We start in Philadelphia’s China town.

Downtown Philly

at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. This was probably the best experience from the whole trip (well, besides leaking coolant from our car which later, when Zuzana wanted to drive into Smoky Mnts, showed as broken water pump).

the house founded in solid rock

Pittsburgh downtown

that was a trolley going up and down the hill

it’s not the concrete anymore but “newcrete”

normally, you would say “old and new” but in a grand scheme of things, this is “new and newer”

he simply did not want his face to be photographed

moving to Niagara Falls, the biggest lame of the whole trip. Millions of indian people, thousands of chinese plus 4 czechs and 2 czechocanadians.

It’s a cake and it was melting

hats

somewhere even before Philadephia, I think. I remember the hotel but nothing else.

Philly…

…and Pittsburgh again

back to falls, nice double

Newcastle, DE

in a hotel close to Boston

legendary Fenway park

this was really cool. A window from the rest rooms of a restaurant to the field. What else you could pray for while taking a piss?

ok, some more niagara shots

Boston

really? still some more. At least I like this one.

Gloucester, MA, it was a georgeous place. Steinbeck would love it…

…as well as I love these shots

and we end up this post with a small New York city preview.

It’s been a long time since I posted last time. Shortage of time and mainly drive to post. I have now like 50+ rolls accumulated for posting and that prohibits me to do it even further.

But I’ll try.

hope you have a wonderful fall. We don’t cause we’re not in NOLA. Otherwise the things are going ok. Since I’m still catching time on this blog, we go back to May and June to our trip along the US east coast.

The first part of our 6k mile long trip photo story begins with some shots from before.

In the Maple Street Patisserie. Great bakery products. We went there few times for a breakfest. It is owned and operated by a Polish guy so the bakery was similar to Czech one and really good.

she did not want to :-)

on the farmer’s market.

bought her some sunflowers….

…so she had to pose.

Dublin, the only cat I got to like.

north shore, on the beach.

eating in the Frenier’s landing.

french quarter, firemen’s station.

delicious.

Bristol, Tennessee.

we had very good and very cheap lunch.

1.25 for beer and 29 cents per buffalo wing. you can’t beat it.

I’m the resurrection and the lite of the world! A dummy looking like a Jesus. Jesus!!!

Arlington National Cemetery. Our first stop on the east coast.

Kennedy’s tomb

few moments after us. the place got crowded

back in time. On the road to coast.

one of the rare occasions I was not driving.

well, we stoped there because my dad loves some of the sweets they sell. And since he’s bored in the car, he needed to entertain himself and eat them :-).

huge flea market in Pigeon Forge. We stopped there for few ours and went through. Mostly, it was not a flea market per se but something like “I’ll give you this cheap chinese crap and you’ll give your money”.

Sharpei puppy.

“ready or not, Jesus is coming”, oh lord……

I love this photo. “boiled peanuts” and “the guy”.

quite a few people, huh.

classic.

back on the road.

phalus.

this was shot from one of the hotels we slept in. After few months, I have no idea where this was.

Arlington again.

DC from now onwards.

another cosmic phalus.

this is the presidential house whose color I forgot :-)

people trying to get the best shot.

before the order came….

…and after.

another roll. back in Arlington.

some history.

red bird. colorless here :-(.

guard mounting.

DC again.

Lincoln memorial.

it was hot that day. Damn hot.

relaxing.

what should we see next from the city?

memorial wall.

at the Capitol.

tiny Indian family.

do you wanna know their point of view?

that’s it.

these fellas were cute.

suit and flip flops.

back to non-colored house.

a shot for the family.

Capitol in distance.

sausages, soda, and ice cream

cosmic dickenergy.

Barrack Depp and Johny Obama.

street percussions.

in the Smithsonian institution. For the first time. We stopped there again on the way back home and since I know some people working there we got a private tour. Thanks Caley and Matt.

I found it disturbing seing “human origins” just next to “rest rooms”.

some documentation for later use.

that was Teshik-Tash neandertal juvenile skeleton I guess (cast of course).

La Ferrasie 1 and Cro-Magnon 1

one of the Shanidar neandertals. The original skeleton if I remember correctly.

Liang Bua 1, “the Hobbit”, 3D print.

LB1 again.

I took these for my lecturig needs in the course of human evolution. Very good reconstructions.

museum area.

a lot of turists means a lot of money takers.

national gallery of art. it was a great place. Mostly classic art but really nice place.

it was monumental.

zuza shooting.

some windows.

sculpture garden.

Smithsonian Institution.

closer to that huge cosmic weapon.

relax, don’t do it….

….and shoot.

Lincoln memorial from the other side.

overexposed Capitol.

back on the road, somewhere in between cities where we took a hotel.

in a small town called Newcastle.

it was very traditional.

siesta.

a squirrel.

here, we’re getting to Phily. Definitely a nice city but certainly not NOLA.

in Cosí restaurant for a luch. It is a great place to eat.

different rhytms, different prices.

and some color from olympus xa. randomly from the beginning of the trip to the Niagara falls (well ahead, I’ll get there in later posts).

The “Wa house” of Brian and Margo

Arlington. The army family, they all were dressed in khaki. Zuzana chatted with the lady shortly and she told her she has 7 kids.

the picture “falls” but I like it that way. It’s like a deadly disorder for orderly built Capitol, constitution, and democratic principles.

China town in Phily.

“Falling water”, certainly one of the best houses I’ve been to (if not the best). This was one of the strongest experiences from the trip.

Pittsburgh downtown at night.

and over the day.

old railroad station in Pittsburgh.

at Lake Erie. We could not find a hotel to stay that night because of the labor day. We ended up in some crapy one for almost 100 bucks per night. It was really not worth the money.

on the parking lot of that crapy hotel we stayed in.

at the Niagara falls. We did not want to go there but my mum wanted and she set an appointment with her friend so we had to go. It’s too turisty.

we decided to go to that boat as well. At least it was fun.

this color roll was just a preview for the posts to come.

I’ll try to post more soon but I can’t promis. Too much work. Hope you like this one at least.

have a great weekend ya’ll.

The only thing I have to add is that we are no longer in New Orleans. We miss the city badly, even over the fact that we came back home (I mean hometown but not necessarily the place you consider as being home in your inner space).

I have almost 100 developed and scanned rolls to post. It means that it will take some time and will not be finished soon. Please, share our last moments in the US and the city of New Orleans.

I was growing a “cinqo de mustache”

Some innominates in our lab. The lab as well as the whole department is now moved to a renovated Dinnwidie Hall.

The Laetoli footprints up on the shelves.

a painting on the motorcycle.

siesta.

crack.

statue.

repetition.

funny.

can you find a dog? a real dog?

for 5 bucks

my last visit to the “spotted cat”

progress of time – from horses to horse powers.

love this one, inspiration from Brassai.

kodak ektar – the best color film in medium format

downtown levee.

siesta again.

and lovely Hotel Monteleone.

my parents came. My dad.

this one and following are from the French quarter. A walk with my parents.

Mr. President in all his glory

chating.

into the gallery.

empty spaces.

what are you doing?

in the Bulldog restaurant. After having our last crawfish “private fest”.

Dad having a contemplative minute.

sweatheart.

Jeremy Shockey is a football player.

northshore. we went to the beach once before we left for the trip.

a gator. small one.

at Frenier langing – great fish and seafood restaurant. You can’t imagine how I’m missing all the food from Louisianna. I’m gonna go cooking over the weekend. Roast beef po-boy maybe? Hmmmmmm…….

I was twice in that restaurant and both times I had delicious char broiled oysters with parmegiano. Incredible stuff.

a piece of history.

ok, that’s it for now. I’ll do my best to catch up with time.

have a great fall. Miss y’all.

But anyway, this post is quite long so I hope you enjoy it. We start at March 2nd, I guess, when we went to Dauphine Island in Alabama to enjoy a day on the beach and some cold ocean water. It was actually pretty good day but I got a sunburn as never in my life. Literally my whole body was red, after two days I got the worst skin rush ever (btw, forcing me get up at 4am and drive to a drug store to buy some skin analgetics). Awfull, never again.

On the other note, the Dauphine Island is now spoiled with the oil spill. What a disaster. F…ing idiots – BP.

BTW, those two things on the horizon are oil rigs, exactly the same as the one which exploded.

Zuz and Margo.

Darcie, Scott, Lauren, and their dog Casey.

Marc was the one who went first. It was cold but after a while it felt pretty good. None of the ladies were brave enough to go in.

Sherman.

Marc and Brian.

Nice hotel. Makes the beach more attractive :-).

Dauphine Island.

and I repeat, it was on March 2nd. Ain’t that cool.

thank you Darcie

Pontchartrain causeway, not sure if it still is but it used to be the longest bridge in the world (23 miles). testing kodak retina IIa. Has some haze inside the lens which I could not clean but shoots great. It’s small and I love it.

a family. in PJ’s coffee.

the bird took it. they are smart and used to.

I’m glad he didn’t take a shit on my backpack.

this is supposed to be a house projected by one of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s students. If it is true, I see where it’s coming from.

french fountains with buddhas :-)

Goethe and Nietzsche.

medium format.

the Wright’s student house again.

Who dat, believe dat.

estimated exposure around 7s on f3.5 I guess.

she’s smilling because she eats chocolate.

There was a French quarter festival. It was actually my first one in three years of my stay here. It’s a lot of music (for free) and a lot of food (still in the US, right). This is the good one.

that girl was hot :-)

Zydepunks were recommended to us and it was worth going. The name says it all.

two horn players.

in the tree.

I love those stupid Hawaian shirts (when somebody else is wearing them of course).

you have to give people chance to spend their money, right?

my favorite hotel monteleone.

she’s watching you.

I agree.

perfect pose.

Every time I go around I have to stop and listen. They are really good.

in the coffee shop on the way home (still in the quarter though).

she had to have a muffin.

I very much like this one.

his sweater was sort of fitting to the floor tile.

another watcher.

two squabs in the flea market.

horse transporters. there is a horse whatever and a veterinary clinic.

In Marigny, the other day I went to french quarter fest again but alone (zuza working).

peeing fountain on the porch = sick and kitsh.

crawfish boil.

some lefovers from st. patrick’s day. Pat O’Brian’s is a pub.

just chilling wit the trash.

japanese quintet. really good although the scene looked weird.

D. Man – I know I should step little bit back but there was quite a bit of traffic there and I was in a hurry.

I only regret I did not see the person coming. I would be faster, or wait longer, or at least wouldn’t cut the head off.

tight space.

I really had to take this shot. Pants squeezed into the fat ass always look disgusting.

chinese foot massage with ATM inside.

clowns.

wallstreet is at war with america. and a huge parrot.

twins.

that’s Zuza on the right.

in April, we flew to Albuquerque, NM for the AAPA conference. This time Zuza traveled with me, just to see another part of the US. Albuquerque is kind of a smaller city and the overall impressions were definitely not the same as from Chicago last year. It is in the dessert and I tell you, arriving from Louisiana was hell. The air was so dry that my eyes dried out, the skin was stretched etc. 100% humidity in New Orleans is killing but the dryness even more for us. The conference was good, enjoyed a lot of new mexican food and hope I won’t eat it any soon (it just burns, burns, burns regardless what you eat – and don’t get me wrong, I like spicy food but this was just a killing machine).

still over the Louisiana and the Mississippi.

this is new mexico.

sandia mountains

albuquerque airport.

pueblean style architecture. from adobes – dried out mud bricks.

strangely, wistarias were everywhere.

reminds me one shot of HCB.

old one…

and a new one.

shoes. oh and the magenta tone is again from scanning kodak bw400cn as a color neg. BTW, I love the film but besides 24frame 3pack in walmart it is so expensive. I won’t be able to shoot it when we move back home. I already have a huge stock of other films recently ordered from freestyle photo, awaiting our east cost trip.

going to the Uni. of New Mexico campus.

pueblo architecture even on campus, nice.

student midday nap

this was the most horrible thing not only on campus but in the whole albuquerque as well. Huge glazed statues of mexican dancers. She looked like a super whore and like an ape.

on the other side this was nice.

albuqurque downtown church.

vespa only the vespa.

sushi bar ID.

kimo, the movie theatre.

one more note on the magenta tone. It already knew that its strength is influenced by the intensity of light but these levels were unexpected even for me. But I left it like this cause I think it fits the dessert feelings from that place.

there is a huge biopark (zoo, botanical garden and even an aquarium).

I wanted to see the Rio Grande river so we walked a bit more.

its muddy as hell. the place around looked like in Africa.

golf course.

note the “european hospitality” sign. we had to laugh. Not only that our experience does not fit it but in such a cheap motel I would doubt this to be true. But maybe….who knows.

this is where we (and other 50 anthropologists) stayed. I booked it up over hotwire, paid, and when we returned home I found out that they charged my card again. So I had to call the hotel and they corrected it.

in front of museum of modern art.

Sandia mountains on the horizon.

the hotel where the conference took place, the guest rooms part was just awful but the rest (conf. rooms, lobbys etc.) was pretty nice.

Trent (my advisor) stayed in this one only because it was in the neighborhood where he lived as a graduate student on UNM

everywhere Trent goes, he has to take picture of this little bear for his daughter. It’s kinda nice.

Trent, Joanna, and Zuza.

super cool house called spaceship (if Trent did not lie).

this one is just next to it.

this is about Yale av. not that horrible bleeefood.

leaving albuquerque.

DFW (inter-terminal train).

it was rainy in Dallas.

home sweet home (although not in alabama) :-).

few more shots from new mexico. canon III, fed 50/3.5 – on UNM campus again.

I like that lens.

bad, bad, bad.

view from our hotel. nothing.

again, around the Rio Grande. like in Africa.

yellow line.

back in new orleans.

waiting for the mass probably :-)

various coffee shops.

some of my favorite street objects.

I was writing my prospectus (so we’re getting to the end of april) behind the glass in the PJ’s and she was just pretty so I had to take a shot.

Calvin.

Bulldog’s pub.

like the small gummy bird.

used bike shop and repair station.

one of the dresses I brought her from Portugal last year. Just finishing the roll (I have more but I can’t show them :-) ).

would you put these on your porch?

for April 28th we got tickets for the Jazz fest (rather expensive – around 60 bucks) for free. We could choose the day between thursday and sunday. We were deciding between friday (main guest Areta Franklin) and sunday (B.B. King). Decided for friday, when we entered, we met our friend who told us Franklin canceled her show. We were so pissed and even more so because the whole festival really sucked. It was all about food and money. It was like a big rock music festival but nobody apparently thought about the fact that with jazz music it is just wrong. In the end, I had to call it the “Lame fest” instead of “Jazz fest”.

at least, they recycled. probably the only thing worth the value there.

the Mardi Grass indians.

that weird word means hawaian.

the mango ice balls.

Mr. Okra. He has mobile vegetable selling. Sometimes going through our street, he advertises through singing the songs about what kinds of vegetables he has etc. Pretty funny.

huge banana.

I forgot, one more good thing on the Lame fest – they had Pilsner Urquell even with the original plastic cups.

something that actually has been in Plzen.

it was supposed to rain, so a lot of peole had rubber boots. You can buy all sorts of them, stylish, colorful – whatever you want.

no comment.

it looked like the water comes to the fountains from the pond behind. It probably didn’t but it looked weird.

do you need to send or ship something from the festival? no problem.

pretty lady.

the only performance that was worth to stay were Gipsy kings. They played the old hits but it wasn’t at least boring.

man and his cigar.

beer seller and a random lady got together to dance.

I like those raincoats.

sometime in between all those events, I bought few new things. One is voigtlander vitessa A. Worked ok, needed some claning (rangefinder, lens). Tested it with a color kodak 400 and I’m very pleased with the results. Although I have to say that it doesn’t hold well in the hand because strangly the righ hand side is smaller than the left one. The lens is really sharp (btw it’s xenon 50/2) and colors are very nice.

that used to be a frog.

black dog and cat.

I also bought a Leica IIIc. In nice condition, seemed to work well, however after letting an old film going through it, I found out that speeds are off. I decided to work on it and finally learned how to service speeds (rollers tension etc.) with the help of tv tester. I’m glad we still have an old analog tv that we can’t use because we don’t have digital receiver. I got the speeds work reasonably well and I’m glad because it’s a nice little shooter.

tulane baseball.

me and leica. I was growing a mustache for the cinqo de mustache party we had but its now gone (I don’t want to look different for my prospectus defense).

The Times Picayune – the local “New York Times”.

skull and crossed bones.

our birdies.

one of the few things that are not so great on leica IIIc is that it frames slightly off of what you see in the viewfinder. The window cover should be there complete.

in Czech we usually build bird houses, here you buy them in the Home Depot.

that’s all folks. it was long and hopefully a bit enjoyable. few more rolls on the way.

just a short entry. in the coffee house in French quarter during the French Quarter festival. I already have several rolls scanned but no time to upload and make a post.

some lab damage.

magnolias were still blooming at that time.

carrots – who wouldn’t want to have some on the porch.

kayaking house :-)

anthro folks at the parade. I came late and most of them were already drunk :-).

traditionally, everybody was dressed green but you see nothing on BW, huh :-)

Darcie, Marc, and Brian

Darcie in the middle. She got a lot of Irish stuff :-)

it’s a bit difficult to see but she had a fleur de lis painted on her “secret” spot. Regarding the flower’s shape, I think it was a good choice to paint it over “there”.

Marc and Sherman.

Jessica’s rose.

Melissa

cute but tired.

Allen

Sherman and Melissa again.

Scott’s stylized vest.

girls group photo.

and Darcie with all her greenish items.

on my way home.

all dogs bark when you go along. territorial animals.

would you like a pizza?

I changed lenses (50/1.8 for 24/2.8) and clearly “color” rendition differs quite a lot.

guess where this one was shot?

the turtle was dead, weed slowly growing all over it.

last day of the Disney exhibition in NOMA. We went to see it the night before. It was not worth in my view but they have otherwise pretty good stuff in the museum.

back to rangefinders (canon P and 50/1.8).

in the coffee shop. I like the landing one. Some action.

this lady fed them and in between she was smoking one cig after the other. I wondered at that point whether Asians really have bigger tolerance to some health damaging habits because she looked pretty healthy for her age and speed she smoked those cigarettes.

back in City Park. The same occasion as before. It was just a short runaway from studying all day long.

birthday party. It was really a great day.

like this one. the same head movements, the same action, just different species.

caught her nicely in the move. looks like …….well.

first tests of the fed 50/3.5 lens. looks pretty good (which I expected anyway). both wide open, testing focusing acuracy (hence the different distances).

in fair grounds coffee. back to 50/1.8

this one is with canon 100/3.5 which I don’t use much but sometimes it comes handy.

and then, I bought canon 50/1.8, older silver version (post-serenar) for really good price. Well, it was actually the only reason because it was such a deal that I couldn’t just let it go. Moreover, the lens is almost flawless.

canon III and fed 50/3.5 in the audubon park. Bottom loading is really a b.itch. I did not load correctly and some cropping on the side happened, unfortunatelly. But in the end, I like those faults anyway.

common photographic mistake (something growing out of the head) but in this case I like it because it is a duck and ducks rule!!! (besides the head-feet connection makes the shot interesting).

feeding right out of the hand was not a problem.

the hand in the way was not planned.

walking back to the car….

….and wasting the last frames (she should work on composing, although it happens to me too sometimes).

that’s all folks.

hope you’re enjoying the spring.

There are two rolls posted in reversed chronological order. Last saturday, we went to Eric Clapton’s concert. Roger Daltrey (frontman of “The Who”) was opening it. It was fabulous and the old man is still the master of his hands. It was funny because the majority of people in the arena were middle age, older people, not many young ones. Well Clapton is 65 now :-). The pot could be smelled everywhere, and the funniest think was to see those older farts asking the young ones to share a joint :-). But, the concert was fabulous and well worth 62 bucks we paid per person. It was our only and last chance to see him here in the US.

On the side note, my friend Jakub grew on Clapton and loves him. I tried to call him and let him listen but his cell was dead at that time (besides that I called at 4am of central european time). Sorry, but not my fault. I’m sure that would be a great wake up call for him.

Then, I bought Canon P rangefinder with 50/1.8 lens and the second roll is kind of a street test. Both work great. The lens had to be completely disassembled and glass and aperture cleaned. Now it runs perfect and produces really amazing photos.

people were slowly filling the arena while Roger Daltrey performed. BTW, it’s olympus xa, not the best shooter for concerts (especially because it lacks spot metering which is really needed in these settings) but it was forbiden to photograph there so the need for really small camera.

Roger Daltrey

the arena pretty much filled by the time Mr. Clapton came on stage.

Eric Clapton

bad photo but I just wanted to show this view. I probably did not focus at all :-)

that’s the end.

one traditional. canon P with my sekonic micro clip-on L-136.

building site at the campus. Since this whole new orleans area is basically under the see level, there are special rules for putting grounding down before you can build. The whole tree logs (like 20m long) must be hammered vertically into the ground to ensure the future building’s stability. They have special equipment for this but before, the ground must be really soaked with water for the logs to go down more easily. it’s a dirty work.

the spring weed.

shot on c-41 kodak bw400cn again hence the magenta tones.

I’m really proud of framing this one. And I love the tweetee up there.

well, some flare but it was against the sun, no hood attached.

it was still rather cold. we were warming up on the sun for a while.

that’s all folks.

No, I’m kidding, but truth is that here, the spring is in its full (before the awfull humid weather will come in May). And since this is probably our last spring here (at least for next couple of years) I decided to shoot few rolls of what it offers the most – magnolias, and besides that some “street” objects.

first roll is shot on bronica etrsi (6×4.5), second on canon III with jupiter 8 and the last one on canon 7 with canon 35/2.8. Just a short note on canon III and all bottom loading leicas and their copies. Not only that it is a pain in the ass to load them as everybody mentions but quite often it is very difficult to load the frames to be perfectly between film perforations. It happened to me again not to do it right (already twice from 4 rolls) but I quite like it. Even Cartier-Bresson had the same problem as we could see on his prints in The Menil Collection in Houston this winter. The only problem is that my scanner’s film holders don’t allow to include perforations while scanning.

anyway, enjoy.

bird’s island in the audubon park. they recently had to strengthen the shores as some of the trees started to incline due to erosion of their root system. we were quite surprised how much they tilted only in few weeks. I’d say that it was a last call work.

magnolias are just beautiful, no matter how gay that may sound. And hence, you’re gonna see a lot of them in this post :-).

fleurs des lis

detail.

a girl of Hawai.

I know I already showed these but I like them so much that the medium format color shot just had to be wasted on them. And I don’t care that the shot needs straightening, from the point when I started to show uncropped full-frames I don’t care. For me, it shows faults of photographer’s hands and makes most such shots even more interesting for me.

painted and coatless handles. the cat apparently knew which side to choose to fit the color. Is this a good street shot?

can you find the doggie?

these shots date back to mardi grass. when walking from parades. But as I said in the title, this post is about magnolias and street objects.

this “street object” is a figurin of an arab guy serving for purposes of the US corps training. They had another one who was pictured hiding behind the sheep (what a horrible stereotype). Not only that I and my wife considered this to be very inappropriate but nobody else obviously did care too. Are we still in the US? Wake up people, this is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

some nice entrances…

…and one not that nice.

a lady bug.

in audubon park. the golf course. There are people indeed.

not a perfectly “street” object :-).

the lighting was perfect.

no comment bar.

two new olds and two old news.

first on the roll again, after some time though. the exposure was just perfect.

this roll was also a test of my sekonic L-136 meter which I “treated” again because I wanted to set the resistors for the 1.5V battery. Strangely, I found out that it does not matter what kind of resistor you solder in (tried ones from 320ohms to 1.8K), it measured all the time the same. However, with 1.8K instead of original 600 I got overmeasuring in the high end corrected with 1.4V hearing aid battery.

I was watching the Canada-USA final olympic match from outside for the last 6 mins of the game. Then, US scored 25 seconds before the end, so I walked in, got a beer and watched the overtime and team Canada celebrations. Being Czech, I’d like to see Czechs there but since they lost in quarterfinals I was kind of glad Canada won. It is good for people there.

that’s my bike there, when leaving the bar, a bit more “easy” than I’d expect to be after two Blue Moons.

the true “street” object…

…and behind the garbage bin really an untrue “street” object. a pram.

I hope all those magnolias lifted your mood up at least a bit.

locally: have a goo’one.

we spent the days from sunday to tuesday with troy, his family, Brandan and Paula (Brandan is Joe’s brother) and with Kenny. It was a huge dose of fun as every year, especially on tuesday. Again, a lot of alcohol around and this time it left some signatures on the framing style. Especially on one roll shot on sunday, when I started to drink around noon and Troy’s group around 7.30 am!!!!!!

well, enjoy

the first roll is from saturday. I went to see one parade before I had to get back home to give Zuza drive to work. She was sick and arranged to go to work only few hours and apparently didn’t want to ride her bike. I got some booze and the level of enjoyment was getting up well with it, although I didn’t have too much cause I had to drive.

arriving to the place where the parades marched.

a synagoge was nearby, somebody probably celebrated his/her birthday.

I caught just the end of the first one and had to wait a while till the second one goes.

in the meantime, I was shooting what was around.

nice one!

and the second parade came pretty soon.

she was luvely (as our english friends would say).

dragons.

shit picker.

chickens…

star wars.

new roll. this was hilarious. Saints played against Indianapollis Colts with the quarterback Payton Manning in the superbowl, and as a result he became a big theme for making jokes.

they were throwing also some sandwiches so at least, I got so lunch. they were ok regarding the taste.

you can play a trumpet if you don’t drive more than 5miles per hour, it’s Louisiana’s law!!! I’m kidding of course.

hulk hogan.

I love his face.

cage strippers :-)

and the parade is over. few more shots on the way to home.

he was still enjoying his drink. no rush, no hurry.

a good way to get some more beads.

PBR – Pabst Blue Ribbon, cheap beer.

this is on sunday. Brandan got a lot of mardi grass gear from the whole Troy’s family. Troy’s parents always in a good mood.

Brandan, Judy, Lester, and Paula.

early afternoon and Brandan was already in really good mood.

Carolline and Dirk, Troy’s brother and his wife.

Aston Villa!!!

Kenny finally decided that the outer temperature higher than his 3 layers of clothes are suited for.

he got a spear.

a fresh delivery.

Paula, luvely :-)

my wife finally got out of the work. we all were already pretty much stoned.

the King Drew Breese.

see, what my dentist did to me :-)

getting late and that’s how it ends after 12 or more hours of alcohol consumption :-)

on monday for another parade.

DIY burger shop.

Paula and Kenny.

I don’t remember what was this about.

the parade was just starting but this is the last frame I took. Even though the experience is never the same, pictures look almost the same after few parades, so I decided no to shoot that night more.

next morning, tuesday, the mardi grass day, at Kennys house at 9 am after already having a champain/orange juice drinks. heading to take some breakfest and then to the constume show. I love this shot, it may be the best one from this batch. The simplicity of lines plus Kenny. If you had known him, this shot would give much more sense I guess.

waiting for food.

huge bag of tea. non of us ever saw one that big.

ok, Kenny’s costume. It was hilarious.

guess what these are? or maybe rather don’t geuss.

this is simple.

isn’t he cute?

one prayer for all….

waiting for Kenny till he finishes dressing up.

…and let’s go.

Kenny’s prayer cards. Let me repeat it: “Pray to St. Anus-tine of Arabi, Protecting your travels along the Hershey way”. I just may add that Hershey is a chocolate, and you should get it by now.

double self.

I loved that fish bone on the satellite dish, like a fish on the plate.

mardi grass dog.

and the costume show may begin.

cockrouch.

money, money, money.

high-tech Robin.

the best new-orleanian costume – a pothole. this is so characteristic of the city that it beats almost everything else in my eyes.

ice age squirrels.

nice one.

superbowl trophy.

they were “grapes”. wonderful idea.

another super-BOWL.

emo et al.

cockrouch family. wonderful costumes.

very original way how to lock your bikes. I’m still wondering why the put he front wheel separate.

king Dreaux.

funny too. life after dept.

I tried to get Chiquita (the dog) but it sort of fades into the black and gold around but what I really do enjoy is the connection of that tiny dog to the (big) red butt.

south park devil. By that time we already got into the french quarter. The costume gathering was in Marigny from which people slowly walk down to quarter to enjoy the madness.

announcing hell frozen over pigs flying.

he played well.

I like this shot.

rubber trees.

preparing for bourbon street awards. he (yes correctly HE) was freezing, it was very cold that day.

3 flags to characterize new orleans.

in a gay bar.

I got some very nice beads from the guy up on the balcony. Actually, maybe the best ones I got over the 3 years here. Well, since they were all gay men, it was not that hard for me. you just have to flirt with them a bit and you get what you want. Especially if your wife encourages you to flirt :-) (because she’s bead addict).

bourbon street awards.

the guy you saw earlier made it to the podium.

one of the Troy’s friends.

in another bar for men.

excitement…

….they decided to shoot one of me too.

my “gay” beads (not all but the best ones).

puritans.

Zuza got a shot of me with her but she was that drunk that she framed it really bad, that bad that I can’t show the shot here, otherwise I would loose all of my photographic ideals.

two symbols of america.

one pair of boobs….

and another one. the first pair was probably natural, the second one looked “enhanced” (but nice anyway :-) ).

one of the side streets.

in front of Rodrigue’s Blue Dog gallery.

Tiger and his lovers.

latex and the bathrobe.

back to superbowl. payton manning jokes again. the cardboard says: “trying hard to convince myself that it’s just a game after all”. When I saw it I really had to laugh hard.

again the puritans.

the hat says it all.

ok, now the story. during the mardi grass, some people having access to the balconies on the bourbon street buy expensive and beautiful beads to throw to people. but hey, we’re still in the US, it’s not a plain charity. They want something. And the better beads they have, the more they want. ok, but what is it? Either boobs or c.o.c.k, depending on the gender. In this case, the guy up there had wonderful sunflower beads, really nice but he definitely wanted to see boobs. and a lot of women did show him, it’s mardi grass, the party time, right? but guess what happened next, my “luvely” wife as a bead addict could not resist and before we went home later in the night she did it too. Luckily I had few frames left on the roll, so I made that moment eternal. Unfortunatelly for you, you won’t see it. Not that I wouldn’t show it but she would get really mad at me for doing it. She said it’s not liky shooting nudes, this is real life and it’s not for posting. Sorry y’all.

probably my best street shot so far. there’s a deep truth about the city in this shot. really high criminality opposed to the very unrestricted lifestyle. There were 3 cops on the left to the guys being arrested, then the tv crew, another cop in the picture and above all this the 3 people chating just next to this. the symbolism in there is, for me, in the sense like: do whatever you do, I just won’t let it interfere with my fun.

I did not get what I wanted. just before I shot it the guy instead of having his hand in the air, he had it the stripper’s underwear.

the looked really high, too high.

something happened with few shots and I’m not sure what’s going on. I suspect it is the camera but I won’t probably find out until the problem gets worse.

popular cave kid.

they were funny, Elvatars. Poor Elvis.

payton manning theme again.

I like this one.

no comment.

one of the oldest houses in the city.

this was funny too. parody for Louisiana heritage tours but also a truth due to the huge gay community here.

another great street shot in my view. not only the exposure, compositon etc. but mainly the two masks, the smiling one on the side without, while the scowling one the side with window blinds.

who dat nation rules!!! nice butt man :-)

no comment here.

wonderful octopi.

you can think that this shot is about the geometry of the windows, balcony sections, and people in those sections but you would be wrong, wrong, wrong. The 4th section in the upper row, there is a georgeous woman showing her butt for beads. Yes sometimes this whole process works also the other way. She showed almost all her body few minutes later. Maybe another bead addict.

off the bourbon, to get out of the crowds and take a deep breath.

and this is the spot where “the shot” of my wife would come. 2 frames left on my last roll of the day (6th I guess).

the dog was nice and I think he got her way more money than she would do by herself.

it’s 3:44 am and I’m finishing this entry. Hope you enjoyed it.

ok, now, you know the important stuff. This post is basically about us being part of the huge “Who dat nation” craziness. We watched the superbowl in “The Boot”, the same place where Zuza works and where we also watched the conference finals two weeks ago. Crazy hell on earth. Then, the huge “whole city afterparty” in the french quarter and finally, the Saints parade on tuesday (one special mardi grass parade made just for saints players, coach, managers etc. to celebrate the victory with all the people in the city).

But before that, I did the job of replacing the shutter curtain in my canon IIf, so the first roll was kind of testing it. There is apparently a problem but I need to figure out where. You’ll see.

And of course, Mardi Grass is going on, so one more parade shooting comes before the superbowl stuff too. The weather is awful nowadays, such a shame that it’s during the mardi grass (cold, rain, sleet, maybe even snow).

anyway, hope you’ll enjoy the saints madness with us even if you’re not the fan or you don’t even know what this whole is all about :-).

being patriotic, we start with the louisiana state flag.

BBQ float. why to be minimalistic, we’re still in the US, right?

like this one. shooting on my way to the library.

it was nice although you can’t see it. the whole cemetery was green due to the fresh weed (not the pot!) coming out of the ground.

discovering some more interesting houses.

oh, saints.

somebody else’s carrel. I met the guy few days later when Zuza called me and he heard my ring tone and asked if it was in fact a ring tone. It, maybe, does not make sense now, but the ring tone is James Brown’s “This is a man’s world”. Cool song.

you’ve already seen this house on my photos. This time completely in the football theme.

small LSU and big Saints helmets, exactly as how much money floats in these organizations.

but the helmet lights were cool in my opinion.

accupuncture. nice ear next to the door.

as you can see, the shutter does not run perfect. it will show up again. However, it didn’t do always, just few shots and maybe it’s not the shutter. Well, I will have to figure it out.

again.

I love those ducks or goats whatever they are. They are always there but change “clothes” with the occassions :-). This time, perfect.

nice little fellas. like this shot.

the problem at its best.

going to see the Pygmalion parade.

this was an interesting game.

church can make a profit.

without the second “n” there would be a good fit to my gear.

I think it is good for 2 second exposure with a slr.

traditional mardi grass stands.

I love the dancing lady and a youngster with the jersey. both were super funny. he looked like he was smoking pot the whole day.

tiny glasses.

finally, in The Boot, watching the superbowl. When we came, Saints were already loosing 10-0, that’s why it seems to be rather calm (but crowded anyway).

yes, the defense was the most important game activity.

lovers with flash…

….and without.

The Who had the halftime show (on the tv).

the bartender Moly.

she saw me but they were busy as you can probably imagine.

saints scored.

a facebook shot.

our friend Jana just wrote that her husband Zac watches the game too but mainly that her in-laws bought them a house :-).

game finishes.

and saints won the superbowl. at that point, I stepped back in order to shoot and also to save myself and the camera from being soaked in alcohol.

now, you see why.

ok, I think it’s clear now.

touching moment when Drew Brees (our quarterback and MVP) holding his son with victory tears in his eyes.

after the game rushing to the quarter. parked in marigny (after a 45 min. spent finding some spot to park).

and the celebration begins.

the scanner cropped it and I, stupidly, did not notice that. lazy to rescan now.

they had a canon to shoot toys.

one true BW roll.

this was touching too. He proposed in the middle of the Bourbon st., after saint’s victory. Her face expression said it all: surprise, love, true love…..and yes, she said yes. BTW, if you recognise these people, please, let me know, I’d like to contact them with these shots. I guess, they don’t have their own :-).

I got you!!!! he was making fun.

christ’s followers don’t stop bothering even after SAINTS (and I mean they really are SAINT for most people) winning game.

legs out of the window. one of the peep show houses.

having a good sight is important.

2 dollars for letting you pee in their restrooms. Everybody wants to make profit of the game.

this reminds me Brassai’s photos of the parisiens in the night. I very much like this shot. the shadow coming into the frame, the group in the dark on the right and the two in the hallway, all disconnected but in harmony.

fleur debris with a homeless man.

I call these the “screw beaters” in the sense that the basses beat the screws out of their cars. and btw, the lady on right really had enough.

she had mega….you know what.

this was super new orleanian. this guy stopped the car, started to dance and celebrate no matter that huge line formed behind him. being one of the drivers behind I would beat him no matter the game or anything.

then, on tueday, there was a special parade celebrating the saints team. literally, the whole city came downtown. it was insanely difficult to find a parking spot even few miles away.

you probably noticed the different tint of these BW shots. they are on kodak bw400cn and since it is a C41 bw film a scan it as a color one. the tint comes from the light in which it was exposed. I prefer it over puting it into pure BW cause it looks better in my view even though the tint is not consistent. and moreover, why hiding that it is a chromatic film when it actually is. Otherwise I could shoot real color film and scan it as bw.

young nurse and a doctor sharing a hoodie. it was really cold, that cold that Zuza is now sick.

I like the boy’s face expression.

Bressonn’s geometry.

LSU tigers fan.

the guy in the middle had a t-shirt wrapped around his head. it was kind of funny.

Saints’ president coming.

and the first batch of players with the most valuable one (number 9 Drew Brees on top of the float).

stylish.

trueish.

steetish.

the flag on top was a saints flag of course.

I waited till he looks and he finally did.

another location, to see the parade again.

how many birds and how many helicopters?

Jeremy Shockey.

the president comes again.

like a woodoo stick.

boys coming.

the saint breesus.

this is lovely.

another batch of players.

he gave me a face.

he was very popular. I like the expressions of these girls.

switching to digital. Posers with their bikes locked in by the crowds. They had to come very early and set it before people come. Is that saying something about them? I think so.

breesus et al. for the third time.

cold and windy as hell.

this is how girls loose their fertility :-). it was f…ing cold.

Tulane marching band. Ole Tulane.

another symbol of new orleans, Rodrigue’s blue dog.

number 5, Garret Hartley, the kicker who scored in semifinals the decisive points. scored in superbowl too.

retro boys.

musician with a lovely expression.

the coach, Sean Payton, with the trophy.

now, what hundreds of thousands of americans can leave behind is insane.

hope you enjoyed it, at least as well as we did being “in”.