OK, so football is not usually my fortay…call me a fair weather fan or whatever you want but I guess when you grow up in a city where your team never seems to win it’s hard to get into the football spirit.  Well who would’ve known… hell froze over, the Saints won the Superbowl, and I became a football fan!  After we barely won the last playoff game in overtime it hit me that I needed to be in New Orleans for the Superbowl!  Yes, the actual game was in Miami but the real celebration was in the Big Easy!   From the time I got on my flight from Denver black and gold and “Who Dat’s!” were everywhere I looked.  We sang “When the Saints Go Marching In” on the plane and the streets of NOLA was bursting with fans!  The win felt more like a dream as the city erupted with tears of joy and shouts of relief & disbelief.  From this point on the cheers have changed to “When the Saints Went marching in” “Who Dat? We Dat!” and Mardi Gras has become “Dat Tuesday” & “Lombardi Gras!”

Wow, what an amazing event to photograph!!! My favorite musicians from New Orleans set against the vast red landscape of Red Rocks! This past Saturday New Orleans literally descended upon Red Rocks for Mountainside Mardi Gras! The crowd was kind and crazy, the music was funkalicious, and the beads and booze were flowing!  Its times like these that remind me how much I really love being a photographer…and from New Orleans!  It was quite an exhilerating challenge running up and down those endless stairs to get the best shots, and it’s been 4 days since the show and my legs still hurt, but it was totally worth it.  This was the biggest concert I have ever photographed, but hopefully the first of many more to come.  Thank you so much DJ Kinetik for hooking me up with this “job”…anytime you need a photographer (especially at Red Rocks) I’m there!

If you do not know these bands, if you have not ever felt New Orleans music (this aint no country or cajun, but funk-jazz-blues-soul-brass) then you must check out these sites below:

Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes
Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Papa Grows Funk
George Porter Jr. & The Runnin Pardners
Ivan Neville’s Dumstaphunk
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Dr.John & The Lower 911
New Era Brass Band

P.S.  I used to want to be a painter and a rock star, so I had dreams of painting on concert stages along side the drummer.  I eventually discovered that my true talent and passion was in photography. It excites me to see artists living my former dream and I was thrilled to see 3 painters on Saturday.  Check out these amazing painters that were there to capture the scene in beautiful ways my camera can not.

Frenchy
Scramble Campbell
John Bukaty