Exploring New Orleans Through Photography with Coni Gajardo

In this episode of the Big Photo Hunt podcast, I team up with photographer Coni Gajardo on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, to capture the city’s vibrant spirit. From the energy of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter to the artistic flair of the Bywater neighborhood, we explore how to photograph every nook and cranny of this cultural hub.

Of course, no trip to New Orleans is complete without sampling the iconic beignets at Café Du Monde—so brace yourself for some serious beignet talk. Whether you’re a seasoned photographer or simply love the Big Easy, this episode is packed with tips and inspiration for shooting the city’s one-of-a-kind people, stunning architecture, and rich year-round culture.

Transcript

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:03:15

It's just like fried dough, right? With, like, sugar. 

00:00:04:21 - 00:00:05:15

You have to bite. 

00:00:06:00 - 00:00:07:09

It looks super healthy. 

00:00:08:09 - 00:00:09:24

Definitely. No. 

00:00:10:08 - 00:00:17:28

I don't know when was my last year? I swear, like, I tried to avoid them because you can't be eating all the time. But man, they are addicting. 

00:00:18:03 - 00:00:19:06

Let me see. Let me smell this. 

00:00:23:12 - 00:00:44:26

Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt Podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit Big Photo hunt.com for more information. 

00:00:55:22 - 00:01:30:17

You can probably tell already that today's show is a bit different than what I normally do here. I'm not in the studio. I'm live. Well, I'm not live, but I'm on location in New Orleans, Louisiana. It's a first for me to do an episode this way, but I really wanted to bring you with me to share this city and photography in it. For those of you familiar with New Orleans, you know that this is a town about as colorful, cultural, and creative as they come. Far beyond its famous Mardi Gras celebration, the French Quarter and its world renowned Jazz Fest. 

00:01:30:19 - 00:01:44:15

It's a city that celebrates you, being you in a truly one of a kind and festive style. And to share all this with you. My guest today is New Orleans based photographer Coni Gajardo. Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt. 

00:01:44:22 - 00:01:46:24

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. 

00:01:46:26 - 00:02:07:27

Absolutely. I should actually say thank you for welcoming me to New Orleans and for our listeners right now. We're sitting on the bank of the Mississippi River, across from Jackson Square and next to the world famous cafe du Monde. I have a sneaky surprise for you, Coni. I got here a little early and was able to get in line at cafe du Monde. 

00:02:09:17 - 00:02:43:23

Wow. No way. Thank you. Yeah, and got some business to go. I'm going to wait, though, till we get into the show. Then I think we really need to open this bag and eat them. I purposely waited for you before eating one, which has actually been the second hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But I wanted to try one with an expert, or at least a local. So let's get into New Orleans, being a photographer here and cafe du Monde beignets. But first, let's introduce you, Coni Gajardo, to our audience. Oh, actually, wait, before we start, can you tell everyone what a beignet is for those of our listeners that don't know? 

00:02:43:25 - 00:02:54:00

Yeah. So the vignette, it's basically like this fried pastry. So it's like fluffy and you just put a bunch of powdered sugar on it. 

00:02:54:04 - 00:03:01:25

I saw there was like crazy powdered sugar. These people were eating it out side in the little patio, and powdered sugar was just blowing everywhere. 

00:03:01:27 - 00:03:12:19

Yes, actually. Maybe try to, like, keep your pants away from them. Because especially if you have black pants, because you're going to be covered in powdered sugar. But that's how it is. 

00:03:13:06 - 00:03:21:27

All right. We're going to get into them in a little while. But first let's talk about Connie. Connie, tell us your story. Tell us who you are, how you got to New Orleans, and everything in between. Yeah. 

00:03:21:29 - 00:03:48:09

So I'm from Chile, I am 28 and I was living in Chile until I was 23, till I met my husband, Adan. He is from New Orleans. I feel like I got into photography because every time we were out and about, I would be like, I need to snap this moment right here, right now. I've been living here now for three years and a half, and it's been a roller coaster for sure. 

00:03:48:11 - 00:04:05:27

What's New Orleans like? I've been here three times. The first time was for Mardi Gras. Second time was for an event. And the third time I'm here now. And each time I've seen a different side of the city. What is it like to actually live here? What's the city's personality when you're not a tourist? 

00:04:05:29 - 00:04:37:27

I love the fact that it's very family oriented, especially out of the French Quarter. New Orleans is not that big, and there's areas around where you can see, like a lot of families and kids, and especially for Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras, it's like it's wild and everything. But whenever you go to maybe uptown and go to see other parades, you can see like everybody out and about with their kids making events. I mean, it's incredible how everybody knows everybody. 

00:04:38:00 - 00:05:09:09

You know, it's a small town. So I feel like people is very sociable and they are like they have good energy, you know, they want to talk to you. Actually, being from Chile, I've always been a little bit more quiet when it comes to meeting random people because we are just like that. But over here, it's like you need to talk to people you want to. You need to be out there to maybe do some networking. You know, like there is a lot of that going on here. 

00:05:09:11 - 00:05:36:25

Like if you know this person, oh, I'm going to hook you up with this person. Oh, you should come see this. Oh. Do you know about the new restaurant? I mean, everybody's like exchanging information all the time. So yeah. And more than anything, the fact that everybody likes to be creative and dressed up, everybody has costumes, wigs, they like to go to festivals. A lot of like music. So I feel like it's just like a very fun city. 

00:05:36:27 - 00:05:50:25

I was going to ask you about that, that if that part of what we see of New Orleans actually exists for the locals, for the everyday life here, people are actually festive and dressing up. That's not just something that tourists see online. 

00:05:50:27 - 00:06:25:01

No, no, I mean, the French Quarter is like where everybody. It's like, well, tourists, right? Like, for example, I have been in houses where people have a room dedicated for their costumes and wigs, you know, I mean, they just love it. They spend the whole year figuring what's their next costume for Mardi Gras, because there is like a parade where, like a lot of locals go, which is the day of Mardi Gras. And oh my gosh, I mean, it's incredible the type of costumes that they, they come out with. 

00:06:25:03 - 00:06:39:03

I am a little behind about that. I'm not really good at, like making costumes and stuff like that. But being a photographer, I just love to get out there and snap photos for them because it's just it's unique. 

00:06:39:05 - 00:07:10:22

How does the culture and the creativity and the music and the costumes influence your photography or anyone's photography here? Because I have noticed there's just so much color, both literal color and color. Like, this is not a boring place. I've been here. I got here this morning and you know, I've been here, what, six, seven hours? I need to go to bed. There's so much going on here. How does that influence your photography or how does that inspire you? The fun part. 

00:07:10:24 - 00:07:43:21

Of coming to New Orleans to take photos, it's that first, the architecture is beautiful. Whatever type of photography you want to do around here, it's going to probably work. Meaning? Engagement, meaning wedding. I mean, that's why wedding photography, it's so big here. Because the location, it's beautiful. I mean, not only a venue, it's like the whole place. And people love second lines. You know, everybody gets happy with the white tissue and the music. It's just like whenever there's, like something going on when it comes to, like, color and all of that, everybody kind of like joins. 

00:07:43:23 - 00:07:58:19

I mean, I've seen people, if you're in the French Quarter, you know, and you see somebody with a costume, it's like, can I take your picture? And then they start posing for you and they love it. That's the thing. It's just everybody. It's like down to to just be funny. 

00:07:59:09 - 00:08:33:13

I had people posing for me today. How are you? Yeah, I've got pictures of people. They saw me with the camera and they're like making gestures and posing and. And then I noticed I was crossing Canal Street and there was a streetcar coming, and there was a guy, and he was like, hey, if you go over to that pole over there, you'll get a better shot. And I was like, okay. And I went over there and he was right. And there was another photographer right there at that pole also doing that, taking that shot. So it was pretty cool. Do you find yourself ever getting tired of all that stuff to shoot? Do you look for something different? 

00:08:33:16 - 00:09:05:15

For me, taking photos around New Orleans, it's more of like getting out of my box because I usually do like more nature photography and landscape and travel. So I don't do a lot of city. So actually it's a challenge for me. I feel like I need to think about better, about the shots I want to get because like I said, there is so many photographers out here that you start comparing yourself with others, you know, and there is some really good photographers, like, especially of the architecture. 

00:09:05:18 - 00:09:41:24

And when you go to Instagram and stuff like that, you find so many photographers and everybody wants to take like the best photo around the city. So I just try to like take it with like a little bit more fun. And I tried to experiment more in the post-production and maybe that way make it a little bit more on my own. So yeah, I try to play around with it. So it is a little difficult for me to take photos around here, but I do like to come to take photos of people like, I love to have photo shoots around the French Quarter, especially when they have like a good personality and they want to play around. 

00:09:41:26 - 00:09:47:22

You've got the background and the scene and the environment, and you just drop that personable subject in there. 

00:09:48:05 - 00:10:02:13

Yeah, you know they play around with like their their clothing. So you try to match like houses and their clothing or maybe like the situation in and people is really open really open. So that's pretty fun. 

00:10:02:15 - 00:10:12:17

What other parts of the city or other things should a photographer that's coming into town for a couple of days be looking for? Or where can they go? What else should they see? 

00:10:12:19 - 00:10:43:11

For me, I always recommend going uptown because it's a lot more like local. There's the Garden District, which is where you can find huge historical houses. Those are beautiful, especially for holidays. Like, I had a lot of fun for Halloween because people love to decorate their houses and they do great job, a great job here. I love the park out of, um, Park City Park. That's like the place for me at least where I can find more like different birds and stuff like that. But definitely the uptown area. 

00:10:43:13 - 00:11:01:01

For me, it's like my favorite part of town. It's just like much quieter and there's little shops and restaurants. French Quarter for me is just very. B.C., and there's a lot of people partying, so we come here. But for more like local events. 

00:11:01:03 - 00:11:23:07

Yeah, I noticed that today there was like a daiquiri stand on every corner there, just like pumping out like banana daiquiris, pina colada daiquiris, pina banana daiquiris, everything. And, like, people are walking down the streets. I mean, it's like 11 a.m. and people are walking down the streets with daiquiris. That was very interesting to photograph, but after a while, I was just like, okay, how many drunk people can I get carrying a daiquiri at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday? 

00:11:23:09 - 00:11:31:24

Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. Especially when you come here and they just want to play with your with you, you know, they want to be in your cameras. It's like, okay, I'll take a photo. 

00:11:32:24 - 00:11:33:15

You know? 

00:11:33:17 - 00:11:38:19

What about I've heard about the warehouse district. Is that is that something cool to see as a photographer? 

00:11:38:21 - 00:12:09:25

I actually love the the Warehouse District. It's pretty cool because it's it has like some buildings and especially I've done also real estate photography and to get in those and see how modern houses are or like the brick walls and all of that, it's actually pretty beautiful, I would say. The warehouse district. Yes, it's definitely another part for me. That's one of my favorite ones. And the Bywater, the Bywater is so artistic. You know, if you think that you see a lot of color here. 

00:12:09:27 - 00:12:22:00

Bywater is super cute too, because you find a lot of houses decorated and painted with different colors, and they are like tiny houses, you know, so it's super. It's a super cute area to go also walk around. And what is. 

00:12:22:02 - 00:12:27:19

It, moringa or not Marigny. Not moringa okay. 

00:12:27:29 - 00:12:38:05

Area by water and all of that. It's super cute. It's a little more quieter in Uptown as well. French Water is going to be like, you know, when all of the party is. 

00:12:38:07 - 00:12:56:26

So yeah, I was I've had enough. I've done my French Quarter fill on this trip. Tomorrow I'm going uptown. Yes. And Mani mani. Okay. I'm going there on Sunday and I'll go to the warehouse district and walk around and take some photos there before I head home. That's cool. 

00:13:00:18 - 00:13:33:11

Hey, everyone. Ken from the future here. I took Connie's advice and went to the places she recommended. I loved Bywater, it almost feels a little bit like the Brooklyn of New Orleans. Super cool, hip, very creative. It's an art neighborhood. Lots of cafes and restaurants, places to go. It was early in the morning when I was there, but I got some great shots and just loved it. Got dropped off of my Uber at a place called the Bywater Bakery and then walked from there. It went by marinate afterwards. It's got more of a nightlife scene than Bywater. It looks a little bit more organic or local than the French Quarter does. 

00:13:33:13 - 00:14:03:27

I went to the warehouse district and to be honest, that was my least favorite of all the locations. Maybe I was in the wrong place, but I thought I would see a lot of old warehouses, cool industrial buildings, perhaps some that were turned into cafes or event spaces or restaurants. I didn't find that. I just found a bunch of big building, so maybe I was in the wrong part of it, I don't know. But for me it wasn't really my cup of tea. A lot of people love it, so maybe I was just in the wrong area. And of course there's the French Quarter. You've got to go to the French Quarter if you're in New Orleans. 

00:14:03:29 - 00:14:37:02

I was there during the day and during the nighttime, and nighttime was far better. The people are just having fun. Everyone loves to pose for your camera. You're just able to get great, cool street shots. And there are a ton of subjects that are lit really well because of the light coming off of the buildings and the signs. It's pretty sweet. Very, very cool to get colorful, high contrast images with that like dark, nighttime color. Look, I'm colorblind, so for me, that's really, really great. And I definitely recommend spending time there with your camera and spending time in New Orleans. 

00:14:37:04 - 00:15:06:18

New Orleans feels to me like one of America's most foreign cities, but yet has one of America's most American tourist bases, if that makes any sense. It just feels very different from any other city in the United States. Anyway, if you haven't yet, check out the Big Photo hunt. Com we're up in beta and we have people using it and up voting photos. It's pretty cool. At least I think it is. Give it a shot if you haven't had a moment yet. And now back to the show. 

00:15:09:28 - 00:15:29:21

All right, I want to talk about your wildlife photography because it's really cool. And I have questions for you about that. Before we do that, I think it's been your time. Okay, okay. And I, I don't know, like, let's see how we do this, but I've got to keep these jeans kind of clean because I only brought one pair of jeans on this trip. 

00:15:29:24 - 00:15:44:25

Okay. So first of all they did pretty well because they give you the bag. So the cool thing about doing the whole bag thing, you see, you have your powdered sugar, but the whole idea of having it in a bag instead of having it in the plate is a you shake it, shake and. 

00:15:48:08 - 00:16:06:09

That is so smart. So Connie just took the magnets in the bag with the powdered sugar, closed it and shook it like tossing like a chopped salad when you go to, like, sweet green or something, and you shake it and it gets a dressing all over it. And now the whole thing is powdered. It's still going to wind up on my jeans. 

00:16:06:23 - 00:16:08:10

Yes, it probably will. 

00:16:08:15 - 00:16:12:17

It's just like fried dough, right? With like, sugar. It's like a. 

00:16:12:19 - 00:16:14:00

Little pillow you have to buy. 

00:16:14:15 - 00:16:15:25

It looks super healthy. 

00:16:16:25 - 00:16:18:09

Definitely. No. 

00:16:18:23 - 00:16:26:14

I don't know when was my last year, I swear, like, I tried to avoid them because you can't be eating all the time, but, man, they are addicting. 

00:16:26:19 - 00:16:27:21

Let me see. Let me smell this. 

00:16:29:12 - 00:16:53:06

It smells exactly like fried dough with powdered sugar. And for our listeners, like it is, it's a piece of fried dough with powdered sugar. And I'm sure a lot of you have had these before. I've just. I've had them once, long time ago. I figured we would share this experience. So. Wait, you haven't had one in a while? Is that because you don't want them? Because I know they're not healthy. So you don't want that? Or is it because you live here and you're like, I just don't need them? 

00:16:53:08 - 00:17:19:05

Well, I have a coffee shop right around my house that haven't happened yet, but I just try to avoid them because living in New Orleans, you have to watch out with their food. For me, you know, being from Latin America, you know, I have big hips. So I better watch myself when it comes to food. They like to cook with butter here and a lot of sugar. So. And yes, they can be dangerous. They are a treat for sure. 

00:17:19:09 - 00:17:39:21

I have no, but I don't have a butt. And so I'm convinced. My wife was so trying to get me a butt. I hired a trainer. We have we both have work with the same trainer, and I think she told the trainer to give me a butt because the trainer started getting me to do all these squats and things. I was like, why am I doing squats? And I'm pretty sure it's because my wife wants my butt bigger. Yeah, it didn't work. 

00:17:40:09 - 00:17:42:20

Are going to be more beneficial. 

00:17:42:22 - 00:17:50:15

I'm going to have to I'm going to have to get yours though, to make it beneficial. Are these things actually then served like coffee shops? Like local coffee shops? They're not just for tourists. 

00:17:50:23 - 00:18:09:03

No, no, not at all actually. In Uptown there is a coffee shop that's called The Vintage, where you can find stuff and you can find them stuffed with like different jams and stuff like that. I haven't got there yet, but actually we were talking about that last week. How I need to try those because I haven't yet. 

00:18:09:21 - 00:18:29:20

Let's just. Can we please eat these? Okay. Yeah. I've literally been waiting. I was I was like, do I get one and eat it? When I bought them before we met up, I was like, do I eat it in line? And then tell her I didn't eat it or do I? Yeah. All right. I'm going to take one first. Are you going to eat one? You know, I know I don't want to like, break your, like, health kick. No. Don't worry. All right. Here we go. 

00:18:31:26 - 00:18:32:15

Oh my God. 

00:18:36:11 - 00:18:42:17

So cafe du Monde is a famous one. I mean, are they really better than everyone else or. Um. 

00:18:44:00 - 00:18:44:19

Um, 

00:18:46:06 - 00:18:54:01

they're pretty good. I like them, I think, um, some other places might do them a little different, but I really like this one. Yeah, yeah. 

00:18:54:07 - 00:18:54:29

I like it too. 

00:18:55:01 - 00:18:55:18

They're delicious. 

00:18:55:20 - 00:19:00:06

If you're not going to eat yours. I know you are, but I'm going to eat it. Know? Cause, 

00:19:01:27 - 00:19:05:22

my God, these are good. This has got to be the grossest podcast to listen to ever. 

00:19:08:25 - 00:19:11:13

Oh, my God, these are good. All right, so. 

00:19:12:09 - 00:19:13:11

If we can. 

00:19:13:13 - 00:19:13:28

Let's talk about. 

00:19:14:00 - 00:19:15:05

Wildlife photography. 

00:19:17:03 - 00:19:20:02

So I have a bunch of questions for you okay. 

00:19:20:20 - 00:19:36:29

Do you want to maybe start by telling everyone about your wildlife photography and that world for you? Okay. And I'm still eating here. Yeah. You continue eating while I talk. You see? You have. Yeah. For our listeners. Connie, just put hers down, and I'm going to distract her, and I'm going to steal it. 

00:19:39:12 - 00:20:11:27

When I started doing photography, I actually got my first job as an in-house photographer at a little selfie museum. And when I started taking photos of people, you know, at the Selfie Museum, I was missing a little bit more of like, natural adrenaline of trying to, like, capture something in the moment. First I went to college to for tourism, and my brother also did, and he became a certified birdwatcher. 

00:20:12:01 - 00:20:47:10

So he got me really into birdwatching. So when I got my first camera here, I would go to the park and try to take pictures of birds, which we have some really beautiful birds here, especially blue jays. I don't know if you've seen them yet, but keep an eye with those. So when I started taking photos of people at this museum, it was fine and everything, but I was missing that just wild factor while situation where I wanted to take photos. And then in 2021, we went to Yellowstone for the first time. 

00:20:48:12 - 00:21:22:05

I was so amazed on how full of animals Yellowstone was. I mean, I couldn't believe how active it was. And we were there at the end of April, so there was still snow in the ground, and we were probably one of the unique people that were there. It was like in the big Prisma geyser, that one with the blue and all of those colors. It was like a family and me and Aiden, and we saw this coyote coming to us or walking around us, and I was like, oh my gosh, just like taking photos. 

00:21:22:07 - 00:21:55:04

I crazy, I just fell for it. So that's kind of like how it started. I already knew I loved a landscape photography and nature photography, but when I started doing all of these photos to coyotes and bisons and I saw a bald eagle the first time in my life, I was just like on fire. I was like, I just want to continue doing it. So that's why one of my goals is to get a 200 to 600mm so I can do more wildlife photography. 

00:21:55:10 - 00:22:18:10

How do you find the animals? I go up to New Hampshire, the mountains, or Maine, Vermont, and I'll bring a camera. And I have never, never seen an animal. And I'm talking like I've been doing this since I was eight years old. Not with a camera, but, like, going up there. How do you find animals? I see your wildlife photos with animals, and I've seen other wildlife photographers and they all have animals. And it's not only do they have. 

00:22:18:12 - 00:22:19:12

Animals, they've. 

00:22:19:14 - 00:22:24:24

Got animals staring right at the camera. It's like they're posing for you, like winking at you. How do you do that? 

00:22:25:02 - 00:23:06:09

Well, the thing is that I know I want to find them. So first of all, I make sure I have my telephoto lens in the camera. I kind of, like, take the decision. Okay, I just have to pick a lens. So since I want to do that, I think I try to be very patient and also like depending on the weather, like if you go to the mountains and bears are probably going to be, you know, in their sleepy time, they are not going to come out and then maybe where they feed, like if you want to go see birds, I would definitely go somewhere with water, quiet places, just quiet places, not where it's too crowded because, you know, animals get scared. 

00:23:06:11 - 00:23:13:12

But I've been very lucky. There was one time that we were in South Carolina at this golf. 

00:23:15:05 - 00:23:15:25

How do you call it? 

00:23:15:27 - 00:23:18:25

Like a like a marsh or something? 

00:23:18:27 - 00:23:25:17

It was like resort, but inside of a golf course. I don't know how you call those things. Sorry about that. 

00:23:25:19 - 00:23:59:24

But anyways, my husband and. My father in law went to play golf, and I came with them not to play golf just because I wanted to find some deer. And it happened that these two deer went running across the field and I came. I jumped out of the golf car and I just grabbed my camera, turn it on. And I noticed that this little guy is like, look at me. And I'm like, I do this with my mouth like. And he stops and look at me and I'm like, pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa taking photos. 

00:23:59:26 - 00:24:06:27

And I was like, oh my gosh. I usually thank them after taking them a good photo. I'm like, thank you, I love you. 

00:24:08:06 - 00:24:39:03

I need to show you a photo I took. It's not a real photo, but it's just I took it with my phone like years ago. My house where I live, I live outside of Boston and we have deer and it's like in a wooded area. One day I was in my office and I. I kid you not, I was sitting at my desk, my home office, and a deer walks up to my window. No. Yeah, literally we're talking four inches from my window, turns his head looks and I look at it and we're just looking at each other. 

00:24:39:14 - 00:24:55:01

And I was like, is this really happening? And I grabbed my iPhone and I'm like, just to prove that it really happened, I'll find it and send it to you. It was like this moment, nothing like that's ever happened. But like, he was like literally just walking along the side of my house and it was just like, hello! 

00:24:55:03 - 00:25:03:12

I love that in the future, I would love to live in a place where I can see deer constantly. I just, I think they are so beautiful. 

00:25:03:22 - 00:25:11:01

We have animals near where I live, but I never see them at the right time to take a picture because on the way to the airport to come here. 

00:25:11:06 - 00:25:12:15

To pay more attention. 

00:25:14:16 - 00:25:31:12

Maybe I need to pay more. Maybe instead of coming to New Orleans and paying attention to beignets, I should be paying attention to nature. Exactly. Is there any of that around here in, like, New Orleans area or Louisiana, like wildlife photography, or at least do you participate in that? 

00:25:31:29 - 00:25:47:05

There is some wildlife photography. We are at the swamps, so you're going to mostly find maybe some alligators. There is really cool birds around here, that's for sure. I've even seen a bald eagle around the city, which is kind of odd. 

00:25:47:11 - 00:25:52:18

But I don't really find a lot of wildlife around here on my side, not. 

00:25:52:20 - 00:25:56:10

Least the type that would make me like, super excited. Yeah, I get it. 

00:25:56:16 - 00:26:19:23

One of the things that you guys are doing are building out a van to go live the van life. That is super cool. Something that I want to do, but I can't because I have little kids and a family and just not happening for me. Can you tell me about that? How is that going and what are you going to do once that's done? Like, what's the journey there and how is that going to impact and inspire your photography? 

00:26:19:27 - 00:26:52:07

Yeah. So coming from Chile, you know, we have a lot of nature, a lot of like adventure tourism. And when I was in college, I used to go in these backpacking trips. So that's where all of the adventures, you know, me came well in since I was young. But we were living in San Diego before we moved in to New Orleans. So to go from California to a city, it was like a very different situation, just like opposite, totally opposite. 

00:26:52:11 - 00:27:43:18

And we came to live here temporarily, so we knew we wanted to travel eventually. And then in my first during my first job after the pandemic, I got to spend a lot of time just kind of like sitting in an office. It wasn't really fun. And I started going in YouTube and I kind of like, got to this couple that was built in their van and they were traveling, and I just started, you know, watching the whole process. And I told my husband, Erin, what do you think about this? Like, isn't it amazing? I'm like, would you be down to live in a van? Because we I mean, all of our story has been kind of like uncommon, the uncommon way, you know, long distance relationships and stuff like that, that I knew Aidan was going to be down to do something weird or different. 

00:27:44:04 - 00:28:14:24

He told me, yeah, I'll be down, but I don't believe that he thought I was this serious. So after we kind of like, took the decision, I was like, okay, we are doing it. And we started saving money and bought our van. And I feel like little by little, he's been kind of like finally coming to understand, like, this is happening. We've been building for almost a year now, and it's been a process. 

00:28:14:26 - 00:28:34:09

I mean, it's been an adventure to learn so many new skills. You know, I never got a jigsaw and, you know, cut stuff. So we've been learning a lot about electricity, about plumbing, just, you know, just being handy. It's been pretty amazing I love it. 

00:28:34:18 - 00:28:39:07

I saw the videos on YouTube and your shower looks like a real shower. 

00:28:40:06 - 00:28:41:04

Yeah, it kind. 

00:28:41:06 - 00:28:49:25

Of does, right? It's insane. Thank you. That was a crazy process. I never thought I was going to be putting ceramic on a shower. 

00:28:49:27 - 00:29:13:24

On a van, so it's good. I wish you lots of luck with that. And once you get on the road, I'll keep following. And I would just love to see where that takes you, especially with your photography. We ever go to Boston, you know, if you ever come to Boston, two things. One is you're welcome to, well, you can stay at my house, but you can park in my driveway too, if you want. And the second thing is, don't come in winter, okay? 

00:29:14:08 - 00:29:17:16

Wait, wait. Yeah, I think Aidan really wants to avoid the snow. 

00:29:18:15 - 00:29:20:21

Being from South Florida, 

00:29:22:12 - 00:29:30:22

I don't even have words. It's just been. I've been there for a long time up north now, so I'm used to it. But it is. It's a different experience. Yeah. Yeah. 

00:29:30:24 - 00:30:03:20

It's different the weather here, you know, the summer is pretty rough for me. So I definitely want to at least be out of the South during the, the summer. And one of the reasons why I do want to do van life, it's because I want to be able to expand my photography and go visit national parks and go to places where I don't know where the fall is going to be beautiful. I mean, I dream about going to Vermont for the fall. I dream about going to Yosemite or Sequoia. 

00:30:03:22 - 00:30:15:19

I mean, any national park. I think that that's going to be really cool to photograph. I don't know where my photography might go, but I just. Now I want to do it. You know, it's just like a passion. 

00:30:15:21 - 00:30:24:28

I think that that is awesome. Is there anything I didn't ask you or anything you want to mention about New Orleans photography? Anything that maybe is on your mind that I just forgot to ask? Yeah. 

00:30:25:00 - 00:31:00:06

I mean, if you come to New Orleans, just make sure you bring some type of device because it's going to be a fun place to photograph. I would say more than anything, photograph the architecture, the event, live music around here. It's been amazing, actually. I've been getting into concert photography in in New Orleans. I feel like wildlife photography and concert photography, they kind of look alike when it comes to capture that moment where you're going to have to that second to snap the photo or to take photos of people in their world environment. 

00:31:00:08 - 00:31:07:11

So that's one of the things that I really enjoy being in New Orleans doing concert photography, for sure. 

00:31:07:18 - 00:31:18:16

I can imagine it's also like similar from like a technical standpoint, because you got to have that shutter speed really high, right? So that like with the concert, the performer or the animal, you got to get that one quick second. 

00:31:18:24 - 00:31:41:12

Yeah, sometimes I've had my ISO too high and it end up being, you know, crap. I have become an expert when it comes to the shutter speed, at least because I need to be frozen. You know, it's definitely a challenge, especially depending on the venue. But it's pretty fun. It's pretty fun. 

00:31:41:22 - 00:31:52:02

Lightroom has this new feature that's an AI denoising feature. It actually works really well. I've had some really grainy images and I clicked that and I was like, wow, I'm awesome. 

00:31:52:25 - 00:32:14:15

Yeah, believe me, I want to say a couple weeks ago I took a pictures at a concert in a little theater and oh my gosh, it was dark in there and I didn't want it to bring my ISO too high. So I was like, okay, I'll work around that after. But definitely the little filter in Lightroom really helped. Well. 

00:32:14:24 - 00:32:31:00

I have three questions that I ask all of my guests, and so I have to ask you. Okay, the first question is, and by the way, I think I know these answers, but I think I always know these answers. But I ask them anyway. First question is what camera system do you use? 

00:32:31:07 - 00:32:57:18

Yeah. So I work with a Sony 873. I do video with that same camera. I have a 15 millimeter 1.4. I have a 17 to 28, 2.8 of Tamron, then 28 to 75 Tamron and 70 to 300 Tamron. And those are the ones that I use right now and I use GoPro sometimes. 

00:32:57:20 - 00:33:00:21

What do you use the GoPro for when I'm diving. 

00:33:00:23 - 00:33:27:07

In the water, or sometimes when I'm doing like selfie mode, kind of like talking to the camera stuff because, well, one of the reasons why I want your camera, the Sony A7 four, it's because you can flip the the screen and look at yourself. I cannot do that with my Sony 873. And you know, I didn't I was I wasn't born talking to a camera. So I definitely want to look at myself when I'm doing it. 

00:33:27:13 - 00:33:52:03

I used to use canon O, and I wouldn't go to Sony because it didn't have the flip out screen. And then this camera was the first, I think, in their lineup, or at least the first that I was looking at that had the flip out screen. And that's what made me switch over to Sony. And I love Sony. Like now for for what I do, I think it's really good because I also do a lot of video and so it's really good for that. Okay, my second question is what's your favorite genre to shoot and why? 

00:33:52:13 - 00:33:57:16

My definitely favorite. It's going to be landscape, wildlife and concert photography. 

00:33:58:01 - 00:34:16:24

Cool. And question number three is on a scale of 1 to 10, one being the least, ten being the most. How often do you get that burning itch to go out and shoot photos? Ten I saw that one coming that was like a mile away. Okay, let's tell everyone where they can find you online. Yeah. 

00:34:16:26 - 00:34:41:06

So you can find me on Instagram. My Instagram is Constanza with za gado f and underscore my website is the same. And in YouTube you can find us as Coni and Aidan. It's going to be Coni and Aidan. If you want to follow our vanlife photography content. 

00:34:41:14 - 00:34:52:12

I really can't thank you enough for taking the time and welcoming me to New Orleans and telling me where I should go and telling our audience where they should go if they come here for sure. 

00:34:52:14 - 00:34:59:15

I'm very excited for you to go explore around and thank you so much for the vignette. That's I wasn't expecting it. 

00:35:00:04 - 00:35:26:28

Well, there's actually half left and okay, you're going to eat it okay. Are you sure you can eat it? Well I mean I want it, but I don't want to take it. Coni, thank you so much. I really can't thank you enough. Thank you. So. Much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit Big Photo Hunt for more information. Thanks again for listening today.