Location People – 18 Karat Modeling

•October 26, 2009 • 3 Comments

As some of you may know I went down to good ole’ Knoxville, TN for a photography workshop. My assignment along with five others was to shoot a large variety of models for 18 Karat Model and Talent Management. And before I leap into the whole writeup, in case you’d like to skip it (gasp) and just get to the images you can see a SLIDE SHOW HERE or the rest of the IMAGES HERE!

Upon arriving in Knoxville we met up with Bryan Allen and we jumped right away into discussing various studio and lighting setups. All but a few of the images posted below and in my slide show uses anywhere from one to five lights in the setup. This includes the outdoor shots as well. On day one our assignment was fairly basic. Using no more than one light, get some basic portfolio shots of the models. On the following days we expanded and began using all sorts of lights, modifiers, diffusers, light boxes, etc…

The hair and makeup girls arrived (Kelsey and Sarah) followed by the models. As my assigned models were being prepped I took some time to introduce myself, get to know their personality and see if there was a look they were going for and request any special changes to the hair and makeup girls. First up was Doug, who said he never had any formal business style shots, so I went straight for a head shot and was going to work my way out from there but we had very little time to work with each model. I ran into even more of a time crunch with Phil since another photographer was shooting with him, but still managed to setup a shot. And finally, last but not least was Vincent who is also a USA Masters Track & Field athlete.

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On day 2 we worked with adults in the morning and then kids in the afternoon!

Terry
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Bob
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Bert
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Jarret and Hunter
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Pardees and Hunter
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Day 3 was a full on studio shoot with lot’s of space for cars, motorcycles, and track athletes to sprint through the different sets! Here we had a limited time again with the different models and the outfits and styles were picked out and assigned to us by Cindy Swicegood, the president of 18 Karat. The shots ranged from athletic to catalog. All of the poses and lighting had to be designed by the photographers as we saw fit based on their outfits. At night we headed out for a quick bite at a coffee shop for dinner followed by another night shoot. Shooting people in action at the coffee shop (poets) took me back to a very familiar place of shooting people in their natural environment and capturing them rather than directing a model how to pose.

Vincent
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David and Doug
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Sarah
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Kinley
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Poets that know it
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Sarah
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Ryann and Cesar
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And the final day of shooting was near Bryan’s home where we ended up afterwords for the most amazing celebratory dinner! Here I shot with Ryann who was very easy to work with. The first shot below you’ll see of her I used a three light setup with my Nikon speedlights.

Ryann
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And I even got the hair and makeup girls, Kelsey and Sarah in a few of the shots just for funsies!
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Lenses lenses lenses!

•October 19, 2009 • Leave a Comment

So you you read my post on WHICH CAMERA SHOULD I BUY? And now it’s time to pick out some lenses for that camera body. After all I did mention that more important than the camera body is the lens that you get, so now it’s time to figure out what lens to get.

Now when you shop for an SLR camera, you have to understand that you’re not just buying a camera body…the features of an entry level SLR are pretty much the same. You’re just getting into the game so forget all the nifty features since none of them will make you a better photographer. Instead take a look at what lenses are available from each manufacturer along with which third party manufacturers such as Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina are just a few names who make lenses for some of the big name camera manufacturers. So when you look at available lenses direct from the manufacturer of your camera, don’t forget to look at some of these other vendors.

Now on to the more exciting part. Asking the question “Which lens should I buy?” Well if you were unsatisfied with my camera body writeup since I had no definitive answer, then perhaps the lens suggestions could be more helpful. Lenses hold their value much better than camera bodies do. They are also updated much less frequently than camera bodies. It’s not uncommon to see a lens on the market for 10 years before a replacement comes out for it. So with that in mind, you can buy a lens that suits your needs and then sell it later for little or no loss, especially if you bought a used lens where the depreciation (if any) has already taken its hit.

There are basically three levels of lenses. Entry, mid level, and pro quality. When you purchase a camera and it comes with a lens. Most of the time it’s an entry level kit lens, so let’s begin there. A kit lens is great to get your feet wet and tinker around with, but I personally do not like using them for much more than just figuring out your camera. In fact I typically suggest that most people begin right away with a mid level lens. What’s the difference between the two? Well your mid level lens usually superior focusing performance, better quality of glass (often yielding better image quality on photos), better and more reliable build quality. Kit lenses like the 18-55mm which both Nikon and Canon offer has plastic mounts to lock into your cameras metal bracket which over time can lead to some warping of the plastic mounts. Personally I have seen a significant change in image quality when moving up from a kit lens.

When going from a mid lens to a pro quality one there is some change in image quality as well, but on top of that most of your pro lenses have not only even better build quality, but also the ability to shoot at a wider aperture such as f/2.8 (allowing more light to get in through the lens) through the entire zoom range of the lens. Entry and mid lenses might shoot at an aperture of f/3.5 when they are at their widest zoom angles, but then the aperture will automatically decrease to something like f/4.5 or f/5.6 as you zoom in. The more you zoom, the less light can make it into the lens. The other nice thing about being able to shoot at low apertures is that you get the ‘bokeh’ effect where you get a nice clear subject with the beautiful blurred background giving you very nice separation. Pro lenses focus fast and well. In low light it might take a long time and several attempts to get a kit lens to finally get a focus lock while a pro lens can handle low light situations much better.

With lenses you do indeed get what you pay for. And if you buy a cheap kit lens and slap it on that fancy new SLR camera body then it’s like putting cheap Toyota Prius tires on a Ferrari. You limit the performance of your camera with a cheap lens. Yes it’s true that I would rather have a pro photographer shoot my wedding with cheaper equipment than a novice with the most sophisticated and state of the art camera gear…but in equal hands there is no question that a pro lens will always outshine a mid one and the same goes for a mid over a kit lens. So now on to some samples below. Since I shoot Nikon I’m going to list Nikon lenses, but many of these and plenty of others are available for Canon and other makers:

Entry:
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 $120
70-300mm f/4-5.6G $150

Mid:
16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR $550
70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR (different than the one listed above) $500

Pro:
17-55mm f/2.8 or 24-70mm f/2.8 (17-55 is more for DX and 24-70 is for FX sensors) $1100/$1800
70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR $1900 (new version coming soon for approx $2300)

Gracie and Hudson – Take me out to the ball game.

•October 5, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I had an old friend get in touch with me who was looking to get some portrait shots of her kids. She mentioned that she would normally bring them to a studio every year or so and have your basic shots taken in studio. A while back I realized that while I enjoy doing studio work, much of that work is the photographer posing the subject to get the look they desire. And it was back on my SAVANNAH trip that I realized just how much can be done out in the field rather than just a studio. Now I don’t think anything bad of studio shots with all the lights and equipment, in fact I tend to do a mix of both outdoor and studio shots myself. But I have noticed that when I go out for the day with a family, couple, or a model…that their personality, creativity, and comfort seems to really come out. So with kids especially, my preference has become to go and meet with the parents, then simply head out for a while and just let them be while capturing the essence of who they are. Not to mention it’s much easier to simply run around behind a kid with a camera than to try to get them to sit still and pose for a studio shot! To see all of the shots of Gracie and Hudson go HERE!

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Irene and Chaim – Puttin’ on the hitch.

•September 29, 2009 • 1 Comment

I met Irene years ago when she worked for my dads company and we’ve kept in touch ever since. About two years ago she decided to move to Israel and work/spend some time there. She seemed to enjoy her stay in Israel quite a bit and it came as no big surprise when she told me that she had met Chaim and that they were getting married! The part that was a surprise was that here wedding would be here in Chicago! She asked me to shoot her wedding and we got to planning it right away. The biggest conundrum was to convey the idea to Irene as to just how much time was needed during the day to do the photos. Her idea was “Well, the ceremony is at 2, so if we meet at 1 or 1:30 for photos, that should be plenty of time, right?” No…photos take a much longer time than that. And we began by meeting early in the day at the hair salon and going from there. The flow was actually quite smooth. My assistant Sam and I started at the salon, then got some dress/getting ready shots in Irene and Chaim’s wedding suite, then picked Irene up from her makeup appointment in order to head off to the Adler Planetarium to get some posed shots with the Chicago skyline behind them. Finally the ceremony was right by Millennium Park in the Cancer Survivors Park and the reception at Tizi Melloul. Overall great time…until the police showed up! The rest of their photos HERE!

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Snezhana – If looks could kill

•September 21, 2009 • 5 Comments

Beautiful girl with a beautiful name. This was Snezhana’s first time in front of the camera in a shoot like this. And after a number of shots she not only became very comfortable but began coming up with good ideas of her own to try. This was my first time where someone asked me if they should straighten their hair or leave it wavy. It was a tough call so I figured why not go for both! One of the most interesting things in terms of working with her is that she’s generally a very happy person, constantly smiling, and would ask to see how the shots are coming out more than anyone else I’ve ever worked with :) But when we did a number of shots with a serious look…she had a look in which her eyes can pierce right through you. So it became a battle of me wanting more serious shots and her wanting more smiling shots. In the outdoor shoot I got a chance to experiment with two new gadgets…a Nikon SB-900 on a light stand through an umbrella for the shots which are above the water and a Custom Brackets – Flash Bracket for the shots you see in the water, beach, and tunnel. Would love to get any feedback that anyone has! You can see the rest of her shots HERE!

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Victoria and Isabella…models on the run!

•September 14, 2009 • Leave a Comment

It was a number of years ago that I took a shot of Victoria on her wedding day that helped push me into taking on photography as a hobby and then a business. My post of that shot can be found HERE! So when Victoria was in town with her daughter Bella, we got in touch and I followed them around the Botanical Gardens to snap a few shots. Bella was a little shy for about the first two minutes but then became very comfortable having me around and was all about striking the poses! You can see all of their images here: http://public.fotki.com/biggy/victoria-and-isabella/ or their SLIDESHOW.

Janice and Jose’s Wedding

•September 8, 2009 • 1 Comment

This was my first A-Z wedding in terms of being there as the bride, groom, and bridal party are getting ready…all the way through the end of the reception. And man what a long day that makes! Overall the shoot went pretty smoothly with no major snags along the way. I’ve already spotted some things I’ll work on for the next wedding shoot, but for now…it’s on to the photos! All of the images can be seen HERE!

Which camera should I buy?

•August 31, 2009 • 2 Comments

As my full time job I work as a Systems Analyst, which basically translates to “he who works with computers”. So what this really means is that when someones home pc is broken, that I’m the go-to guy for the fix…even though I write code, do project management, and other totally unrelated tasks to actually fixing computers. So as a photographer I get asked all the time “Which camera should I get?” Well my honest answer is quite simple: It doesn’t really matter for most people. Wait a second, what? Let’s backup a little and figure out the differences between our basic cameras. Many of us have what’s commonly referred to as “Pocket Cameras” or “Point and Shoots”. These of course are typically your small cameras that fit in the palm of your hand and by today’s standards give pretty good results most of the time. Most of the people who ask me which camera to buy are looking to step up from the point and shoot up to a DSLR style camera. To read more about what DSLR (often simply called SLR) cameras are, you can go HERE. but it’s the reasons that are given to me which make me wonder a bit. I often hear “I can take some pretty good shots with my point and shoot now I want to take better shots with an SLR.” Now just to clear up, an SLR camera will not make your photos any better by default. If you take a point and shoot in auto mode and compare it to an SLR in auto mode, you will get very similar results. In fact the images on the point and shoot may look even better than those on an SLR.

How is it that a nice camera body which often costs a lot more than your point and shoot can take worse images? Well here’s the neat thing about those little pocket cameras that everyone is so quick to write off. For the most part, the pocket cams are made for people who are not photographers, but want to take some nice pictures. So the engineers who make these cameras put a lot of time and effort into designing processors and software on these cameras to do some of the thinking for the user. The cameras can recognize scenes and not just those with people in them. There are often thousands of templates stored on these cameras that recognize the scene your are shooting and make some subtle changes to make the image a little better. They can recognize a scene with a lot of sky in the shot and make that sky just a little bit bluer, the snow a bit whiter, the sunset a bit more red/purple/orange. So with the pocket cams you get these nicely saturated images, which for most people translates into a “better” image. Now the intro level SLR cameras have also focused more on the consumer level market and have incorporated similar scene recognition, so there’s been some catching there as well since cameras such as the Canon Rebel have hit the market at an affordable price and brought a new market of cameras to consumers that until a number of years ago, was well out of financial reach for most.

SLR cameras do have more potential to capture the image you want than a pocket cam. The term “better” is really subjective. I know that with my Nikon D300 SLR I can capture certain images that I’m after much better than with my Canon Powershot, but if I just want to go around and snap some casual pictures I know that the Powershot will hold up just fine. So to repeat again, you do not get better images from an SLR than you would from a pocket camera by default. You need to understand this first and foremost. Using myself as an example, I noticed that when I made the leap, I was less pleased with the results I had when I made the leap to an SLR camera because I didn’t realize just how much that little pocket camera was doing for me. And I hear it from others as well “I bought this model X intro level SLR with the kit lens and I get some pretty dull and boring images…why is that?” So now we know why that is. Since I do a bit of racing, I’ll use an example which I can relate to and that is when I’m out on the track, there are motorcycles which are newer and more powerful than mine, but I can easily pass them in a corner. At the same time there are riders out there on bikes that have half the power of mine but can rocket past me with ease. Why is that? Because it’s not the machinery but the rider. And the same goes for cameras. It’s not your camera, it’s you that makes good or bad images. Chances are that if a total newcomer to photography was handed a top of the line Nikon D3X which costs around $7000 (for the camera alone with no lenses) and you handed a pro photographer a cheaper intro level SLR such as the Canon Rebel Xsi…that the images the pro photographer creates would be night and day better than the inexperienced photographer with $7000 worth of equipment.

Ok, so you’ve read up to this point and figured that you do indeed want to take the leap and challenge yourself and push your limits more with an SLR camera. Great! So which one do I pick? Again…it doesn’t really matter. If you’re just starting out, then the features of one vs the other are fairly insignificant. There aren’t too many new photographers who care that the ISO performance on one entry model is a few percent better than on the other model. The most important thing that I have found in the different cameras is comfort of all things. When you go out for the day to capture those nature shots, you have to understand that you will be gripping this big hunk of metal and plastic for quite some time and you want to make sure you are comfortable walking around with it. If you slap on some professional lenses on there which weigh a lot more than your cheaper “kit” lenses, then the weight and comfort becomes even more of a factor. A good friend of mine shoots with Canon, so when I was purchasing my first SLR, he let me borrow his for a day and I walked around with it and captured a few shots. I was all set to order the same camera and then when I was at a camera store I figured I’d take a peak at the comparable Nikon and just tinker around with it. Immediately I was sold on the Nikon simply based on the comfort. The features might be better on one vs another one, but for the most part the performance is going to be very similar, especially for a new photographer. And that’s my reason as to why it doesn’t matter which camera body you buy…look more at comfort than features. When you decide to go up from there, then the features become a bit more important. But remember to get that camera out of auto mode!!! See my other posting…Get that camera out of auto!

Aside from the photographer, the next biggest impact on your images and quality is not the camera body, but the lenses. And really, you’re going to get what you pay for. A cheap plastic kit lens that comes with the camera is going to give you about the quality you’d think a cheap plastic lens would give you. It’s called a kit lens because it’s typically included with camera bodies in the ‘kit’. Now there’s always someone who’s going to say “but I saw/created a stunning image with a kit lens…” Sure you can capture some good images with a kit lens, but in reality it’s somewhat like buying a Ferrari and then slapping the cheapest tires you could possibly find on there before taking it to a race track. For most of us, the camera body is technically capable of producing images that are well above our skill level, but you begin to restrict your cameras abilities with a cheap lens. Yes there are people that disagree with me and always will, but for the most part, on average, however you want to call it…you will get much better image quality from a better quality lens, period. The better lenses or ‘glass’ as photographers often call them, will focus faster, and more quietly. They will also capture images that have less distortion in them, can do more ‘bokeh’, and perform much better in low light conditions especially if no flash is being used. So if anything, I would go for a cheaper camera body, but a better quality lens if you can afford it.

So what’s a good SLR to start off with? On the Nikon side I like the D40 or the D80. If you care to swing a bit higher for the fences and want to be able to shoot some video, the D90 is very nice…that’s more mid level than intro and the price point is a bit higher as well. I’m not a Canon guy, but from working a little with the Rebel series, I can say that the XTI and the newer XSI are both solid choices. Those are your two big boys in the market. Olympus and Sony are also fairly popular choices…slightly smaller market there. Again I suggest going to your local camera store such as Calumet (not a big fan of Ritz/Wolf personally) and trying them yourself. In the good camera stores they often have pro and semi pro photographers working there who can give you some great advice. So you can ask them about lenses and other accessories and get other tips such as cleaning the camera (yes you will need to clean it occasionally).

Now let’s say that you want something that’s a bit more advanced than your $80 pocket camera and gives you some manual controls, but you’d still like all the bells and whistles such as face recognition or a bunch of funky and fun modes to pick from. There’s a whole assortment of cameras that take a big leap in quality and more manual controls available…one of my favorites that I got a chance to tinker around with for a while is the Canon G10. It’s still a compact camera but capable of doing quite a bit. You can shoot in manual or auto mode just as you would with an SLR camera, but here you’re getting a solid camera with a pretty good quality lens for much less than what you’d pay for an SLR and a kit lens. So if you’re at an in between point then a higher end compact might be the way to go…there’s the Canon G10 (G11 coming soon), Olympus SP-590 UZ, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 to list a few.

But no matter what, remember that it’s not about mega pixels, or other tiny details and features that may have little or no impact on your photography…but about getting the gear that matches your goals and budget. Don’t buy that SLR camera with the manual zoom just because it looks cool, get the best gear for you and that’s not necessarily what you see everyone else with. Do a bit of research and GO TRY it for yourself to see the difference between camera X and Y. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any further questions… mike@novophotography.com

Lena’s Modeling Session

•August 22, 2009 • 1 Comment

Lena was looking to both build her portfolio a little along with simply getting some personal shots, so this gave me a little bit of freedom from simply doing full studio style shots to get some semi-creative ones (hopefully). Having done some modeling before, she was very easy to work with. She not only was able to pose well, but also had no shortage of her own ideas to incorporate into the shoot. Having worked with some more novice models in the past, it was a nice change to work with someone a bit more expressive and creative. We were shooting in the early afternoon, so the overcast skies were somewhat welcomed because her hair and eyes popped a bit more, it seemed to make an interesting combination. The rest of the time we were indoors and shooting with studio lights.

There was one interesting photo which I took that was based off of an accident initially which was the first one you’ll see below. With the strobes, the shutter speed is typically 1/60th of a second and I normally shoot at around aperture f/5.6 or f/8 which works fine when you have a nice big flash going off. However when no flash goes off, the shutter speed will become much longer in a more or less dark room. With my camera in aperture priority mode at f/8 I forgot to turn on my control unit for the strobes and the camera automatically slowed down the shutter speed causing a sort of ghost like image (images made like this are often referred to as ’shutter drag’). So after mumbling a swear or two I reached down to turn on the controller so that next time the strobes would fire…as I did, I noticed a neat looking image with a ghost like effect. So I quickly raised the camera back up and did the shot one more time, this time intentionally…and came up with the below image. Let me know what you think, feel free to leave comments!

You can see all of Lena’s shots at http://public.fotki.com/biggy/lena-kadyroff/

New Orleans – Katrina Revisited

•August 7, 2009 • 2 Comments

Greetings everyone! Some of you have already seen my slide show from my trip down to New Orleans, but if you haven’t…it can be seen HERE! To explain a little bit as to why I took the trip and the purpose of it…I believe that we tend to hear things on the news, see events, and hear about them from others but it’s often not something that we see or experience for ourselves. Katrina and New Orleans is something that I’ve personally heard mixed messages about. Mardi Gras had a good turnout and some friends told me that it seemed fine down there while others say that there is still a tremendous amount to fix. So which one is it? I decided to go see it for myself, take some photos, and speak to the people that are and were there.

The airplane didn’t even need to land for me to see the story. There is of course an effort to rebuild which you can see from my slide show, there’s no doubt about that. However areas like the lower ninth ward are occupied by mostly empty residential lots and abandoned homes. There’s almost no need to even drive around because the abundance of devastation on any given block is so great that it’s enough to get big picture in a matter of seconds. Now this of course is in the residential areas. The more tourist areas such as Downtown and the French Quarter have no indication today that anything ever occurred there. The flooding there was minimal and it was mostly looting that impacted that area.

What was most amazing to me is that it’s been 4 years…4 years…and that an area could look like that. Imagine walking out of your home across the street every morning and seeing a house like this across the street:

In this image, there were a couple younger girls playing just out of the frame of this shot:

When I spoke to the people there, the tone was no better. Arthur moved into his home about 3 months ago which was funded by a church and other private funding…not the state or federal government. I could both sense and understand his anger. Nearly 4 years to move back into your home would leave most of us with more anger than he expressed.

Anthony moved back 6 months ago himself. I noticed him walking down the street as I drove around and pulled over to talk to him for a while and get his portrait. He moved back when his church reopened and he enjoyed the social network he had there. He happened to find this stray cat as he walked earlier in the day and decided to adopt it. Anthony was a bit more optimistic. There was a pet store opening up that was closer to home as well as a grocery store coming soon which he was looking forward to. Imagine being excited that a single grocery store is opening up in your area, let alone the selection that most of us have. After Katrina, the grocery stores were Army supply trucks that would distribute water and MRE’s to people as they would walk or drive to pick them up. People who were not able to feed their pets would either leave them behind or put them down using their own methods so that they would not suffer as much.

If a lot didn’t have an abandoned home, then it was simply bare. It took more effort to find a home where someone was living in a lot of the areas than the other way around…


And of course the abandoned homes…




Below is the one memorial I saw from the flooding. Each pillar goes up one foot all the way up to 12 feet to symbolize the water levels from the flooding. The tallest pillar on the left is where the water would have been.

The frame symbolizes the style of homes that were the majority in the area, and the empty chairs are for the people who have not yet or will not return.

The levees that broke are located all over the city. And in the image below you can see one of the levees that broke and was rebuilt with the newer lighter section. It’s the flooding from the levee breaks that caused most of the damage, not the winds from Katrina. Picture a bathtub that has water all around the outside of it and is dry in the middle. Then that bathtub breaks in 53 different places. That’s more or less what happened to New Orleans. Poor levee construction combined with bad land development and engineering contributed greatly to this disaster. The land under much of the area being of poor quality made it even easier for homes to be washed away.

And of course the bridge that a number of people asked me about since seeing it in the slide show. As people tried to leave New Orleans on foot and crossed the bridge, they were forced to turn around and head back. People were trying to go to the areas that were not flooded, but the problem there was that as people would arrive…looting, fires, homicides, and other crimes skyrocketed. You can hear in the slide show when Crystal tells me “We already had the looting and the mall was burnt down from the people as they arrived, now imagine 20,000 more people arriving on top of that…it would have been out of control.” It seems bizarre, but when I saw it for myself I could begin to understand why they did it.

So that was my trip! Again there is progress, but it’s simply very surprising that in a country such as ours, that this area could still be so devastated. And this is not even far from the tourist areas. Just drive a few miles and it’s all there. The streets are cleaned and there’s no major debris laying around, however the abandoned homes and empty lots are plentiful. Seeing as how much of the big business in the area has left, the rate of the rebuilding slow, along with other factors I’m not sure that I ever see certain areas of New Orleans ever fully recovering.

All of my images: http://public.fotki.com/BIGGY/new-orleans-katrina/
Slide show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTY4-K3Z1Vw (make sure sound is on)