Drivers headed toward LSU from Downtown on Nicholson Drive are welcomed by LSU flags on top of the Pastime Lounge to the left and by these paintings of LSU football players by Charles Barbier on the support columns of Interstate 10 to the right.  There are a few completed paintings, one work in progress, and a couple of blank canvases waiting to be used.

Lake Martin Cypress Island Preserve is located near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  I learned about Lake Martin after seeing some great pictures from Ben Pierce, then decided I wanted to take some of my own.  My first trip to the lake was during sunset and I took all of my pictures from the land.  I decided that I wanted to go again around sunrise, but I wanted to take pictures from the water.  If you want to go on a sunrise (or sunset) kayak trip around this lake and don't own your own kayak, you can do what I did and rent one from Bayou Teche Experience.  Visit my Lake Martin collection to see selected images from this and previous trips to the lake.

Lake Martin Cypress Island Preserve

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The Louisiana Hot Air Balloon Championships almost didn't take place this year.  After LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center announced that they would no longer host the event and the Louisiana Ballooning Foundation announced that they would not participate, a group of organizers from Ascension Parish decided to get together and keep the festival going.  I have more some of my favorite images from past years' events in my Hot Air Balloon collection. Hot Air Balloons

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I watched these balloons as a kid on the State Fair Grounds and as an adult on the Pennington grounds.  I'm used to having a fixed location to hang out and watch everything that goes on.  This year's event was less organized than previous years.  If you wanted to watch the competition portion of the event, you had to check the Bring Hot Air Balloons to Ascension Parish Facebook page the morning of the event.  The viewing area for this year's competition was in a parking lot behind a fire station, sandwiched in between a dumpster and a wrecked car with the top cut off.  The pilots seemed to have no idea where to go after the competition was over and they were landing in parking lots, on the side of the road, and in unsuspecting homeowner's' back yards.

I came across the Please Free Music Rally (PleaseFreeMusic.com) while I was checking out the weekend crowd on Third Street.  I got to see Rosalie Washington (Lady Tambourine) play a few songs, watched a guy win a raffle for a laptop, and met a few drunk people.

I saw this train headed my way while driving from LSU to Downtown Baton Rouge.  I quickly pulled over to get a shot of it, opened my car door where my Canon 5D II and 17-40 lens were ready to go on the car seat, and they both fell onto the concrete parking lot.  I missed the shot I originally wanted to get, but at least my gear still works!

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As Hurricane Isaac made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River on the Louisiana coast, I was 100 miles away watching the effect on the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.  It was a great sunset with fast moving clouds, small choppy waves on the water, and lots of wind.  Isaac was down to a tropical storm before it travelled those 100 miles and Baton Rouge saw little damage.

Baton Rouge High