Pictures of New Orleans

Nice street lamp, nice brick, nice patina

This door doesn't seem to get too much traffic. The tendril, though still young, seems to be settling in for an extended stay.

What can I say? These ventiators are interesting, particularly when juxtaposed against the different styles of chimneys that you can find here in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A small, squat ventilator bides time with a broader chimney.

a nice crisp gate

Two chimneys pair the squat ventilators to be found on this roof line in the French Quarter of New Orleans

Two gates propped against each other guard the alley between two houses in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

And then there is the hardware! You can spend hours just looking at all of the cast-iron hinges that you can find in the New Orleans French Quarter. 

it takes decades to get a door just right like this

A natural abstraction, this bit of a wall tells tales of multiple repairs and patches over its lifetime. Water and weather do the rest.

The planter here was a little lonely so the shadow of the lamp pole sidled up to say hello.

If you squint just right you might see a shape that looks like someone riding a horse. ...Or is that a camel? Perhaps it is the Virgin Mary on the back of a donkey. Goodness!

It is interesting how the underlaying green seeps through the cracks of the cream paint on this wall. It almost has the appearance of a map.

Every once in a while you will find a ventilator that has been painted. This ventilator has been painted blue at some point in its career. It is holding up well and seems a fitting companion for a lonely pigeon

The French Quarter of New Orleans is reknown for its cast iron balconies. They are particularly lovely when they are filled with lush, verdant plantings. Under a blue sky they are like a song for your eyes.

Isn't this an interesting door? There is nothing square about it. I had been admiring it every time I walked past it. Imagine my surprise when I walked past it to find someone coming out of it. Yes indeed, this is the door to an occupied place.

This is a place where you can stop and get your po'boy sandwich... understated upstairs

A burgundy door in a mustard colored wall in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Though the original wood is looking cracked and withered, the brown undercoat must have been a very sturdy paint, it is has stuck through the years outlasting the green paint that was brushed over it. 

Three different ways to top of a chimney in the French Quarter of New Orleans

A tidy, painted house in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The shutters seem to be spelling out a message in semaphore.

A bright house with contrasting colored shutters in the French Quarter of New Orleans almost glows under a clear, blue sky.

The wall seems giant with the little door set in... grime grit make the patina

This nice couple was watching the second line parade get started. the spray paint on the awl behind them is the mark inspectors put on houses that showed what might be found inside

In the middle of the afternoon, a brass band holds a spontaneous parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans

Normally it's the other way around, but in the floods of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, this house floated off of its foundation and crashed into a tree/

Hope and Community... Positive messages chalked out on this store front. getting the message across/

A weathered pink wall. Part of it stained black, another part the cracks seem to have inverted coloring

Look at all of the work they go through to dress up this tin roof ventilator. Propped way on top of the houses you might wonder why they went through so much effort to embellish something that would be hardly noticed after the first week. But that is part of the spirit of New Orleans. The recognition that it is the niceties and embellishments of life that take just a little more effort that make all of the difference.

The French Quarter is always full of surprises. Late one afternoon the sound of a band came echoing down the street. A minute later the band leader came dancing down the street followed by the few musicians of the small ensemble. When you are in New Orleans, you have new things everywhere.

a Balcony View looking upriver from the French Quarter toward the warehouse district

You can be walking down a street daily for weeks. Everything seems normal and ordinary. One day you hear a noise and turn your head. Voila! There it is. 

In the case of this door, I find the more I look at it the more interesting it becomes. The routing of the electrical conduit, the wonderful patina of the concrete wall, the gratiing over the door, the broken glass embedded in the top of the wall. So much stuff to look at!

Neither of these are standing... not the best of neighborhoods... There was music playing from one of the windows of the building on the left. I'll bet the rent was cheap.

Preparing for the start of the second line parade for Kufaru. Standing proud, looking good

this tiny church is about 15 feet wide and can't be too much deeper... but be a great location for a wedding

This house is on Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The eves on front of the house are deep making it tricky to find the right time of day and the right kind of weather to take its picture without dense shadows murking up the tops of the doors. My solution was to take the picture in the morning shooting into the light. Behind the camera is a large building that acts like a giant soft-box and gives an even light to the front of the house.