Blog | Jakob Berr Photography

My friend Tobi came to visit me in the U.S. for two weeks, and so we decided to take a road trip to New Orleans. Together with Beth we embarked on the 15-hour drive down to the Big Easy. To cut a long story short: We had a fantastic time. I always knew that New Orleans breathes music, but experiencing it live is a whole different thing. We only spent four days in the city, but I fell madly in love with it. Together with San Francisco, to me New Orleans is the most amazing city in this country.

On our way to New Orleans we got into a huge traffic jam just outside of Memphis. Everything was deadlocked for hours, and finally we found out that an anti-government activist and his son had shot and killed two police officers during a routine traffic control. Law enforcement had to close off the bridge across the Mississippi for the man hunt, causing a complete still-stand for several hours.

You haven’t been to New Orleans if you haven’t had a crawfish boil by the Mississippi river…

The cemeteries in New Orleans are all above ground because of the swampy soil the city is built on.

Outside the Bulldog bar where we watched the tragic Champions League finals of Bayern Munich against Inter Milan.

In New Orleans, music – good music – is everywhere. Even the musicians in the street are great. But this one here topped everything I had ever seen before. We were in the bar and heard the band playing, until one of us noticed that there were more instruments than people on the stage. At first we thought they were playing stuff off a loop. But when we took a closer look, we realized the he was playing a rhythm guitar in one hand, a lead guitar in the other, and a bass guitar with his feet. Go figure…

On our last day, we took a field trip to one of the many Bayous around New Orleans. The nature out there is incredible.

Last Thursday, I finally got to meet my friend Bharat’s wife Chaitali who is in town for a few days before they leave to Chicago next Tuesday. Together with Melvin and Atreyee, we went out for dinner at the Huhot Mongolian Grill and grabbed a drink at the Ragtag afterward. We had a great time and it really didn’t feel like we had known each other only for a couple of hours.

Yesterday, I took Bharat and Chaitali to Devil’s Backbone, one of my favorite spots around here. Its gorgeous vistas over the Cedar Creek are impressive year-round, but spring and fall are by far the best times to go there. Once again, the beauty of the nature out there took my breath away. After we spent a couple of hours at Devil’s Backbone, we went to the Shooting Star Trailhead to watch the sun set over Rock Bridge State Park from one of the rock plateaus towering over the Gans Creek. This is also where the last image is from.

I’ve been wanting to photograph the Dirty Disco Dance Party at Eastside Tavern on Friday nights for a while now, and last night I finally took my camera with me. I was playing around a lot with my new pocket wizards and off-camera flash and finally decided to position the strobe on a shelf above the entrance door, right next to one of the speakers. It took me a while to figure out the proper lighting, especially since I had to light both the DJ area and the dance floor with one strobe (bouncing off a black ceiling), but eventually I managed to get decent results by adjusting shutter speed and f-stop depending on where I was and let the strobe run on the same setting all throughout.

The irony was that my shoot was cut short once I had figured out my lighting and before the party even really started. The bass vibrations of the speaker next to strobe made it slowly bounce toward the edge of the shelf – until it dropped 8 feet deep on concrete. Amazingly enough, it was still looking alright and was even firing fine; however, the reflector zoom is in pretty bad shape, so I’ll have to send it in for repair nevertheless. So behold, here are some of the most expensive party pictures I ever took. You better enjoy!

This is the last set of pictures for now from my trip into the past times of analog photography, shot between February 14 and February 18. It’s pictures from the first week of this year’s Picture of the Year International contest where I was one of the graduate coordinators. It was an electrifying experience and we had a great time with the judges Scott Strazzante, Pedro Ugarte, Scott Mc Kiernan and Kathy Anderson.

Judging in progress at the Fred W. Smith Forum at Reynolds Journalism Institute, Monday, February 15, 2010.

POYi director Rick Shaw introduces a new category for the judges, Monday, February 15, 2010.

Michelle Peltier (center) and Calin Ilea (right) in the “drivers’ seats,” the control center of the judging shows.

Chelsea Sektnan hosts the Adobe Connect Meeting, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

The judges Pedro Ugarte (left), Kathy Anderson (background), Scott Mc Kiernan (center) and Scott Strazzante (right) stretch their legs during a judging break. Judging sessions usually lasted from 8.30 a.m. until 8 p.m. and consisted of several thousand images a day.

The judging set-up as seen in a reflection of the window of the translator booth in the Fred W. Smith Forum.

Lunch break at Shakespeare’s, Thursday, February 18, 2010.

Calin Ilea, Scott Mc Kiernan and Pedro Ugarte during dinner at Flat Branch, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Pedro Ugarte and Kathy Anderson during dinner at Flat Branch, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Scott Strazzante, Scott Mc Kiernan and Pedro Ugarte during dinner at Flat Branch, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Pedro Ugarte and Kathy Anderson during dinner at Flat Branch, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

Dessert time at Addison’s, Monday, February 14, 2010.

Paying the check at Flat Branch.