NOLA Part I

I met Molly through CouchSurfing, a non-profit worldwide network to help connect travelers with locals, so I knew she'd be good for adventures. My role as copilot on her recent trip to NOLA for a job interview was totally spontaneous and unexpected but worked out well for all involved (she had someone to yap at during the long haul, I got a free ride to visit New Orleans for the first time.) We were only there for a couple of days but I have a couple of sets of photos to share. I'll break it into several entries. This first one of mostly driving pictures will be the least exciting.


Our weekend road trip to New Orleans doesn't really need a title slide, but eight hours in the car with limited entertainment encouraged me to get a little creative with my camera. Molly's had these beads hanging from her mirror since Mardi Gras and they've faded in the sunlight. One of several recent goals and strategies for me in improving my photography has been to shoot from a wider variety of angles, hence this up-shot of her windshield. I think it's a fun and creative picture, the kind of thing this blog is for, and when editing it I couldn't resist adding some text in the negative space. So there you are.



Molly putting on makeup in the car. She calls this a character flaw, making excuses for not being more confident. She's hard on herself.


One of the things Bruce Lipsky told me while looking through some of my work is to start thinking about having a clear point of view in my photos. I'd heard of having a clear point of view in creative writing, but I hadn't thought of it in photography. He showed me some great examples, and it's something I tried to work with while shooting this weekend. You'll see it more in a couple of the photos to come. For this one I put the camera behind the rear-view mirror and pointed it at Molly as she was applying her eye makeup. I'm torn about these last two, because although they're somewhat dark and vague and uninformative, there's something very genuine and un-self-conscious about these moments that I felt I wanted to share.