Bad photography or acceptable 'art'

When planning on taking nighttime photos, it always helps to have a tripod.

Sometimes I am out at night on a trip and don't want to carry one. But after I try to shoot some nighttime shots, and they come up blurry because I can't hold the camera still, I wish I had used a tripod.

But for those who consider themselves to be artistic photographers, we can try to pass off shots that aren't really that good as "art."

Such was the case recently on our second trip to New Orleans within one week. We had taken in Mardi Gras parades on St. Charles Avenue on Sunday and went home that night.

The next Thursday we decided on an overnight trip to the Big Easy.

My, how things change. Our favorite hostelry wasn't offering any cut-rate prices on rooms and we had to pay to park. (After all it was the few days following Mardi Gras.)

We tried to justify it. That's the way life is.

Wifey and I revisited the Marigny Brasserie on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans. It was about a six or seven block saunter. I say saunter, but it was deliberate steps, or an attempt at that, when one has suffered a stoke which my wife did almost a year ago.

The sun was going down, therefore I took along a flashlight to help in the more darkened areas of the sidewalks. We managed the roundtrip without any major issues, except I had taken off my lens cover at the eatery and had to return later to retrieve it.

The brasserie has a lot of eating options, but we took the easy way out. They were out of buns, so I took a hamburger on French bread. I also had French fries and coffee, which I considered to be very good.

Wifey opted for a salad. Most of the time she just drinks water.

On the way back we cut off of Frenchmen Street and headed west on Decatur which runs by the Cafe du Monde, another of our favorite haunts which offers beignets and cafe au lait  along with chocolate milk.

After getting wifey settled in at the hotel, I headed back to retrieve my camera equipment.

I decided to take a little time and shoot some pictures through the windows of a few juke joints that were offering live entertainment.

I also headed down to Jackson Square to see what was happening. There were a few entertainers including a street musician who made music by rubbing his finger via a circular motion on the tops of a varity of different glasses that had varying amounts of water in them.

I guess he makes a circuit throughout the country, since I saw him passing this way a few years ago.

I was able to hold steady for a number of shots and then the others that you see, well they're just "artistic."

Next post: March 6, 2012