that nothing could live up to the reality. Even though it is thought to be the best movie of of time, I say "Pfttttt...." Not impressed.

On another note, the theatre was lusciously beautiful! So ornate. Grand and lovely. So the evening was not a complete loss. And I enjoyed being there with Drew.

“A toast, Jedediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms anybody ever knows - his own.”
¸.•*´¨`♥ Orson Welles, Citizen Kane