Louisiana – RDZ Photography

Virtual Travel – Louisiana

Architecture, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Transportation, Water Features

Bonjour de la Louisiana. Our trip today takes us to the bayou.

1977 – Bogue Chitto River. This river is 65 miles north of New Orleans in a park with more than 1,000 acres.

1979 – Bayou. Much of southern Louisiana is made up of bayous and swamps.

2005

The residents of these parts are very proud of their alligators.

The bayous have a unique beauty.

1981 – Acadia. This area of Louisiana has the strongest French culture. In Louisiana the counties are known as parishes. Some of the parishes in this area are over 25% French speaking (although not a French someone from Paris or Montreal would likely easily understand).

We passed through this area in 2019, making a stop at the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.

Acadia is rice growing country.

In New Ibiera is the Conrad Rice Mill, America’s oldest.

1984 – Mississippi River. The river is the economic driver for Louisiana.

Bridges in New Orleans.

Many overseas freighters come up the river to New Orleans to dock and offload.

The tourist sternwheeler leaves for a tour.

Upriver at the crossing from Vicksburg, Mississippi to the town of Delta, Louisiana.

1986 – 1992 – 2001 – Music

New Orleans is music, food and partying.

1990 – Flowers

With the warm weather and abundant rain, Louisiana has amazing flora and fauna.

1998 – State Capitol. While New Orleans is the center of the world for all things Louisiana, Baton Rouge is the capital.

2002 & 2007 – Food

Louisiana is known for food, primarily (photos from Wikipedia)

Crawfish

Po-boys

And Beignets

2003 – Louisiana Purchase (historic New Orleans)

New Orleans was the center of the French owned territory in the new world. The Cabildo is beside St Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter.

The French Quarter is representative of the city at that time (except for all the dive bars).

2018 – Birds

Avery Island, Louisiana has a very impressive bird sanctuary.

Favorites of 2019

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

A great year of sights – these are my favorite 30 photos of 2019, with brief explanations why they are my favorites.

Chicago – Willis (Sears) Tower. The perspective of people out of their elements.

Washington – The former Capital Columns in the Arboretum. The morning lighting with the wildflowers and contrast of the columns.

Washington – Embassy Open House Day – and a young lady’s perfect timing next to their logo.

Near Frankfurt, Kentucky – I have a thing about old, seemingly abandoned buildings. This however had been reclaimed and re-used for it’s original purpose – bourbon storage and aging.

New Orleans – Mardis Gras World. It was like stepping into some psychedelic movie.

Avery Island, Louisiana – The symmetry of the rice fields with another old building.

Houston – The home of quirky art. This is from Lucky Land, a very cool place.

Houston quirky art part 2 – Giant President Heads.

San Antonio mission. Symmetry and historic architecture.

Amarillo, Texas – Cadillac Ranch, but after a storm where they appeared to be in a pond.

Columbus Zoo and a zoom lens. The statement in the face and amazing beauty of the animals.

Montreal – Ferris Wheel in Old Montreal – Perfect timing and lighting (just lucky on the timing).

Marietta, Ohio – Sternwheeler festival.

Chicago – Open House and another fantastic ceiling/light.

Buenos Aires – obviously the extended period spent in Argentina has opened a new world of photo possibilities. Recoleta Cemetery is the most popular tourist spot in the city, and I had the good fortune of some young lady there for (I suspect) a photo shoot when she ran by the row I was in, turned and posed for me! Who doesn’t want a photo of a young lady running through a cemetery with a knife.

Recoleta Cemetery provides so many great shots – the cob webs are natural, not staged.

The tomb of San Martin.

The La Boca neighborhood is known as a working class neighborhood in love with their team – La Boca juniors. The old car symbolizes the working class neighborhood and it was parked in front of the soccer practice fields with their bright colors on the walls.

Chacarita Cemetery is not as famous as Recoleta, but still a very stunning place.

The sunrises and sunsets can be amazing.

An hour drive out of town to San Antonio de Areco, and their gaucho festival was the event of the year. 4000 people and horses dressed for the occasion.

The Jacaranda trees are fantastic in bloom.

On a walking tour of street art the passer by’s sometimes fit the theme.

The Casa Rosada. A great courtyard and a bemused guard.

Hockey in Argentina – bring that soccer passion inside and combine it with hockey.

Finally – Bariloche, a beautiful mountain and lakes region.

New Ibiera, Louisiana – May 2019 – Conrad Rice Mill

Architecture, History, Nature

New Ibiera, Louisiana has long been a center of rice production. On the east side of town is the Conrad Rice Mill, the country’s oldest rice mill still in production. They have been processing rice here since 1912.

The production facility consists of a few old metal buildings, which have a great weathered look.

Next door is a general store that they start their tours from, as well as sell a number of their products. Our tour was lead by a veteran of the more than 40 years with the company.

The interior looks like it should – nearly all vintage equipment.

While there are a number of different types of rice grown and processed, the Conrad Rice Mill only processes short and medium.

It is always good to see buildings continue to be used for their original purpose into a second century, and with new owners it appears the Conrad Rice Mill will continue for years to come.

Avery Island, Louisiana – May 2019 – Jungle Gardens

History, Nature, Sciences, Water Features

With Avery Island’s location in southern Louisiana the main agricultural business is sugar cane.

With the year round warm, wet weather it is the perfect climate for nature to grow. In the late 1800s the son of the founder of Tabasco sauce, Edward Avery McIlhenny, created the botanical gardens known as Jungle Gardens.

The gardens cover 170 acres of Avery Island.

There isn’t a large number of different plants, flowers and trees, but the gardens are well laid out, and immaculately kept up.

As with most of Louisiana, water is always nearby.

Including this nice pond, with a warning sign to not feed the alligators (which seems like anyone would know that).

We did NOT feed this alligator.

The turtles were safely out of harms way.

A few buildings remain from the early days of Tabasco pepper growing.

This drive is appropriately named Wisteria Lane, as you make your way under the Wisteria arch.

The highlight however is Bird City. In 1895 Edward raised eight egrets in captivity, releasing them in the fall for their migration. The next year they returned with more egrets.

Ever since then thousands of egrets return to Avery Island in the spring and reside there until late summer.

When we arrived for the Tabasco tour we were one of the few who opted to purchase combination tickets for the factory tour and the gardens. It was money well spent!

Avery Island, Louisiana – May 2019 – Hot Times at the Tabasco Factory

Art, History

Tabasco is known the world over for giving kick to many different foods. All of this spice comes from a small factory in southern Louisiana.

The grounds are beautiful, and the Tabasco Company offers a complete look at the history and production of their product.

The visit starts in the company museum.

The self guided tour takes you from building to building. Along the way you pass some Tabasco themed artwork.

While most of the peppers used in the production are grown offshore, there is a greenhouse that they grow the plants to assure quality control, and provide seeds for their sources.

The barrel house is where the mash ages.

The blending of the salt, pepper and vinegar takes 28 days.

The bottling line was the most interesting. A small group of workers oversee the entire process.

Below a quality control worker monitors the process.

The bottles fly along their path.

Yet she can spot an issue, and pull the bottle from production.

An overview of the bottling operation.

More quality control.

The workers seemed at ease with the stream of people watching them through the windows.

These innocent little bottles give so many so much pleasure, and to some serious heartburn.

Their product is shipped worldwide – today it is going to Portugal.

Just outside the line are some giant bottles.

The factory tour was interesting, and well designed.

Morgan City, Louisiana – May 2019 – Offshore Oil Rig Museum

Architecture, Sciences, Transportation

Deep in the bayou country of Louisiana is the town of Morgan City.

Located on the Atchafalaya River, it is located less than 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. With the offshore oil industry centered off of Louisiana and Texas, Morgan City is an important industrial town of support companies.

One of the highlights of Morgan City is The Rig Museum. This museum has a nice collection of diving and submersibles that has been used in the industry since it’s inception.

While outside are some retired items.

The highlight though is located outside in the river. It is the world’s first offshore oil drilling platform.

The rig is named Mr Charlie, after the financial backer of the venture when they started up in the 1950s.

While it might be dwarfed by today’s platforms, the main deck is still an impressive 50’+ above the water, offering a great view of the bridges and docks of the river.

Our guide, industry veteran Bryce, was very thorough in explaining the design, and use of the rig. Here he shows us a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) used in the construction of platforms.

Everything is supersized in this industry, including this massive hook.

The drills bits aren’t available at the local Home Depot.

The pipes come in 30′ lengths.

The drill itself – with all of the large equipment, all of it in movement in the ocean, an oil platform is a loud, dirty, dangerous place for the crew to work.

Drilling requires pressure and water.

Drilling mud is also used to carry rock cuttings to the surface, as well as lubricate the drill bit. There is a massive storage for this that at times requires somebody to descend this long ladder into the mud hold.

Oil platform workers work 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. If the weather is poor and a boat can’t come pick you up, or the helicopter can’t land on the helipad atop the rig, you throw your stuff and you into this cage and hang on as they hoist you into the air.

Our time with Bryce at the Rig Museum was insightful. The next time I stopped to fill the car up with gasoline, I thought more about the work that went into getting that product to market.

New Orleans – May 2019 – One Final Look

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Transportation

We had a great few days in the Big Easy, coming away with fantastic memories, and lots of photographs.

Nola = New Orleans, LA (abbreviation for Louisiana) NOLA

Nola is a city with their own language and culture.

The home of jazz music.

One of the best places for local food like Po’ Boys is Mothers.

There are plenty of horse drawn carriages for the tourists, resulting in carriage jams.

The number of wide boulevards are surprising for such an old city.

Louis Armstrong Park – more Nola celebrating jazz.

The locals are friendly, and at times had free beer!

The French Quarter, while touristy, is a unique place.

Plenty of street entertainment.

St Louis Cathedral is impressive.

More views of the Quarter.

Plenty of Voodoo stores to choose from, should you need them.

Did I mention music!

But this New Orleans parade is over….

Time to roll on out of town. À la prochaine.

New Orleans – May 2019 – Then and Now

Architecture, History

With a few days in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to search out some ‘time travel’ photo ops.

Carondelet Street at Canal Street. The buildings on the corners seem similar in size, but very different. Looking down the street reveals one that is still the same.

Chartres Street in the French Quarter.

The Cotton Exchange. As noted in a previous posting the Cotton Exchange Building was torn down in the early 1920s and replaced with a more stable, but less opulent, building.

The End of Canal Street. There used to be a statue at the streetcar turnaround. The statue still exists, just a few blocks away in a park (which is shown in the Public Art posting). The streetcars are still there, just not horse drawn.

The French Market. The market has a checkered past, but now is a coffee shop.

The Opera House. This building was located in the French Quarter. It has been torn down and replaced with a new, but period correct, hotel.

St Charles Street headed into the CBD. The first block is very similar, beyond that are dramatically different with the skyscrapers replacing the smaller buildings.

New Orleans – May 2019 – Public Art

Art

New Orleans has a large collection of public art, both traditional and murals by street artist. Below is a visual representation of some of the more interesting seen around town.

New Orleans – May 2019 – The Central Business District

Architecture, History

When most people think of New Orleans they think of the French Quarter, or other major tourist spots. But New Orleans is more than that – it is a major city with large corporate and government buildings.

New Orleans refers to their downtown area as the CBD (Central Business District).

Below is the Supreme Court of Louisiana Building. While it is technically in the French Quarter it is unlike all the other structures in the area with it’s classical look.

Also nearby is the St Louis Cathedral.

Canal Street is the divider between the Quarter and the CBP. It is lined with commercial business, many of which are in 100 year old + buildings.

The Royal Crescent Hotel has an impressive amount of detail on the exterior.

This level of detail is found on many of the early 1900 buildings.

A mix of old and new New Orleans.

Completed in 1972 the Hancock Whitney Center has been the tallest building in the city (and state) since it’s completion. For most of it’s history it was known as One Shell Plaza.

The exterior is Italian travertine, which caused many to be concerned of it’s durability during a strong storm, however it stood up to Hurricane Katrina.