Time has been running away from me as of late.  This parade happened 2 weeks ago, but I still want to get photos up…it is not often that you have at least 2,500 men garbed in dresses, in order to show their support and solidarity for the SAINTS!  Here without further ado, the men of Buddy D!

Comments Off | Permalink

Tags: close-up, dance, Laura Bergerol Photography, life, light, Louisiana, music, New Orleans, Nouvelle Orleans, people, person, smile, street photos of New Orleans

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=LA_TP&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1 Sunday night, the New Orleans Saints, the underdog of the NFL, won the Superbowl.  There are not enough words to describe how that felt…honor, belief in a city that people once gave up on, euphoria, pure joy. So many words, but none of them explain how important this win was for my city that captured my heart four and one half years ago.

I came to New Orleans three weeks after Katrina to help rescue animals…people asked me, “why aren’t you helping people”, but they did not get i”.  With every dog that I had the pleasure to help return to their owners, I was helping the people of New Orleans; from the look on the owners faces and on the dogs, I knew that my choice of way to help was a good one.  I continued to come back, over and over, as I returned animals to their owners, and finally I realized that I had fallen hard for this city and almost 2 years ago, I moved here permanently.  I love this city with all my heart, the good, the bad, and the comical. The struggles of this city, are my struggles.  Winning the Superbowl was proof that I had chosen well…a city that people thought would never rise from the ashes and aftermath of Katrina (and Rita) has indeed risen and triumphed.  And winning the Superbowl is proof of that.

The NY Times said it well; “New Orleanians are acutely aware of how their city is perceived. They’ve had to explain to friends after their post-Katrina sojourns in Dallas or Atlanta or Houston — those well-groomed, go-get-’em cities that have flourished in the past few decades — why they wanted to return to a city long associated with crime and corruption. If you have to ask, you’ll never know, according to Louis Armstrong, and most outsiders don’t, and it gets frustrating.”  But for those of us who love this city, this victory and the team that believed in the City of New Orleans, is proof that there is grace! And grace indeed is shining down on this wonderful city.  Long live the Saints, long live the City of New Orleans!  I do know what it means to love New Orleans!

The photos that follow are from the Superbowl Parade that took place yesterday!  They estimated that 100,000 people came out to cheer on the Saints and to tell them thank you! I think you will see from my photos, that the parade was jubilant, joyous and poignant.  From the city that people once forgot, to the city we are today, we have come a long way!  I am proud to be a New Orleanian, and am escpecially proud of the New Orleans Saints…thank you boys, we owe you a debt that we cannot pay, but I hope that you know how proud we are of you, and how much hope and joy that you brought to this city.  Bless you boys!

Laura Bergerol, not a native New Orleanian, but a forever New Orleanian!

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: bayou, close-up, Laura Bergerol Photography, Louisiana, New Orleans, Nouvelle Orleans, red, smile, street photos of New Orleans

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being part of a new parade in New Orleans…a parade in honor of Jeanne D’Arc! On Twelfth Night and Joan of Arc’s birthday, admirers of the Maid of New Orleans will gather at Woldenberg Park at 6:00 p.m. and will walk up Conti Street , then down Decatur Street to the St. Joan statue at St. Phillip Street in the New Place de France. The parade honors the life and death of Jeanne D’Arc, born January 6, 1412, in Domremy , France , who was burned at the stake at age nineteen, two years after her success at the Battle of Orléans, France.

The second annual parade featured Joan of Arc portrayals, in addition to artists, musicians, and revelers of all ages in medieval/Renaissance costumes. The parade will be lit by processional candles and medieval torches, and parade participants will walk to the sound of drums (Bradley Wilkins, dressed as the Dauphin and Raymond “Moose” Jackson), tambourines and bells. http://www.joanofarcproject.org

I was actually part of the parade and dressed up, and while I can’t show you photos of that experience, I can give you a view of the parade from my perspective;

2 Comments | Permalink

So since the year is ending, it seems only right to put up my favorite 100 photos of 2009!  It was tough…2009 was a bad year in some ways for me, but from a photography standpoint, in looking backward at my work, I seem to have been on fire artistically.  So many photos to choose from…it made it difficult.  But choose I did…a cross section of work from all genres.  And since I have been trying out a new site to showcase my images that I really like called Cargo Collective, I chose to use their site to put my images so here is a link to them.  I hope that you enjoy them and that New Years 2010 brings you much happiness and joy!  All my best!

http://cargocollective.com/LauraBergerolNOLA#204878/Laura-Bergerol-Best-photos-2009

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: background, bayou, chef, close-up, commercial, dance, elegance, food, fruit, fun, gourmet, green, hot, joy, laughter, Laura Bergerol Photography, light, Louisiana, luxury, music, New Orleans, night, Nouvelle Orleans, NOWFE, person, street photos of New Orleans, summer, water, wine

Sunday night was the annual Caroling at Jackson Square event and it was lovely.  I could not get over the crowds…there were so many people that came out.  The new Archbishop said it best, when he said that he too could not believe the difference between Christmas 2005 when the world was watching us, and how far we have come.  We still have a long way to go, but in the smiles and with the carols, it seems like we are doing pretty okay!  Merry Christmas NOLA…may you forever be a place of beauty and joy for all!

Comments Off | Permalink

Tags: candlelight, candles, carols, Christmas in New Orleans, crowds, dance, General Andrew Jackson on bronze horse, heart of old New Orleans, joy, light, love, music, noel, NOLA, peace, people, Pontalba Buildings, smile, St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, the Presbytere - Jackson Square, triple steeples, venerable building

So, I was coming home from driving a friend to the airport and this song played on the radio!  Naturally, I cranked it up loud and sang along.  

Here to accompany this wonderful video of NOLA’s favorite Kermit are my photos of Kermit Ruffin, taken at a concert in November…it was raining cats and dogs and he was such a trooper, he just played on!  We love you Kermit!  And we love our Saints!

Comments Off | Permalink

Tags: bayou, close-up, laughter, Laura Bergerol Photography, life, light, Louisiana, music, New Orleans, Nouvelle Orleans, smile, street photos of New Orleans

I had the pleasure to attend Tales of the Toddy a week ago.  Thanks to being sick and injured, I have been a little slow uploading images, but it was truly a fun event, in the style of all of the Tales of the Cocktail events.  Here are photos!

Comments Off | Permalink

Tags: food, gourmet, Laura Bergerol Photography, life, Louisiana, music, New Orleans, Nouvelle Orleans, person, red, smile, street photos of New Orleans

I was thinking today about reasons to give thanks for New Orleans.  I spent a short, but sweet moment with the volunteers of  http;//www.LowerNine.org and helped make their day a little brighter by whipping cream for dessert and by telling some funny tales of why I was so very late (the dog ate our apple cobbler, for real.)  There were “kids” (I am showing my age here) from the Ukraine, Korea, Ohio, California, and many other places who came here to New Orleans with one intent…to help make New Orleans a better place! It was such a nice thing to see and I enjoyed spending time with them.

I did take photos and will share them tomorrow, but today, my thoughts were on another group of volunteers who came to help New Orleans, who I had the pleasure to photograph and interact with.  They came in late September 2005 and I can honestly say that they saved me….I was on overload from all the destruction and death that I was seeing, and from worrying about all the animals of New Orleans (as well as their owners.)  These photos are from my “photo vault” and are photos that I took almost 4 years ago, three weeks after Hurricane Katrina.  When I came to New Orleans to help animals affected by Katrina, I ended up helping in a horse barn at Lamar Dixon in Gonzalez, LA (the staging ground for animal rescue initially.) I had the pleasure of helping LSU Equine Vets, who were led by Dennis French, DVM.  An abler group I could never hope to find. http://equine.vetmed.lsu.edu/denny.html One morning, a group of farriers arrived from all over the country; they had heard about Katrina’s effects on the horses of Louisiana and they came to help. http://www.theamericanfarriers.com/home.html They spent three days caring for and shooing the 300 plus horses that we were caring for…such a generous and kind group of people.  Love all these photos, but especially the photos of a gentleman named Mo from Missouri, as he was shoeing a horse.  I loved that I captured the smoke around his tools.  Enjoy these photos…I want to emphasize the incredible good that happened after Katrina, not dwell on the sadness, and today of all days, I give thanks for the MANY volunteers who saved the city that I love!  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

2 Comments | Permalink

Tags: assisting, care, equine, farrier, goat, Gonzales, grooming, health care, horse, horses, horseshoe, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Laura Bergerol Photography, livestock relief efforts, Louisiana, love, LSU School of Equine Medicine, New Orleans, people, Photography, resource, South Louisiana, support, thank you, treatment, volunteers

Those who follow my blog know that I spent much of the past four years since Katrina helping the animals and people of New Orleans recover.  As a volunteer, I rescued animals from houses, worked tirelessly at temporary shelters to save dogs, cats, horses lives, and brought many “unadoptable at risk animals” home to safety in California. I also worked to reunite animals with their owners, as a part of an “all voluntary group” called Stealth Volunteers, and returned many times to New Orleans to return these animals to their loving owners.  While that work has finally tapered off, I am still working on a case, sadly still in litigation, to try to get a dog home to the owners who adore her, where she belongs.

While I have only “lived” in New Orleans slightly more than a year, over the past four years, I became intimately involved with New Orleans by embracing the unique culture and history that permeates its persona and learned what it truly means to be a New Orleanian.  Though I may be “a new resident, ”I truly know and love my “city” well.  I thank that I offer a truly unique perspective, from that of a photographer initially captured by a terrifying chapter of a city’s possible demise, mired in sadness, who thanks to repeat visits (to continue to care for a wounded city) realized that that what I was really witnessing the incredible courage and resiliency, of the people and the city of New Orleans.  With that discovery,I found that the true beauty and soul of New Orleans comes from the heart, and that nothing, not storm surge, category five hurricanes, nor broken levees, could ever destroy that.

I got a request recently from a fellow rescuer to share some of my reunion photos with her for a project she is working on…She specifically asked for the “tear inducing, heartwarming” photos and as I happen to have quite a few of those, I agreed to share photos with her.  As I began gathering them, it occurred to me that I should put a post here on my blog.  And since Veterans Day is tomorrow, it seemed only right to tie my post to that day.  For while these dogs and owners are not veterans of any war, they are (in my humble opinion) veterans of the war that was Katrina.  So without much further ado, I will post the photos here.  I am not going to post their stories…you can ask me for them and I will share them, but these photos tell a story on their own.

3 Comments | Permalink

Tags: devastation, devotion, Hurricane Katrina, Laura Bergerol Photography, love, New Orleans, street photos of New Orleans, veterans, war

I was privileged to photograph the music series, Harvest the Music (http://www.harvestthemusic.org).  Harvest the Music is a free concert series fully supported by Feeding America (also known as Second Harvest; http://www.no-hunger.org.)

The 2009 Harvest the Music concert series began Thursday, September 17th at Lafayette Square (located in the 500 block of St. Charles Avenue, across from Gallier Hall).  The FREE, seven-week series ran each THURSDAY through October 29 from 5:00pm until 7:30pm.  In its second year, Harvest the Music featured celebrated regional and national artists including Irma Thomas, Anders Osborne, The Radiators, Rebirth Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins, and Blues Traveler.  Benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank.

Instead of putting up photos from each event, I thought I would give you a taste of each event all in one place.  So without further ado, here are highlights from the Harvest the Music series 2009. 

Week 1:           Eric Lindell

Week 2            Irma Thomas and the Professionals and Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs

Week 3:           Anders Osborne and Big Chief Boudreaux

Week 4:           The Radiators

Week 5:           Rebirth Brass Band

Week 6:           Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers

Week 7:           Blues Traveler plus Shannon McNally

If you can, help Second Harvest in their mission, please do; their mission is so important.  Here are a few facts about hunger in the US.  You can visit their site for more details; http://www.no-hunger.org/hunger/justthefacts.htm

Hunger facts in America;

• 35 Million Americans are threatened by Hunger; 13 Million are Children
• Minimum Wage is 30 percent lower in purchasing power than it was, on average, in the 1970s
• 7% of poor people are able to purchase private health insurance outside the workplace
• 40 Million men, women, and children are uninsured
• The maximum monthly food stamp benefit in 2004 for a family of four is $471 or $1.31 per person per meal.  The average per-person monthly benefit is $84 or 93 cents per meal. some households only receive the minimum benefit of $10.
• A household may not participate in the Food Stamp Program if it has more than $2,000 in savings or other assets ($3,000 for households with elderly or disabled members).
• Every $1 provided in federal WIC benefits to pregnant women saves approximately $3 in Medicaid and other health costs.

3 Comments | Permalink

Next Page →

• Search


About
Laura is a commercial, editorial, and fine art photographer, whose photos are fun, whimsical, sometimes magical, and always from the heart. She is not a Wordpress expert...she simply muddles through.

• Categories

  • animals
  • EVENTS
    • New Orleans Food and Wine Experience
  • Music in NOLA
  • New Orleans street photography
  • NOCE: New Orleans Cooking Experience

• Archives

  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009

• Blogroll

  • Development Blog
  • Documentation
  • My website
  • Plugins
  • Suggest Ideas
  • Support Forum
  • Themes
  • WordPress Planet

• Funny

  • Video of Maine Coon Cat

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML