Lindsay & Nick TBM 12.27.2008

When I shoot engagements, it's a little eye into how the wedding day will be. We all get to know each other's personalities. Which is why, I love shooting engagement sessions. Sometimes it's hard to carve a little time out of our busy schedules to do the shoots, but it's so well worth it.

Lindsay & Nick were a delight to work with today. With an absent sick pooch, we trotted on for a terrific shoot. Their wedding is a few months away, December 27th and I cannot wait for the love, laughter and smiles!

Thanks Lindsay and Nick for sitting in the reeds and giving me great photos!

Changin' it Up, thanks Maribeth!

I finally got around to carve time out to get a few pictures taken of me for the blogity blog and the website...AND...my awesome, every so talented friend Maribeth Romslo took the shots for me.

Love Love Love the Shots, thanks so much Maribeth!

Volunteers of the St. Bernard Project

Nathan

Will

Phoebe


You can try to be serious Johnnie, but you're gonna smile!


Peridot


Andrea


Shout out to Minneapolis, Spencer


Jessie


Brian

Marsha

Iain

Mike


Sloan


Emily


Thanks Volunteers, because of you so much has been accomplished!!!

Enjoying Louisiana

So I've managed to get through some of my images of Louisiana. I stayed at Camp Hope, which was in Arabi, about 30 minutes out of the heart of New Orleans. While staying at Camp Hope, the Arabi Oyster Festival showed up! So wonderful to see so many people enjoying music, food, games and family and friends.

This is a band from Spain, didn't speak a word of English. I missed the memo to wear the cement boots, so I'm standing in ankle deep water to shoot this.


The Oyster bar....Ahhhh Oysters! My travel companion and I bellied up for a dozen each.




This game enthusiast travels with the fair. He's been to Minneapolis 5 times on their tour. His name is Al.


A couple dances away the night.



This young man traveled with the band from Spain. He carried on a conversation with me for almost 2 minutes. I hadn't a clue what he was saying, I just loved hearing him talk to me.


A sweet little onlooker.


There were fireflies...


Bikers


In between Arabi (Camp Hope) and where I was shooting at Miss Joycelyn's House of Love in Chalmette, was about 20-30 minutes. In between there was an ice cream shop. So cute and so sweet, off of the highway. It was this luminous sign, we are coming back, we are bringing what we love back...and how simple with ice cream. This place was bumping with people every night we drove to and from Miss Joycelyn's house.


Across the street from Camp Hope was a magnificent green bayou. In the middle of this little area was this one bright red balloon. So beautiful.


The weirdest thing I saw over and over were boats in random places. Boats in roads, in backyards, in wide open fields. I asked a staff volunteer for St. Bernard Project what the deal was, he said after it flooded, all the boats just roamed until the waters receded. They landed where they landed.

Boat #1


Boat #2


I fell shooting into a thistle bush. This was one of the weedy vicious thistle bushes that got me.


Louisiana has a culture unlike any other. They are deeply passionate people, I thought Minnesota was nice!!!! Their culture is creative and vibrant. They make me want to smile non stop.

This house was near one area that was hit hard by the flood. Can you feel the warmth! I just cannot wait to go back!!

Drinks with Victor Sizemore

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting together friends Maribeth Romslo and Jennie Sewell and of course, with Victor Sizemore!

Victor Sizemore spoke at the local TCPPA chapter meeting. We got together yesterday to talk shop, get to know each other, offer up info and laugh. He was wonderful to meet and I can't say enough nice things about him!

Thanks Victor for getting together with us, you have friends in the Twin Cities!

How do you say thanks?

I have to say, I cannot formulate words to say how my life has changed since leaving the small community in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. I formed friendships that will last a lifetime. I met so many wonderful people, bonded with a little girl named Alyssa, laughed with the St. Bernard Project's volunteers, learned more about the bonds of humankind in times of need and emergency, saw the resilience in the eyes of many.

I will take away more from this experience than any other experience in my life. It's given me a direction in photography, life and love I can say I'm utterly thankful for.

To Michael, your smile and ID case are in my heart.
To Paul, keep your hair long and your love longer.
To Spencer, look me up when you are in the cities next!
To Andrea, I'm grateful you had a "lightbulb" moment with me!
To Frank, never let your witty humor leave your soul. You have touched my heart!
To all the families I met, thank you for sharing your story! I cannot wait to share your photos with you.
To Jocelyn, you have changed my life and I'm thankful I met you!
To St. Bernard Project, thank you for doing everything you are doing!

How do you say thank you to someone that helped build your new home? Here's one of the volunteers at St. Bernard hugging his favorite home-received lovely lady.

What Would You Do?

What would you do if your city/town flooded?
Your home was under 14ft of water?
Everything you had was destroyed?
You couldn't go to work, because your work was flooded/destroyed?
So you can't get a paycheck to feed your family.
You didn't have the deed to your home, it was at the courthouse, that's now flooded?
So, your home, you cannot defend, there's nothing proving it's your home.
You couldn't get your birth certificate, it's in the court house that flooded?
So you can't prove you are who you are, everything you had is destroyed.
You couldn't get help, because help hadn't arrived?

Everything you've ever known is under water and is about to be destroyed?

I've talked with family after family over the course of my trip, each telling almost the exact same story; the last 3 years of their lives has been a complete and utter struggle. Did you know that the first group of people to come down to Louisiana and help were not even Americans? It was a group from Canada! And they had to fight their way through barricades to get to people to help?

This entire trip has been an experience. I watched the 6 o clock news tonight. Headlining all stories was that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of an Insurance Company instead of home owners. What was the fight over? Should the insurance company pay out to homeowners for a flood damages, if the homeowner only had homeowners insurance, no flood insurance?

The levies put in place to withstand hurricanes had engineering flaws in them, therefore, the flood in the city I'm currently volunteering in was created due to human error. These same homeowners were told they didn't need flood insurance because they were in a particular region that is "flood resistant". When they inquired about getting flood insurance, they were told they didn't need it.

Read here at:
http://www.nola.com/news
Click on Supreme Court Rules story

I cannot say more. It's so frustrating to hear over and over from family after family the same story. No discrepancy, it's all the same.

I leave tomorrow evening to head back to Minnesota. It's so true how volunteers come down here for a week and end up staying for months, even years. I am already planning my next trip down, hopefully in August. I hope to share more with you soon, today has been a mentally exhausting day.

NOLA, April 6

I think it's difficult to communicate what I've been seeing thus far. New Orleans is a large city, much of which saw some flood damage, some did not. When you get to the edges of the city, crossing into other smaller cities, you start to see much different scenery. St. Bernard Parish has so far only 20% recovered from the flood. It's difficult to explain why. Some people are open to talking about the politics involved in rebuilding, I hope to get a better idea of this for my next blog entry.

So why am I down here? Why New Orleans and the surrounding community?

I decided to come down here near the end of last year, 2007. After talking with the St. Bernard Project extensively, my project's focus became imminent; give families something they'll treasure. They are already receiving a home, how about photographing them and giving them a portrait to hang on their newly built walls. So that's where it all started. I'm going to create my project so that it can be ongoing. If the St. Bernard Project is still building homes, my Project will still be photographing portraits. I think I'm going to be creating a website just for the "project" where I will show the portraits taken, discuss the mission, allow for photographic internships, and create a community for others who'd like to help through photography. This is a turning point I feel in my life and I cannot wait to share with you all the portraits and stories I obtain this week.

I'm going to leave you with this image for today. This house hasn't been worked on. But you get a sense of life out of it. I hope they are well and do hope they return someday.



Until next time, keep me and my fellow photographer in your prayers.

Erica

NOLA, Day 1-3

It was a long drive down filled with excitement. The entire state of Iowa was filled with fog and then, Mississippi...we were completely overtaken by a storm of tornadoes. Here is an image of us sitting under a bridge with other cars waiting it out:


I don't start shooting portraits until Monday, so I was happy to find a friend of a friend's dad who lives in New Orleans to take us around on a "tour". It was eye-awakening. You hear from so many people, "The French Quarter looks awesome", but there's more to the community than the French Quarter. Here are a few images I took

This is typical, 3 houses in a row, untouched since the flood. No one has touched these homes in 3 years.


And then on one block there is this, 1 home rebuilt next to a home that hasn't been touched again in 3 years.


I inquired about the spray painted numbers and 'X's on homes that haven't been touched since the flood. Our "tour" guide said the top number is the date the Army or Nat'l Guard inspected the home, the number to the right is if they found any bodies, the number on the bottom is if they found any pets and the code on the left is their initials:


This is typical for those who are trying to rebuild their own homes. They purchase a pull behind livable trailer, hook up the sewer and water, and live on their property. Some may or may not be rebuilding, just waiting to figure out what they'll do.


An entire block untouched since the flood. No one has returned to this entire block of homes:


A boat that hasn't moved in 3 years, since the flood. Our tour guide, a professor of chemistry at the University, went around the communities immediately after the flood. He's seen this boat sit here for 3 years.


I will be posting more soon.

New Orleans or Bust!

I've made it! I leave for New Orleans/Louisiana in an hour and I'm just so excited, my hands are literally shaking. I'm driving down, cannot believe it! The trip should take around 20 hours and we'll arrive tomorrow, Friday April 4th around 3pm.

We'll take a tour of the St. Bernard Project offices, Camp Hope where we are staying and then over to one of the families who received a home from St. Bernard, which is where I'll be photographing families at. Saturday and Sunday are open days to tour the facilities, go to some of the houses that are currently being built, tour around where homes still need to be gutted and rebuilt.

I will be posting images daily from the trip and cannot wait to share everything with everyone. We'll talk to you all soon and watch the blog for pics of New Orleans!!!

Erica

Lisa & Jason TBM September 6

I flew to Chicago last week to shoot Lisa and Jason's engagement session. Such a beautiful day! Their wedding is in Iowa, September 6th this year and I cannot wait! Thanks for such a terrific day!