Hello Downtown Baton Rouge!  Several weekends ago, I took the time to have a long photography weekend all to myself.  I spent 3 glorious Louisiana spring days driving around, snapping pictures, and generally relaxing.  Relaxation and I have a testy relationship; we don’t always get along so well.  I blame it on my Type A personality.  But sometimes, like this weekend in particular I get it just right.  For the first day of the long weekend, Cree and I visited downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana to see a few sights and play with the cameras.  I couldn’t resist following Cree up to an observation deck and taking pictures of the river, especially this bridge.  This is the Horace Wilkinson Bridge which carries I-10 from Baton Rouge across the Mississippi towards the land and life of west Louisiana.  In all honesty, I had no idea that this bridge was named the Horace Wilkinson Bridge before I started this post. (1)  I’ve only ever known it as the “new bridge.”  And considering it was built in the late 1960s, it isn’t quite so new anymore.  This bridge is known for traffic jams, traffic snarls, and general traffic nastiness at certain times of day since the on-ramps go down to one lane, which isn’t conducive to the large amounts of traffic the bridge handles. But for me, this bridge is awesomeness.  It’s how as a young child my mom brought us to Baton Rouge, a long, long way from the small town we lived in across from a bayou (yes, I’m a bayou child, but not stereotypically so).   It’s how as a young college student I started my journey each day to commute to Hammond, 1 hour one way of music blaring and looking forward to classes.   It is how as a maturing adult I get back to my home parish to visit family and friends.  It also takes a darn nice picture. 

 

While up on the observation deck, I snapped a picture of the Louisiana Arts & Sciences Museum (LASM) nestled right there near the river.  I took many a school trip to this place, and every time was completely freaked out by the mummy exhibit everytime. 

 

After geeking out up on the observation deck, we went back to terra firma to look around and find more things to photograph.  We came upon the water fountains at the Shaw Center, and I was instantly fascinated.  Photographing water is something I’m always trying to do.  However, I have a hard time with my focus and shutter speed.  It takes a careful setting of both the shutter speed and focus points to get a water shot right, or so it seems to me.

However, these photographic challenge never deters me as I try again and again to get it right.  Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes.  And one day, I’m going to get it right.  I’m getting closer I think.

When I can get my shutter speed just right, it seems to catch water in such a point that it looks like an abstract ice sculpture.  For whatever reason it fascinates me.  I should grab my camera one sunny weekend, go to the Shaw Center, and shoot pictures until I get it just right.  LOL!  I really need to pull out my book by Brian Peterson on shutter speed and read through it some more.

But we couldn’t stand near the water shooting photographs forever.  There was so much to try and see to do in the short day I’d given myself down there.  While up on the observation deck we noticed the Louisiana Old State Capitol with its unique Gothic architecture (2) and round windows.  Off we trooped across the street to get to the capitol and take a look around the museum housed there.

The place is full of interesting architure, from its decorated windows and unexpected turrets…

to its round windows on the ground floor.  I love these windows.  I don’t know why.  But if I had old Gothic weird Louisiana house, I’d love to have a window like this in it. 

Leading into the Old State Capitol are engraved tiles listing important events affecting the building.  Like any other important piece of Louisiana history, this building has a long and checkered past.

And what did I do while in the state capitol.  Did a take pictures of the amount of Louisiana political and governmental history that surrounded me?  Did I take pictures of the spiral staircase, the figures, the bits and pieces of history that make up the state in which I live.  Not at first.  At first, all I did was shoot pictures of the hardware on the doors: door knobs, striker plates, hinges. I mean really, look at it!  It’s gorgeous.  But the lighting was horrid and getting a shot that I was satisfied with was causing me difficulty.  I think Cree just looked at me and slightly shook her head wondering if I’d gone photographically mad.

There are very few museums in Louisiana where you will visit and not find something about Huey P. Long, one of Louisiana’s most famous political figures.  While I took lots of photographs while in the old capitol building (too many to show you here), this one is the one that I enjoyed the most.  I liked this exhibit.  It features a statue of Huey P. Long with a shadow that is actually a film running while one of his speeches runs on audio.  I thought having a stationary statue with a moving shadow was clever, and it caught my interest.

Next up was to take a spin at the Louisiana State Museum.  I knew that several years ago the state had revamped this building.  I had never been, so we took the opportunity to walk in.  It was WONDERFUL, and the only drawback was the fact that we ran out of time.  We weren’t able to tour all the exhibits in the building, though I was able to catch a quick shot of a full size shrimping boat housed in the building.  This has got to be hands down one of the best things to do (at least for me) in downtown Baton Rouge.  It’s two stories of Louisiana history and stories all for FREE.  I couldn’t believe that there was no admission fee and that we were allowed to bring our cameras in and take pictures.  I have plans to go back in the near future.

One of the things I would love to go back and try to get better pictures of are the Mardi Gras costume displays.  It was fantastic; however, the lighting was low, making picturing taking tough.  This pictures look alright small, but aren’t the best large size.  Increasing my ISO caused the pictures to get a bit grainy while trying to capture enough light.  Regardless if the picture is to the standards I’d prefer, look at that costume.  The plaque for  this one stated the costume was created in 1991 for the Endymion parade.  Can you imagine being the maid that had to wear that?  I wonder if she did push ups and strength training beforehand?

The head of a sea horse costume from a New Orleans krewe (the plaque wasn’t really clear on where this came from, or I accidentally photographed the wrong plaque!)

I’m definitely ready to go back to downtown Baton Rouge, back to the Louisiana State Museum and take more pictures.  It was beyond fun!  And besides, I need to take MORE PICTURES!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone, and a great weekend.

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(1) 225 Magazine, Baton Rouge, La.  It’s not the “new” bridge after all. 
(2) Louisiana Secretary of State. Louisiana’s Old State Capitol.