WHO DAT? Nawlins Bound

Last week I was a pretty lucky guy. 

I got to spend 4 days smack dab in the middle of the French Quarter in New Orleans eating beignets, sucking crawfish heads, and trying to figure out if that lady who had just come on to me while I was walking down the dark end of Burbon St. was really a lady (no, I didn't stick around long enough to find out, and no, I doubt "she" was a lady).  Oh, and this whole trip was paid for by someone other than me. (thanks SIH!)

  I was chosen to take this adventure with approx. 20 of my fellow healthcare cohorts to attend a conference on healthcare service excellence.  The conference was really pretty engaging and entertaining, and I definately came home ready to service treat anyone and everyone in a particulary satisfactory manner.

When it comes to my photograpahy, though, this trip was just what I needed.  I spent almost all of 2010 taking images of people, mostly posed, mostly for paying clients.  That was great and I enjoyed every minute of it, but being in New Orleans and having a decent amount of free time gave me a chance to do some photography that I had not done in a very long time.  Follow the jump to see. 

Speaking of beignet's.......................give me a moment to collect myself...................okay, I'm alright.  I just had a powder sugar coma flashback.  These bad boys came from Cafe Dumonde.  In case you haven't been to New Orleans, and plan on going someday and would like to try these deep fried pieces of heaven just ask anyone down there how to get to the place that only serves coffee and beignet's and they will take care of the rest for you.  You might want to get there early as well.  I enjoyed these in relative peace and quiet at 7:00 am on a weekday morning.  However, I strolled past this fine establishment at 10:00 am the following Saturday morning and there was a line that would wrap around the superdome.

I literally haven't done street photography in years.  This was a photographic revival of sorts for me.  Of course, having a locale as diverse and beautiful as New Orleans definately aided things.  The shot above was taken as the sun was rising over the buildings on the opposite side of the street. 

Dragging myself out of bed at 6:30 am every morning definately had other payoffs besides beating the crowd to Cafe Dumonde. 

So, basically I realized that you can't take what you do too seriously.  When you get caught up in constantly worrying about what other people are going to think of your work, it starts to become a lot less fun.

So I've decided that from now on, I'm going to relax, press my shutter release button, and be confident in my abilities to produce images to the best of my photographic ability.

So, in closing, I would say  be confident in who you are and what you do.  Don't take yourself too seriously.  And especially, don't worry about what other people think.  Just apply yourself as hard as you can, and good things will happen.

Sorry, that last bit was pretty cheesy........I know.  Peace.