Our participants are getting to know New Orleans. Photographs that perhaps did not meet the enthusiastic review of fellow participants were redone.
“I’m headed back to that beignet shop to revisit that shot.”
“You know that wall I did as an excercise? I want to try it again based on the critiques.”
And so forth and so on…
Back up!
“A beignet?” you ask. Basically, it is a doughnut without the hole, deep fried, and in New Orleans, often square and sprinkled with a liberal layer of powdered sugar. Its origins supposedly harken back to the days of the Romans, but we are writing about current times in the French Quarter of the Crescent City.
So many people with cameras speed along in a hit-and-run pattern. Arnie and I try to get our people to slow down, to really see what is around them, and to make, rather than take, photographs.
The 6:00-a.m. contingent wandered down one of the east-west streets with me. Slowly!
Someone would stop, and those who were nearby might stop to see what caught this or that person’s attention and try to come at the scene in a different way.
“What are you seeing?” someone asked me, and I showed them an abstract way of photographing a frosted window.
Reflections can be very interesting, but the challenge is to keep them from being too confusing. I explained to those near me what I was doing, using the buildings across the street to set the stage.
Most of us had wanted to meet back at our favorite breakfast place with our friend Joey who would break out into song as he cheerfully took our orders and brought our food.
The weather had been turning increasingly bitterly cold. The Arctic Vortex had been pushed to just north of the Canadian/US border and was hurling much-colder-than-normal temperatures into the south. Entirely unnecessary, we thought, and we were grateful for the warmth of the restaurant, watching Chef prepare the hash browns, “snappy” bacon, as Joey called it, and whatever else we had ordered. The coffee was hot, and people wrapped their hands around the mugs and let the rising steam warm their faces.
Each day, the level of the participants’ work gets better, and the critiques get more sophisticated and thoughtful.
“I’m not sure what your subject is…”
“WOW!”
“I’d hang that on MY wall!”
“As much as I thought the last one really didn’t work at all, I think this is the best one you have done this week!”
We had to break, as we were going to visit Mardi Gras World where the floats and figures are made for the huge, yearly celebration. It also serves as storage for past Mardi Gras parade floats and figures.
For those who have not been, the characters in and on these floats are not of the Disney-fied, cutesy, Macy’s-Day-Parade ilk.
“Tell us what you really think, Margo,” quipped one of our group as he chuckled.
We are in the land of voodoo and dark-and-mysterious ways; the floats reflect that. Arnie reminded the group to interpret, not to record. It was difficult for many at first. Figures are sometimes stacked five and six deep, and it can be difficult to know where to begin. The eyes on these creatures almost glow and can be quite malevolent and scary if you really look at the expressions.
Once people got over the overwhelming, crowded nature of this museum-cum-warehouse-cum-workshop, they started having fun trying to isolate this or that subject.
I found a colorful character that worked better as an abstract for me.
Exploring an alcove, I spied a familiar face. His eyes were definitely fierce.
Then, I saw this exceptionally large sculpture, all dolled up to enjoy a day in the sun. Well, it was sunny in New Orleans, but as noted above, it was also unusually cold. Working to separate her from her surroundings was challenging, but she was worth it!
We caught one of the last transfer vans back to the French Quarter, and many continued photographing, finding new scenes and subjects, returning to old favorites.
Just down the street from our hotel was a lovely little restaurant that could take us. We had enjoyed it before the workshop started and were happy to return to another great meal. After all, New Orleans is known for its cuisine, although we were reminded that the two do not actually rhyme except perhaps in song.
Next: Final morning shoots and critiques
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Hi Margo,
In reading this post I saw a common question I posed to you in Death Valley…”What are you seeing?”. I learned so much from your answers to that simple question. Sounds like you had a great time.
Bill,
Sorry for the delay. Workshops will do that to me! 😉
What am I seeing? Interesting question with no hard-and-fast answers. That which catches my eye. It may be any combination(s) of color, light and shadow, shapes, lines, rhythm, textures, etc. but always it is something that captures my interest. Without that, my images would be flat. Many ask Arnie and me, “What do you like to photograph?” and both of respond with something along the lines of, “Whatever it in front of our cameras.”
Thanks for writing and posing this question, and thanks for reading the blog!
Take care,
TBC