American Festivals Project

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

Matt and I spent a few days in Baton Rouge, LA with my old high school friend Austin.  He showed us a really great time.  We enjoyed an epic tailgating party at LSU, where the Oceanography department serves up steaming pots of shrimp, potatoes, corn, green beans, and pineapple.  Oh man!

Doughnut stop.

Austin took us out for a day in the Sabine National Wildlife Preserve to assist with marine research.  We joined two other graduate students from LSU.  The mode of transportation was by air boat, which is like riding a sea-doo and airplane combined.  What a blast!  It was a little scary at first zooming across the water at 40 mph, aimed directly for a piece of dry land. I thought we would certainly crash.  However, the air boat is designed with a sharply arched bow that allows the craft to easily glide onto the dry land.  The pilot even has the ability to spray soap on the underside of the craft to keep it lubricated when crossing large sectionsof grass.  Talk about loud too!  Everyone must wear ear protection.

The guys were helping John (background) gather samples of marine life for his graduate research.  We collected samples from eight different locations throughout the day.  The square pvc box in the foreground is like a net that is thrown from the boat and traps things inside of it by sinking into the mud.  Once the trap is thrown, two people work to gather whatever may have been caught.  We would typically find tiny shrimp, tiny fish, and tiny crabs.  Not too exciting, but certainly interesting.

There are a number of samples taken from each location.  Above, John is taking a square sample of grass to analyze back in the lab.  He also collects mud samples.

Here, Austin and Shannon are executing another form of collecting marine samples.  A pair works together to drag the net 12 steps along the shore, then gather whatever is caught from the net and place it in a zip lock bag to be labeled.

Sometimes the air boat would get stuck.  Above, we had jumped out of the boat to make the load lighter, when Shannon the driver suddenly tore away with the fan faced directly at us.  It suddenly felt like being in a hurricane.  The tiny particles from the tall grass felt like needles spraying against our skin.  The power from those air boats is incredible!  But what an educational day was had with some very cool guys.  Thanks Austin for your hospitality tour-guiding expertise!

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

In New Orleans we were hosted by my old high school friend Kamau, and his wife Shelina.  They were very generous to share their bathroom with us, even though they are still in the process of remodeling after their house was damaged in hurricane Katrina.  It was the beautiful Shelina who turned me onto the idea of photographing the local Halloween party on Frenchman St.  She would know what to do and when, since she is from New Orleans and knows just about everyone in town.  Kamau is on his way to being a very talented doctor, with a specialization in radiology.  Go Kamau!

A visit to New Orlean’s beautiful graveyards.

I met this guy below when riding my bike somewhere near Esplanade St.  He was performing some strange ceremony in front of this very old and abandoned Masons building.  He asked me to take his picture, and then I quickly rode along.

Palm reading lessons–part of a historical night tour in the French Quarter that I stumbled upon.

Notice this guy’s name is ‘Love’.  I asked him if that was his real name and he assured me it was.

Dr. Foderingham bustin’ a move.

HOUSTON, TEXAS

The studio of David Adicke.  Presidents heads, lots of them.