Catching up...

It seems like "New Orleans Walls" has gone to a halt since my return from New Orleans last April. Being self-published is very demanding, but not financially viable (at least not yet!), so when paying jobs surface I take the plunge, which I actually don't mind at all since I love what I do for a living (I get paid to take pictures!!) Unfortunately in the meantime, there is no promotion department taking over and blogging all over the internet about the book. I wish... There is so much more to share about the project and I just have to accept, once again, that going with the flow is the rule!

So I'll start over where I left it almost 4 months ago:

HAYDEE ELLIS.

Meet my Fairy Godmother. I didn't even know I had one until our lives crossed paths by chance. Haydée just makes things happen. It started with Fats Domino (she's a good friend of his), and it didn't stop there. What's more, her heart is as big as her wand!
Pianist Tom McDermott introduced us by way of email in March of 2009, and it's one of those relationships that just took off as if it had always been there. We hadn't even met in person that she was already willing to help. After I took Fats' picture, she was the first person I called, although we still hadn't met yet.
Haydée is also a wonderful visual artist and pianist, and a true New Orleans character. Needless to say, I was delighted when she agreed to pose for the project. We met for the first time on the day of the photoshoot, and she was as I had pictured her: warm, fun, beautiful, down-to-earth... just plain wonderful! "Her" wall was just a few blocks from her daughter's house in the lower Garden District. I didn't have a specific idea when I picked the wall, but putting Haydée in front of it, combined with how I was feeling that day (floating in happiness), was enough to get a photo in just a few minutes: