New Orleans: Day 1

First things first: I had a wonderful time in New Orleans on my National Geographic Weekend Photo Expedition. I met some great people, both as part of the program and the locals, learned a lot, and got better (I hope). It was wonderful to meet Tyrone, Jennifer and Krista and they worked hard to make sure we had a good time and a great experience. I'm already trying to figure out which one to do next. Tucson or Santa Fe look mighty interesting... There is far too much to detail in a single post so I'm going to be writing about the weekend for several posts to come.

How it worked: For the 2 full days of the workshop, we went out to shoot with a specific focus in mind. We were out for 3-4 hours and then returned to the classroom to review our take. We were each expected to pick our top 20 images from the day and then sit with one of the instructors (Tyrone one day, Jennifer the next) to critique those 20. As part of the critique, they would pick their top 3 or 4 images to be displayed for comment to the entire group. The critiques were an extremely useful vehicle for learning what to look for in a photo, particularly as we were encouraged to listen in on each other's critiques when we had the time.

Day 1 officially began at 9am. However, about half of us met Tyrone in Jackson Square at 5:45am to catch the sunrise and beautiful early morning light. I ended up selecting a couple of these in my 20 for the day (more in a future post), including this one of the St. Louis Cathedral.

It was a beautiful morning and a beautiful sunrise and there were plenty of folks out next to the river to watch the sun come up.

We then headed into the classroom for our morning briefing.  Tyrone showed us a number of shots from his portfolio, describing their backstories and why the composition works. Since we were going to be out shooting in the mid-day sun, the light was going to be really tough for shooting people and pretty decent for shooting architecture. As a result, our assignment was to focus on composition. Of course, we were try to get everything right but composition was king for the day. Assignment in hand, we headed back out into the French Quarter with a heavy focus on Jackson Square to see what we could see.

Royal Street was full of performers. There were the guys in the awesome suits and ties, singing 3-part harmony a capella.

I really regret that I only had about 3 minutes to listen to them and that I never found them again over the weekend.  They were great!  There was the jazz quartet, led by the lady who could PLAY the clarinet.

And many others, with more photos to come later. Walking through the park in the center of Jackson Square, I ran across a family who had traveled from Canada and California to vacation together in New Orleans. It was kind of cool to see 3 generations of one family all together in a row.

And to round out this post, there's the frame we titled "Church and State". It drew lots of comments for being a new way to look back at St. Louis Cathedral from the River Walk.

All six of these images made Tyrone's first pass cut. The guys in the suits and the three generations lost out in the final round with the other 4 images being my "picks of the day."