16-20 June 2007

This was a work trip with a weekend tacked on in front of it. I had not been to New Orleans in eight or so years. I had made five or six trips there in the previous ten years. The French Quarter is not much changed. Everything else has changed a lot. For one thing, fewer people. Fewer tourists. A lot of rebuilding, but not as much as there needs to be.

There is no shortage if things to capture on film, er, card in New Orleans. I made a lot of shots at Preservation Hall, a favorite of mine and a lot of others. Sadly, the Preservation Hall Band does not play there much any more as several of them no longer live in New Orleans due to Katrina and Rita. Too hard for them to get down to the Quarter to play. They are not young. The weekend I was there they were at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. (I saw them there a lot of years ago.)

Because no flash photography is allowed during performances in the small hall (think large living room), I cranked the Nikon D100 up to 1600 ISO. So that the focus flash assist light on the camera would not be an issue, I used autofocus and focused on the band's feet, then turned the camera to manual focus and use that pre-focus to shoot with. Did not have to, or chose not to, too often. I was using a Sigma 10-20mm lens; it was very forgiving. I processed the Presevation Hall (both sets) as little as possible. I added minimal contrast, took out minimal red, and sharpened. The available light was incandescent and red incandescent - tough to correct, and I did want ambient light conditions. I was glad I chose this way to shot Saturday night because Sunday a lens popped out of my glasses and I spent most of the day without glasses. The camera saw more than I could. I used the same shooting scenario during the gospel performance late Sunday afternoon. The lighting was different then, just one or two incandescent lights from the ceiling, most of the light being daylight coming through one large window, back-lighting the band, and some daylight coming in from the hallway outside the performance hall. I had to pre-focus repeatedly as I changed focal length and my position frequently. Enough excuses.

I hope to get back sooner than later.