Category Archives: Photography

January 28, 2013 · 5:35 am

Getting Lewd and Crude in New Orleans

Our latest travel excursion began on Saturday, January 19, with a flight to New Orleans to snag a ride on NCL’s Star the following day for a trip around the western Caribbean. After that rather disappointing meal at Maspero’s, we hit the streets to visit a few of our favorite art Galleries, including Galerie D’Art Francaise. But in leaving the galleries and returning to the streets we noticed a buzz growing.

As it turns out, there are several Mardi Gras-related parades through the French Quarter, and not just on Mardi Gras. Many of these mini parades (called “Krewe du Vieux”) occur in the weeks preceding Mardi Gras. This Saturday evening turned out to be one of those mini parades. The “theme” for this particular outing was “Lewd,” we found out later much to our chagrin. As such, many of my photographs of this event are not printable in my blog.

So, not knowing precisely what New Orleans had in store for us this night, we stood locked in placed for nearly two hours, held tight by a crush of humanity. Eventually our patience was rewarded with a rather graphic display of floats and paraders.

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January 25, 2013 · 5:39 am

Pierre Maspero’s — A Disappointing Taste of New Orleans

Last Saturday we took a flight to Nawlins. That would be New Orleans, Louisiana, or NOLA for short. Our reason for coming here was to catch the NCL Star for a cruise around the Western Caribbean, which we’ll get to in subsequent blogs.

This is something like my sixth or seventh trip to this great little city. The food is usually good (however you’ll see today that you can, if fact, get a less than stellar meal here) and the photographic opportunities are tremendous. The people alone make NOLA a street photographer’s paradise.

Now, about that rather disappointing meal. After a little internet research, I decided to try something new. Big mistake. The restaurant was Pierre Maspero’s, and it had some pretty good write-ups. So much for the internet. Ursula ordered a trio New Orleans sampler that included shrimp étouffée, red beans and rice, and gumbo. The étouffée had little in the way of crawfish, the red beans and rice had even less in the way of sausage and meats, the gumbo was almost entirely broth, the portions were small, and the whole things was neither spicy nor served piping hot as one would expect. Even the French baguette was disappointingly stale.

My experience was a disaster. I ordered a seafood platter of fried oysters (the only thing exceptional about this place other than the alligator appetizer), battered catfish, fries, and hush puppies. Again, the food was lukewarm. The catfish coating was so soft and spongy that I sent it all back for a retry. It came back only marginally better. Let’s face it, Southern-style cooking demands catfish be coated in cornmeal. I should have been tipped off by the beer batter. Next time I won’t repeat that mistake.

The fried alligator was great, however. And the accompanying remoulade sauce was a nice touch.

I will conceded, however, that ambience is in abundance at Pierre Maspero’s. The wait staff are eager and friendly. The dining room is absolutely charming. Alas, charm and friendliness do not tickle the tongue or sate the stomach.

Now for a few more snaps of Nawlins:

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Tagged as Maspero's, New Orleans, photography, review, street photography, travel

January 21, 2013 · 5:35 am

El Paso Museum of Art — Part 3

Sorry for the postponement of the final part in my series on the El Paso Museum of Art. Here are the links to Parts 1 and 2 should you feel the need to refresh:

El Paso Museum of Art —1

El Paso Museum of Art —2

Here’s the view of downtown El Paso from just outside the El Paso Museum of Art:

Outside the El Paso Museum of Art

But if you think that’s intriguing, wait until you get inside. Not only is EPMA home to a large sampling of the famed Kress Collection, EPMA houses more modern art as well:

Something a bit more modern in the EPMA collection

Recently, however, EPMA hosted a rather impressive exhibit of European masters. You saw examples from my favorite European masters on Wednesday. Ursula’s tastes run more to the religious artworks of the masters, and her favorite that day was this example from Rubens:

Rubens

There were certainly a large number of European masters whose works were represented during this wonderful and exciting exhibition, and the event was certainly well attended (although my pictures do not reflect that as I timed my shots between the marauding hordes of art lovers):