Baton Rouge Festival of Lights
Visit Baton Rouge and the Downtown Development District hosted the annual Festival of Lights in North Boulevard Town Square on Friday, December 2, 2016. Part of that celebration includes the lighting of the Christmas tree and a fireworks display. These are a few pictures of the fireworks from the West Baton Rouge side of the Mississippi River.
America Paddle Wheel Cruise Ship
The America paddle wheel cruise ship from American Cruise Lines at the Baton Rouge City Dock on the Mississippi River. The ship arrived in Baton Rouge the night before Thanksgiving and remained docked overnight before continuing on it's cruise.
Horace Wilkinson Bridge
The Horace Wilkinson I-10 bridge over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge always provides an element of interest to our Louisiana sunsets. The river itself is always brown, or sometimes reflects blue light for a few minutes right after sunset, and it is never smooth as glass. This is a Photoshop version of what this scene might look like if the river had more of a lake-like appearance. Not bad!
LASM Yazoo Plaza
Yazoo Plaza at the Louisiana Arts & Science Museum was designed by Suzanne Turner Associates to be a part of the central green open space in the downtown Baton Rouge area. Having previously photographed some of the connecting landscape architecture projects - the Florida Street gateway to the Mississippi River, the River Road portion of the Downtown Greenway, and Repentance Park - I appreciated the opportunity to help the architects at Suzanne Turner Associates document this project.
Bon Anniversaire, Baton Rouge
The Foundation for Historical Louisiana will hold it’s “Bon Anniversaire, Baton Rouge” gala on November 3rd to celebrate the city’s 200th anniversary. Part of the gala will include a photography exhibit with archival photos of Baton Rouge and a few photos that blend the old with the new. I volunteered my time to help Foundation for Historical Louisiana with this exhibit. This is my favorite from the series and it will be on display in the Old Governor's Mansion along with works from other photographers.
The original photograph is Civil Rights Protest, 1961 (courtesy East Baton Rouge Parish Library Digital Archives) and shows a peaceful protest at Liggett’s Drug Store (now Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers) on the corner of Third & Florida in downtown Baton Rouge.
You can get more information about the gala and purchase tickets on the Foundation for Historical Louisiana website and you can get more information about the original photograph from the Library's Baton Rouge Digital Archive.
Watermark Hotel
The old Louisiana National Bank building in downtown Baton Rouge isn't exactly new construction considering it was built in 1921, but it was recently renovated as the Watermark Hotel. At 12 stories, it is one of the taller buildings in the downtown area and it really stands out among the surrounding low rise buildings and parking lots. Lighting at the top of the hotel helps it to stand out after dark and adds an attractive view to the area.
Kayaking Lake Martin
The weekend of October 22nd - 23rd was our first taste of real fall weather in Louisiana, and I celebrated that by spending the entire weekend outside. I went to Lake Martin on Saturday to kayak through the cypress trees. This spot is only one hour from Baton Rouge and you can easily spend anywhere from an hour to half a day on the water.
This trip was a spur of the moment decision, so I just drove out there and rented a kayak from Champagne Swamp Tours. They have canoes and kayaks on site and it's pretty easy to just grab one and go. Their kayaks are the smaller, sit-in type with a smooth rounded bottom. This means they skim across the water pretty fast and easy, but they don't do a good job of sitting still when you want to take pictures. Be sure to bring cash, because they don't take cards and the ATM inside charges an outrageous $4 transaction fee!
If I know I'm going in advance or if I plan to spend a good bit of time on the lake, I prefer to call Cory Werk at Bayou Teche Experience and rent kayaks from him. He will deliver a kayak to you at the lake and come pick it up when you are done. This is really nice when you want to be out there before sunrise or after sunset. His kayaks are the sit on top kind, longer, and have a little more of a V on the bottom. Better tracking and better for sitting still, but not quite as easy to skim across the water.
I've made a couple of other blog posts about trips to Lake Martin over the past years. Check those out here: Lake Martin Kayaking.
Baton Rouge Fashion Council Sunset Soiree
The Baton Rouge Fashion Council held their Sunset Soiree event on the rooftop deck of the Commerce Building. My interest in rooftops and sunsets is greater than my interest in fashion, and I admittedly attended mostly to check out the views.
Magpie Cafe in the Commerce Building
Magpie Cafe is now open in the newly renovated Commerce Building in downtown Baton Rouge. The new space was a popular attraction that brought increased foot traffic to the area of Third Street and Laurel Street.
Louisiana State Capitol
One of the benefits of membership in Canon's Professional Services program is the company will send you evaluation gear to test. I had been curious to try the 50 megapixel 5Ds camera and had one sent to me. It's a little sluggish and the file size is very big, but I liked the extra resolution. This shot of the Louisiana State Capitol behind the Old Arsenal Museum is my favorite from the test shots I took.
