Out and About

I had the opportunity to goof around with the camera on a long lunch break last week and thought I'd share a few photos I took along Greenwell Springs Road in north Baton Rouge. If you keep up with my Flickr stream you'll probably have already seen these.

Although I've been to Jerry Lee's for boudin several times, not until this day did I notice that Jerry Lee's is right next to Mary Lee. Two Baton Rouge institutions. If you're asking, "what is boudin," you don't want to know.



Whether in Baton Rouge or other South Louisiana towns, I am always struck by the placement of cemeteries. In addition to having many swallowed by petrochemical facilities, I also seem to find many abutting pharmacies.



This one was taken near Sherwood Forest and Florida Boulevard. The grocery store has been vacant for a while and I thought the partially restored Caddy was a nice addition to the scenery.



I've passed this place many times and always wanted to stop with my camera. It has also been closed for years, according to my wife. It always reminds me of an old Venture store (that may only make sense to my Chicago readers.)





More content soon...

Baton Rouge | Government Street

It’s been a bit of a crazy week here as I’ve had work-related after-hours events to attend the last couple nights. Tuesday night I sat in my office and watched Hulu for two hours before my event. Although it was good to catch up on Archer, I realized I could have been out taking some pictures for my faithful readers… so last evening I took the opportunity. In hindsight, being outdoors taking pictures in the late afternoon in South Louisiana, while wearing a suit, was not the best idea before a social event. But these are the sacrifices I make for you.

My subject yesterday was one of my favorite parts of Baton Rouge – Government Street in mid-city. Government Street certainly has it’s highs and lows, but I kind of love the mix of mid-century architecture, nice restaurants and unique boutiques, along with some splashes of urban decay and kitsch. Admittedly, these will focus more on the decay part, because as my wife says, “all [I] like to take pictures of is run-down buildings.”

Hope you enjoy these pictures, I feel like my skills are getting slightly better. The first two are from the western edge of mid-city, nearly downtown. The rest bounce around a bit east-to-west as I saw subjects and darted in and out of parking lots.







I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition.





I had read about Ninja Snowballs, so when I saw the truck I had to stop and take a picture. (It was hard to miss - the truck is a brilliant, shiny red as you can see.)  I’m not sure which Ninja this was, but he graciously posed for the snapshot as he was packing up. He asked if I was from the newspaper. “No, just a little blog,” I replied.











Here are several from the grand old dame of Government Street, Baton Rouge Magnet High School.















This was actually on North Boulevard, but I couldn’t resist.






As always, larger, higher-resolution versions of everything can be found on my Flickr. Just click a photo to be taken there, then click "All Sizes." One last one for the road…

A few from the Garden District

I had the opportunity to snap a few pictures of Baton Rouge's lovely Garden District earlier today and thought I'd share them with all of you. I also wanted to let my readers know that I'm changing the hosting of my images to Flickr, and I plan to post other photography there as well... in other words, other photos I take that don't fit neatly into a post here on the blog. The link to my Flickr stream can be found at the bottom of the front page of this blog. Also, you should now be able to click any image, which will take you to the photos's Flickr page. There you can see other sizes of the photo, etc.













A special note on this last one. I've driven by this house dozens of times and always wanted to photograph it, because it reminds me of something from David Schalliol's incomparable Isolated Building Studies (a link to his photos can be found further down the page as well). I'm not sure if the building itself actually leans, or if I just wasn't holding the camera straight, but both photos I took look the same. Also, note the utility pole skewed the other way. "Straight" must be somewhere in between.

Baton Rouge | Spanish Town

Hello kiddies! Sorry it's been so long again. But you're in for a treat because I have two posts to make today. The first one has been a long time coming. Last fall, my wife and I did a walking tour of the Spanish Town neighborhood of Baton Rouge. Spanish Town has the distinction of being Baton Rouge's oldest neighborhood. Indeed, when established, the land was under the control of the Spanish government. Today, it's a sort of bohemian, eclectic neighborhood with a few small businesses and lots of old homes, including a number of bungalows. It's also not very big - just a few square blocks on the east side of downtown Baton Rouge. I haven't posted any of the photos yet because they were all taken on BlackBerry and I'm not thrilled with the quality... but last weekend we also took in the Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade, and I took some pictures of it, so I guess it's time to share everything.

First, the pictures from the walking tour:

The tour began at the Louisiana State Museum.

This home is a Civil War survivor and was used as a hospital during the war.

Spanish Town residents chatting on a nice Saturday morning.

The residents of Spanish Town are no fans of developer Richard Preis, who residents see as wanting to destroy Spanish Town in the name of progress.

Capitol Grocery.

Okay, now for some flavor from the Spanish Town Parade. Note the love for Richard Preis on one of the floats as well.

This is looking north, up 9th Street toward Spanish Town Road.

This gentleman was selling slices of king cake.

The people next to us offered the police bowls of gumbo.

PICTURE OF BOOBS (I did that just for pageviews).

Boudreaux (as in Boudreaux and Thibodeaux).