#ray laskowitz

These were once people’s homes. Fire and Ice By Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. — Image/Getty Images

Hot, hotter, hottest. It’s very early in the season for the weather to be this hot. I read that in Las Vegas that was temperature was around 110 degrees when a convicted felon took the stage and told them that he didn’t care about them and he just wanted their vote. He also claimed that there was 20,000 people in a venue that holds 3,000. They were paid to be there. The beat goes on.

Christmas in The Quarter. The Winter Solstice occurred two nights ago, but that doesn’t change things. It’s still dark at the wrong times of day. These pictures are more Christmas scenes in New Orleans. Some of them are a little bit sad. See all those teddy bear images. There are four of them. I used to photograph them every season because the decorations changed yearly. Then, one year I…

Maybe I should stop thinking. I’d hoped to force a week of Mardi Gras into an already crowded schedule, but the universe said no. With new COVID infections reaching a million a day and deaths hitting 1,000 a day, I didn’t think being in crowds on the streets with 100,000 of my best friends was a good idea. So, I decided to make my own Mardi Gras using Generative AI. You can see the results,…

M y mind seems to have settled on winter, which is really a long way off. I suppose I’m thinking about it because in the deep south and gulf coast never seems to have much of what I’d call winter. Luckily, in Virginia, we do. Last winter we had enough snow and wind — a storm — that our road lost power. We didn’t because we have solar panels and battery storage for ten days. Normally, the…

Drive back. T he road (and the sky). I truly love this photograph. It’s iconic, symbolic and mythical. It was hard to make because I was traveling at about 50 mph. I braced the camera on the dashboard and pressed the button. I made about 20 exposures, this was the best of them. The position of the road and clouds works very well. The symbol and myth is wrapped up in the darkness enveloping…

Lines and blue. Sunday. It came again. You know what that means. Quietude. Less complaining. More sleeping. More pictures. And, other things.

Mardi Gras time. Time to party. Time to dance. Time to see old friends. Time for carnival. Time for Mardi Gras. Actually, all of that started on January 6th, the Twelfth Night. The night when the wise men brought Mardi Gras to New Orleans. Or, something like that. I may have mentioned it in passing, but I didn’t show this unpublished picture. I don’t remember where this one came from, but I…