My 4 Day Weekend in New Orleans

My Wife and I took off for a 4 day weekend and went to New Orleans for the "Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival". We had a great time and saw some great musicians. We spent a lot of time just wandering in the French Quarter taking pictures (like that is a surprise, me taking pictures ). I won't string this out too far, but it will take a day or two to share some of the fun we had. Our Hotel was actually the top of another building. The bottom of the hotel was a bank and some offices, but from the 11th floor up it was a hotel. It was kinda weird, but kinda cool too. One cool thing is that they had a pool and deck area on the 18th floor so of course we went up there for me to take some pictures.

I took this picture Saturday night. I wedged the camera into the rail around the roof and used a 1 second shutter setting. This may be my favorite pic of the trip.

I took this one from our room window on the 13th floor.

I really like old signs, I saw this one while we were walking to the St. Louis #1 cemetery. That's the cemetery where they filmed part of Easy Rider.

On top of one of the graves in the cemetery.

A tree outside Louis Armstrong park. I love the lines of full grown mature trees. They are almost always interesting.

This bird decided to pose for me while Allison and I were sitting on a park bench resting. She saw him first and I was able to get the shot.

Saturday's Airshow At The Barber's Vintage Festival.

This weekend was the Vintage Bike Festival at Barber's Motorsports Park. It's always a great time and one of the highlights is the airshow during lunch on both days. It's always the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team flying their T-6 Texans and the show is always unbelievable. Today I'm posting the pics I took on Saturday, I was standing in the Swap Meet area during the show, but I still got some pretty good pictures. Of course I took these with my Canon G-12 with a LOT of zoom and trying to anticipate the shutter delay with getting the planes in the shot. It takes some practice, but I think I got some good pictures. Check em out and let me know what you think.

Climbing out after a low pass.

A nice TIGHT formation. I've been in one of these planes and can tell you that you can't see around you all that well. To be able to fly this close to each other is a major feat.

Going over the top.

Beauty pass.

Diving in for another maneuver.

Playing With Toys Again!

The weather was nice today, but I felt like being lazy and not going anywhere so I went outside and played with my toys again. This time I shot my 1/18 scale Barris Batmobile (the only Batmobile that counts!). I tried some settings and some actually worked. I plan to try this again on some asphalt with a more city looking background sometime soon. I think it'll work well. I'd like to find a cave I can use while I'm at it. In case you were wondering this is a 1/18 scale Hot Wheels model and the figures are from the Playing Mantis 1/24 scale model that my friend Clayton painted for me. I dig this model because Hot Wheels actually went to the trouble to go to George Barris' shop and do a 3D scan of the original Batmobile. We finally have one that is accurate. Stay tuned I took more pics, but I'll post them later this week.

Gonna run you over!

Getting in the car.

"Where we going Batman?"
"Just get in the damn car kid, before you scratch the paint!"

"Atomic Batteries to power. Turbines to speed."

"Roger. Ready to move out."

Holy where do we go from here Batman!

More Pet Pics

So the animals in this house (the furry ones) have been acting extra cute lately so I've gotten some pretty cool pics. Hope ya like em, they're all taken with my Canon G12, mostly on auto or low light. Some were color  adjusted in Photoshop or cropped. I've got some ideas for some creative pics, but I have to wait for the right light to try em out.

I have to start out with a pic of my best buddy Merlin. The best dog ever to live!

Ginger the cat likes to sit on the fireplace mantle and survey her empire.

"Why do you insist on getting that thing in my face?" Actually I used the zoom to get this one.

Blake's ferret "Teddy" LOVES socks. Once he gets latched onto one he doesn't want to let it get away. I love how he holds onto his back leg while he hangs there. He seems to do this every time we try this little game.

A close up of the little beast trying to not let his catch get away.

I was outside letting Merlin do his "business" and noticed that Jules was looking at us in a wistful kind of way. I think she wants to be an outside kitty, but she doesn't want to have to come outside to do it. :-)

Cropped in. I love that expression.

The queen on her throne.

Ginger loves to lay in front of the window like this.

Hope ya like these, I'm always looking for different stuff to take pics of. I'll post them as I find them.

The Lyric Theater (Visited During The Sidewalk Film Festival)

Not much to say except that I love this old building. It's one of those places that speaks to me. If you want to know more about the Lyric go HERE. They open the building for visitors a few times a year and it is a really cool place to wander around in. I think it'll be great to have these pics and go back to look at them after the restoration is done. If you get the chance to visit you really should go for it and check the place out.

From the 2nd floor balcony looking at the "box seat" areas to the side of the main floor seating.

Same place from the main floor area.

The front edges of the upper balconies as seen from the main floor.

From the entry area looking at the side of the main floor area. The seats have been removed from this area, soon they'll all be out and the floors can start to be rebuilt.

From the inside looking above the doors to the main entry area of the theater.

From the 2nd floor balcony.

The second floor balcony has had the seats removed as well and clean up is progressing up here.

Looking out at the sides of the room.

Near the ceiling.

The stairwells to get to the upper areas.

From the very top looking down at the stage.

There are still some seats up on the third floor balcony.

One of the chandeliers.

Looking out at the lights in the top of the facade on the side walls of the auditorium.


GO SEE THIS PLACE FOR YOURSELF. IT IS WORTH IT!!!!!

Some of The Pics From The Sidewalk Film Festival

A couple of weeks ago Allison and I volunteered at the Sidewalk Film Festival here in Birmingham. It's a great event and is worth the effort to attend. We worked Sunday afternoon in the ticket booth at the Alabama Theater and in exchange we had passes for Saturday and Sunday's movies. We saw quite a few cool movies and also got to just hang out and enjoy the atmosphere. One of the great things about this event is that they usually open the old Lyric Theater to visitors. I'm looking forward to them getting all the asbestos removed so I can volunteer to help with the restoration of this great historical theater. I'll have some pictures of the inside of the auditorium up in a day or so. In the meantime enjoy the first round of pics from this place.

Walking from where we parked I saw this view and liked it so I shot it.

Zoomed in on the two nice older buildings in the background.

The floor of one of the offices in the the Lyric building.

Same room, different angle. I love to get these low angle floor shots when the floor has some kind of interesting texture or design.

Allison in the restroom lobby of the Alabama Theater which is across the street from the Lyric. The Alabama is a great historical theater itself and has done quite well since its restoration many years ago. The Lyric is owned by the same people and will be a great compliment to the Alabama due to the difference in the sizes of the two auditoriums.

Another view of Allison taking a break from walking.

Looking at the Alabama Theater from one of the offices in the Lyric building.

Looking up at the Alabama's sign from the sidewalk.

Stay tuned there's more pics to come.

Animal Krackers!

Got a few shots of my Dog and Cat that I kinda like. Sorry I haven't posted much here lately, but I've been pretty tired since the Bastard Bash. I'll post more often fro a little while at least.

One of my favorite pictures of my Best Buddy Merlin. He wants to go to sleep, but is afraid he'll miss something.

Ginger rarely sits in anyone's lap. SOMETIMES she'll sit like this with Caitlin, but for some reason she decided my Wife Allison's lap was sudden;y worthy and jumped right up. Gotta wonder what goes on in their heads sometimes.

Playing with camera settings and took this one. Nothing special, I just kinda like it.

Close up of Ginger in Allison's lap.

When Merlin finally started to close his eyes.