After Katrina: In March 2006 (6 months after Katrina hit New Orleans), I was with a church group helping residents with cleaning up and repairing their houses. This was my pre-DSLR...

Erdos2 Loc: Vancouver, WA

In March 2006 (6 months after Katrina hit New Orleans), I was with a church group helping residents with cleaning up and repairing their houses. This was my pre-DSLR days so I had a Point and Shoot type camera. Most of my photos were of the project house or other damages in the community, but this one pile of debris stands out as one of my favorite images from the trip. I still wonder about the persons implied in the photo. (Who lost the bear, who found it, etc.)

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Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Erdos2 wrote:

In March 2006 (6 months after Katrina hit New Orleans), I was with a church group helping residents with cleaning up and repairing their houses. This was my pre-DSLR days so I had a Point and Shoot type camera. Most of my photos were of the project house or other damages in the community, but this one pile of debris stands out as one of my favorite images from the trip. I still wonder about the persons implied in the photo. (Who lost the bear, who found it, etc.)

Hi, Erdos,
This image cannot help but have high impact given the images we all have of the immense tragedy that was Katrina. It does, indeed, stair the memory in many deep and dark ways.
Exposure - good highlight and shadow detail
Focus- good use of full depth of field
Composition, based on both the rule of thirds as well as using the converging wires as leading lines from left foreground to the diagonally opposite corner is very effective.

An excellent image is an excellent image...whether made with a p&S or a DSLR.

Let's see some more.

Dave in SD

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

I lived through Yolanda a couple of years back in the Philippines so Know what sights you must have been faced with. I never got one photo I even kept simply cos mess makes messy photos and I could not find the right angle to shoot from. This is suffering from the same problem. The cables are intrusive etc etc. In reality I think you have move the bear and "pose" him with a background that shows the devastation clearly. Cheating? Yep for sure. Journalistic licence is a better term.

Nightski

Actually I think you did quite well finding a niche in a mess. I like the composition very much. You have a great element that anchors the whole mess .. that teddy with the life preserver just says it all. The low light casting shadows is wonderful ... another sun goes down on the mess. It's a meaningful message as many, many days went down on that mess and it really will probably never be the same.

The cable did sort of bother me, but I struggled with commenting on that at all. This is a journalistic piece. I think it might be a very wrong thing to do to pp anything out or move anything. It just doesn't seem right. I think you did well in finding a point of interest in the vast mess.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

The color, contrast, composition and focus are all very nice but ...., it looks a little too cute, like it was staged, to me.

Erdos2 Loc: Vancouver, WA

Thank you for the responses.

The bear/lifejacket was already on the pile. Someone else found it and placed it there, maybe months before the group I was with came by. Maybe it was someone who was trying to lighten up an apparent never ending cleanup task. (It was pre-staged by an unknown person)

As for post processing, I did a small amount of cropping which placed the bear more on the thirds, some tonal adjusting to bring out the bear lifejacket and mess better, and a little cloning into a washed out spot that was distracting.

RedArrow Loc: Coastal Louisiana

I was working downtown New Orleans just days after Katrina and saw the destruction before any of the cleanups started. Just the National Guard, Law Enforcement and those with permission to be there. Ten years later you can still find little reminders of Katrina. The first time I crossed over the 17th Canal Bridge it was like in the Wizard of OZ when Dorothy opened the door into the world of color but in reverse. I left the world of color into a world void of color. Everywhere I looked all I saw was a dingy gray covering plants, trees, flooded cars and homes and it looked as the world was stripped color.

Your photo stirred all the sites, smells and emotions I witness.

Erdos2 wrote:

In March 2006 (6 months after Katrina hit New Orleans), I was with a church group helping residents with cleaning up and repairing their houses. This was my pre-DSLR days so I had a Point and Shoot type camera. Most of my photos were of the project house or other damages in the community, but this one pile of debris stands out as one of my favorite images from the trip. I still wonder about the persons implied in the photo. (Who lost the bear, who found it, etc.)

Erdos2 Loc: Vancouver, WA

RedArrow wrote:

I was working downtown New Orleans just days after... (show quote)

I may have done a disservice to the real scene by increasing the contrast in this photo. The original had a gray tint throughout. I'm sure it wasn't was it was like just after the storm, but it was still there 6 months later.

RedArrow Loc: Coastal Louisiana

It was still a mess for years and only in the last couple years are the scars starting to heal. Your photo was the true cold reality of the aftermath of the storm.

Erdos2 wrote:

I may have done a disservice to the real scene by increasing the contrast in this photo. The original had a gray tint throughout. I'm sure it wasn't was it was like just after the storm, but it was still there 6 months later.

ediesaul

When it comes to disasters, I'm of the opinion that photos should show the devastation of disasters. The technical aspects of this photo have been commented on, and I think the cables hanging down are appropriate. I do not care for the bear. I agree it's too cutesy. Perhaps if its color and texture were in the "after-Katrina" condition, it would look more realistic. As it is, its dazzling orange color seems out of place to me. Perhaps someone was trying to insert humor into the clean-up efforts, but the photo doesn't show those efforts. So, the bear, in my opinion, seems to somehow mock what happened. The photo does not accomplish your stated goal - making us think of the people, whose bear it was, where is that child now. My opinion, of course.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Erdos2 wrote:

In March 2006 (6 months after Katrina hit New Orleans), I was with a church group helping residents with cleaning up and repairing their houses. This was my pre-DSLR days so I had a Point and Shoot type camera. Most of my photos were of the project house or other damages in the community, but this one pile of debris stands out as one of my favorite images from the trip. I still wonder about the persons implied in the photo. (Who lost the bear, who found it, etc.)

Nicely composed, exposed, post processed and depth of field.

A good friend of mine was assigned to that area to assist in cleanup, etc. The photos he brought back weren't nearly as pleasant and peaceful appearing as this one.
--Bob

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I think this is an excellent photo. Compositionally there are several leading lines going right to the bear. I think the cables actually act as a frame. His eye is a bit bothersome. I am not sure if I would lighten or darken. I think I would play around with that a little.