I drove to Eunice on Sunday night in spite of the excesses of Spanish Town Mardi Gras and an unsightly rug burn on my forehead. I had to photograph a boucherie for Spencer Magazine at 7AM and leaving my house at 5:30AM just didn’t sound to appealing. So, the magazine was nice enough to arrange some accommodations for myself and the writer.
The pig was killed, butchered and cooked in a phenomenally short period of time. But, many hands speed the work. Sadly, I can’t post any of the 1,200 or so shots I got of the boucherie because the magazine doesn’t go to print until April. But, I did see some interesting things on the way back.
There was an abandoned grain silo that looked like a castle and the constant s-curves of crawfish ponds replete with huge flocks of white egret and black marsh ducks. I also stopped at the boat launch off of I-10 for the Atchafalaya and played around with the fisheye there. I think I need to do some more work on the shots of the flocks of birds. Their alternating black and white plumage was very stark against the cloudy, Cajun prairie sky. The two treatments here just don’t do justice to the flapping, startled natural palate that was these birds in flight.
Not the original version, improved upon somewhat for contrast.
Regardless, it was a good day to be up early and driving through that green, sunken landscape. I have had a few offers to head over to one of the smaller Cajun Mardi Gras in Iota tomorrow and I may tag along for the photo opportunities but work at the bar beckons and I do have the aforementioned 1,200 photos to wade through. Who knows what tomorrow may bring but I hope you all have a safe and happy Mardi Gras (more happy than safe). And, I look forward to things getting back to normal after what feels like the endless festivities of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Football Season and Mardi Gras drunkenly sloshing into one another.
