with Lorelle and Brent VanFossen

Tag Archives: alabama

Southern Girl T-shirts, Mobile, Alabama

Wandering through a swap meet market in Mobile, Alabama, area, I found a whole wall of southern girl and southern themed t-shirts. I didn’t buy one, but I loved the representation.

A Reflection of Trees

A select few artists and photographers specialized in working with reflections, images captured in lakes, rivers, ponds, and puddles, then turning them upside for display, making what would normally be seen upside down be right side up, a portrait of abstract Monet-style photography. This particular image I took in spring at the Bellingrath Plantation and […]

Walking the Cat in Mobile, Alabama

Of the last photographs I have of my father, this one is a favorite. It features my father, Howard West, and my husband, Brent VanFossen, walking the campground in Mobile, Alabama, where we lived for a year and a half. It was about four or five months after Hurricane Katrina and the panic of the […]

Azaleas in Bloom, Bellingrath Plantation, Alabama

The azaleas in bloom are spectacular across the south. These are from the Bellingrath Plantation Gardens near Mobile, Alabama. Scrub flowers like these are hard to photograph. Closeup, the challenge is depth of field. Further back, it’s the clutter. It’s hard to keep the images simple while being interesting to look at. This flowering azalea […]

Bellingrath Plantation Home, Mobile, Alabama

I loved visiting the Bellingrath Plantation home and gardens near Mobile, Alabama. They have an amazing art gallery in addition to the beautiful art collection within the unusual house. But the gardens… The gardens are exquisite no matter what time you are visiting, but they are at their peak in the burst of spring and […]

Photographing Old Antique Cars

I enjoy photographing man-made subjects from time to time and found myself with a lot of old cars in my files. Personally, I’m not a car fan. I don’t care what I’m driving, it’s merely transportation. If it gets me from point A to point B safely, I’m happy. So it’s odd that I would […]

A Southern Bell Princess Passes By, Mobile, Alabama

The Magnolia Festival princesses are an honored tradition in Mobile, Alabama, harkening back to the southern bell days of plantation life. Festivals through the Spring and Summer are attended by local young women dressed in this flouncy hoop skirts of bright pastels in pinks, yellow, green, red, and purple. At a local festival, one of […]

Hauling Away Hurricane Katrina

I found this image in my files. I was driving through Mobile, Alabama, and saw the railroad had been repaired with fresh gravel lining the fixed rails. Hurricane Katrina had done its damage along much of the railroad system that followed the gulf coast, washing out and twisting the rails like licorice sticks. I liked […]

Hurricane Ernesto: Stress and Water Rises Again

We had a lot of plans of things that need to get done this weekend, and now our plans are changing. Again. I turned on NPR and found out that Tropical Depression 5 is now Hurricane Ernesto and computer models show it on a path that may turn right for us. While the models are […]

Mardi Gras 2006 – Floral Parade Rained Out

The Floral Parade in Mobile, Alabama, is one of the unusual parades because it rolls through Mobile twice during the Mardi Gras festivities. We caught it both times, though the first time, it was a total wash out. Literally. We arrived a few hours before the parade began, timing our arrival between that morning’s marathon […]

Mardi Gras 2006 – The Comic Cowboys

Squished in the middle of several parades came the Mobile Comic Cowboys, a parade more in keeping with the more popular Mardi Gras theme in New Orleans, compared to the family style parades in Mobile, Alabama. The Comic Cowboys parade consists of trucks pulling flat bed trailers adored with costumed or plain clothes folks throwing […]

Mardi Gras 2006 – The Mystics of Time Ball Preparations

We arrived several hours early to get a good spot for the Saturday noon Floral Parade and Knights of Revelry, parades in Mobile, Alabama, that are mostly for kids, by kids, but still great fun. My father got into a key spot and I went inside the Mobile Civic Center to see what was happening […]

Coalition for a Smoke Free Mobile, Alabama

I really thought that Mobile, Alabama, was seriously behind the century in terms of cigarette smoke prevention and protection laws, but I learned the other day that there is a Coalition for a Smoke Free Mobile, Alabama. If your business, like a restaurant or park, qualifies as a “smoke free environment”, they will give you […]

Mardi Gras 2006 – Mystic Stripers Parade

Wow! My dad really got into the Mardi Gras festivities here in Mobile, Alabama. We’ve done three parades now, the Conde Cavaliers, Polka Dots, and now the Mystic Stripers. He sorts through his beads, stuffed animals, and moon pie collection, eats all the moon pies and then whines that he’s got to go back to […]

Mardi Gras 2006 – Polka Dots Parade

With my father feeling a little more lively, we went with a friend to the all women’s parade called the Polka Dots Parade in Mobile, Alabama. Once again, I went into the Civic Center early to photograph the preparations for the Polka Dots Parade. The women were mostly in the ballroom having group photographs taken […]