Whenever I travel, I usually bring my camera....usually. Sometimes I just like to roam around and not bother with lugging my gear, but most often, I take something with me. Here are a few of my favorites from around the USA. [gallery link="file" orderby="rand"]
Hurricane Katrina: Three Months Later
As I watched TV, I just sat and cried. That's all I could do on that day in late August, 2005. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, more than 80% of my hometown of New Orleans was underwater. Both homes I knew as a child were flooded, up to six feet in some spots. My home as a teenager in Slidell, was also flooded. This one at had at least nine feet of water. Oh and I forgot to mention this house was on the water and my dad built it 16 feet above the water level. That gives you an idea of the scope of the flooding. But even as New Orleans was underwater, many people ignored what was happening about 50 miles to the east.
Many of my summers as a kid were spent on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Less than an hours drive from NOLA, "the Coast" as we called it was just as devastated. As the storm surge moved ashore, it took everything with it. As it moved inland, it still took everything with it. My parents home is five miles from the Gulf of Mexico and one mile from the northern most tip of Bay St. Louis. They had three feet of water in their home and piles of debris on the lawn...some of which was dragged inland from the coast.
Three months after the storm, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, my current employer, sent me to Mississippi to document the aftermath and the cleanup. Or the lack thereof. It's been nearly seven years since the storm and many of the scars are still there, but life has returned to normal and it's thriving.
[gallery link="file" orderby="rand"]
Baghdad 2004
I was fortunate enough to spent two months in the summer of 2004 embedded with the Arkansas 39th Infantry Brigade as they were stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, my current employer, sent a reporter and photographer to cover them for a year. I was one of the lucky photographers who rotated in. I was there from July through September. As you can imagine, a summer in Baghdad was excruciating. Daily highs were 110+ and add that along with full body armor, photographing was a challenge at times.
But is was an incredible two months. I am fortunate that I had a wonderful boyfriend back home taking care of my house, finances and my kitties. I am even more thanful that boyfriend is now my husband!
[gallery link="file"]