I’m excited to be back visiting New Orleans after nearly 20 years! And what an honor to be asked by the Garden Club of America to teach their first architecture photography workshop. A great opportunity to meet some of their members and explore this city photographically. Of course, we visited the French Quarter but we also checked out the Central Business District, Marigny, Algiers Point and the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
We started our 4 days together with a presentation on composition and a really fantastic dinner at Gautreau’s Restaurant. While I organized most of the photography itinerary, Sarah, the organizer for the Garden Club, did an amazing job choosing restaurants during our time together!
Our first full day started in the Central Business District and ended with a tour led by a local guide around Algiers Point and some of the colorful houses of the district.
Our first stop was the Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church which we photographed both outside and inside.
Onto the high rises. All seemed to have great geometry. The gloomy weather dictated the choice for black & white, putting an emphasis on the geometry of the buildings.
How about a tiny pop of color and a pairing of some of the Art Nouveau with the Brutalist Architecture downtown.
Of course, a couple of Urban Quilt renditions from NOLA 😉
A nice mix of old & new.
And the Gothic design of the Church of St Patrick.
Now for Algiers Point. I have a much harder time abstracting homes and the more classical styles of architecture so I spent a good amount of time on this workshop playing with intentional camera movement (ICM).
However, I did think a detail of this house paired well with a shot from the business district from the morning.
More of those ICM shots…
Though the second shot is jumping ahead the next morning at the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and is a bear sculpture by Frank Gehry, just a very abstracted version of it. As are most of the next images you’ll see from those gardens. Fantastic sculpture garden and a must-see if you visit New Orleans, just challenging for me to photograph outside of playing around with ICM. Which is great to do even with nature, like these first few shots of the Spanish moss trees.
Moving onto the various sculptures.
It wouldn’t be New Orleans without a bit of a haunted vibe.
After a break for lunch and a post-processing session + critique we headed back out to the French Quarter with our local tour guide. We also spent our last morning of the workshop here as well. So these are a combination of both visits.
Even though it was nearly two weeks away, Mardi Gras prep was well underway.
Our final photo stop of the day was to take in the views of the St Louis Cathedral.
And the final stop of the workshop was the St Louis Cemetery, which required our guide as well. Some great stories in this city!
It was a full few days in NOLA and a great group of ladies from the Garden Club of America. If you’d like to see all the New Orleans images, head over here.
