Mandeville

As promised, I’m posting a second blog on our recent trip to New Orleans. This post features images taken in and around the town of Mandeville, LA, the home town of our hosts, Diane and Dean.

I took a couple of strolls in the area around their home, located close to Lake Pontchartrain. This area offers a variety of good photo opportunities, all within easy walking distance. I began my exploration at Sunset Point Park, the Western end of the Mandeville Lakefront.

This photo was taken from the point, looking back toward the shoreline. It was a flat day, overcast and chilly. Winter in the south can have these days.

Walking eastward away from Sunset Point, I came upon this gated entry to a road leading back in the direction of the lake. Old gates have a photographic appeal, so I took this picture and converted it to black and white. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much colour in this scene on this day and I was able to achieve better contrast with monotones.

Lately, I’ve been trying to create minimalist images. Minimalist photography is about stripping a subject down to its essence. It’s the creation of photos that cut through the clutter with clean lines, empty spaces and only the essential elements. This situation fits that definition pretty well. The essential elements in this photograph are the groin in the foreground (a structure perpendicular to the shoreline, used to protect beaches from erosion) and, the causeway in the background, just below the sky.

Lakeshore Drive along the Mandeville Lakefront is a beautiful, residential area with stately homes and a verdant park between the drive and the shoreline. Extreme weather periodically raises the lake’s level, threatening these homes with flooding. To counter the risk, the homes are raised on columns to elevate the main living area above the high water mark. As you will note from the photograph below, this creates sheltered, outdoor space to enjoy more usual weather and additional room for storage.

These homes are beautifully landscaped as well. Live oak trees, festooned with Spanish moss are prevalent and I’m sure that flowering plants and shrubs are much more colourful in the other seasons of the year.

The adjacent park, although quite wet while I was there, is a beautiful green space. It too is populated with live oak trees. They are large and generally very old. I came across one bearing a plaque, dating it to circa 1773. It was there at the time of the United States War of Independence. Although the ground was quite soggy, I welcomed the large puddles and the reflections they created for me.

This is the stately and sprawling old tree dating back to circa 1773.

As I walked back to our hosts’ home, I passed this sign at the entry to the “Hermitage on the Lake” neighbourhood. Mardi Gras is in full swing in Mandeville.