Photo Sonics Staff

Here is a photograph of some of my friends at Earl Wilson Jr.'s Photo-Sonics and Radio Shack store, located first in the Bogue Falaya Mall, then on Claiborne Hill. 

Wading In The River

What better way to cool off on a hot summer day than wading in the river?

Grandmother's House In New Orleans

In the early 1970's, my dad sold my grandmother's house in New Orleans. It was a grand old house when it was built, well over 100 years old now. So when he was going to sell it, I went down to the city (over the river and through the woods, well, over the lake and through mid-city actually) to take some pictures of it for the last time. 

I took both black and white photos and color slide photos, but I somehow like the black and white images better. It was in pretty run-down shape, the maintenance was getting pretty overwhelming, but the new owners fixed it up and it looks really great today. Here are the pictures from the early 1970's; click on them to make them larger.

How the house looks today.

Sunlight Through The Trees at Talisheek

One morning in Talisheek, I stepped out onto my porch and this was the scene that greeted me. Naturallly, I grabbed my camera and took a picture of it. Click on the image for a larger look. 

Hose Down The Barrel

If you've ever wondered what firefighters do for fun, here's a shot of a barrel hosing competition. The other team was waiting for the barrel to be sent over their way so they could hose it back. That was one clean barrel by the end of the event.

Historical Society Activities

The St. Tammany Historical Society back in the 1970's and 1980's was a fun group, meetings, banquets, exhibits, coffees, speakers, all focusing on the history of St. Tammany Parish and southeast Louisiana, a rather unusual place when it comes to the past 300 years. The historical group was formed in 1972 and kept busy publishing gazettes, encouraging research, and planning for a museum of some type. Here are some pictures:

Greeting the Guest Speaker

The officers and board of directors: standing from left, Ron Barthet, Mrs. F. W. Grant, Dr. S. Harvey Colvin, Bill Koonce, Mrs. Bertha Neff, and Carl Fredericks. Seated from left are Germaine Cousin Smith and Miss Ella Paine. 

Putting together an exhibit at Mandeville City Hall

Luncheons

Iris Kelso, Meda Koepp and Fritzi Martin

Meetings

Exhibits

Newsletters

To read more about the historical society's publications, click on the article below from the 1985 edition of the Greater Covington Chamber of Commerce magazine. 

Pillow Display

These photographs were taken at an arts and crafts festival being held at DeSoto Caverns in Childersburg, AL. The light was shining just right off these decorative pillows.

DeSoto Caverns is a fun family place if you are ever in the area.

Outdoor Baking Oven

In 1984 I helped publish the program magazine for the Independence Italian Festival. It was filled with a great deal of information about the area, the families, and the festival commemorating the Independence Italian heritage. Here is one page from that program, an account on how to build and use an outdoor baking oven. Click on the image for a larger version. 

Brock Elementary Portrait

Brock Elementary School in Slidell was damaged extensively in Hurricane Katrina, but it was repaired and restored, and one day I was sent out to take a portrait photograph of the finely-renovated building and all of its students. This was going to require a high angle, so a scissors lift was brought in to help. 

 

 

Here's a video of the picture taking process.

Here's the final photo of the building, after the telephone poles and powerlines were taken out during image editing. Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Pictorial Map of Bessemer, AL

Doing the map of downtown Bessemer, AL, was a special project, because I lived in Bessemer for more than a year, and became a free-lance reporter for the Western Star newspaper there.  It is a great place, a lot of history, and a viable thriving downtown. Here's the map which was drawn in the late 1980's and published in the newspaper. 

One of the reasons Bessemer is so memorable is that while working for the newspaper there, I was assigned to cover a murder trial that involved a grisly homicide and a lot of long, drawn-out details of the attempts to hide the body. Interesting, but not at all like the murder trials you see on television. 

I also drew a map of the Bessemer airport. Here is that map. 

Small Town Parade Watching

Covington has its share of parades throughout the year, and here's a photo of people sitting back with a cup of coffee in St. John's Coffee House enjoying the passing parade through a picture window. 

Map of School Board Central Office - 2006

In 2006, I drew a picture map of the St. Tammany Parish School Board Central Office on West 17th Avenue. It was located behind William Pitcher Junior High in a one-story building that had been added onto so many times as need for office space grew that it began to resemble a maze. 

The picture was drawn with cartoon figures but with the actual face photographs of the people who worked there. I had done this with a few other maps, and it was well-received. Here is the map, just click on the image below for a larger version. 

The next year we all moved into the new three story building on Jefferson Avenue. 

Lightpole Smashed

It's one thing to run into a lightpole and smash your car. It's another thing to run into a lightpole and break the pole in two. But to run into a lightpole and break it into three pieces, well, that's just impossible. 

Miss Louisiana Pageant

Back in 1996 Erika Schwarz of Folsom won the title of Miss Louisiana. For a couple of years, I had been going to Monroe to take pictures of the pageant and her part in the competition. Here are some pictures from the event.

Young women from St. Tammany Parish have earned the title of Miss Louisiana three times over the years. They are April Nelson of Mandeville, 2015 (who went on to win third runner up in the Miss America Pageant); Miss Schwarz, 1996 (who went on to win first runner up in the Miss America Pageant); and Stacy King of Slidell, 1989.