Simple art

We were walking down the street in Comer, GA....just past Colbert, GA and this door caught our eye.  I don't know who uses it or why, but I love what they've done with it.  I've printed it on a metallic paper and it looks amazing.  So, thanks to whomever.

Going back

We finally got to go back to Hurricane Shoals county park in GA where they have the lovely Heritage Village that we couldn't photograph well in the rain.  Yesterday was a beautiful fall day and we were on our way to Clayton, GA so we stopped for a visit.  Much nicer in the sunshine.   This is a shot in one of the cabins they have moved to the site.  I'm not sure why the bed frame is there, but it makes for a nice photo.

I didn't have to change lighting and just saturated the bed frame color a little.

Wrong tag

If I'd been paying close attention, I would have discovered that I had reversed the tags on the photos I submitted to the last juried show. So, the one I posted of the single flower may be a nice photo, but it was not the one that was selected.

This turns out to be good because I like the other one better and could not understand why it didn't make the jury cut.

So, this is a photo of the reflection in the window of an antique store in Athens, Ga one winter morning. There was a mirror in the window and other glass objects. I love how the window and the mirror reflect the building across the street! You may notice the the two pictures that have been accepted into the juried shows are both reflections.....I see a pattern here!

The only adjustments were slight ones to the lighting and saturation of the sky.

This is what I love about photography...it teaches you to look more closely at things and what you are actually seeing. I could have just walked down the street and taken a cursory glance at the antiques in the window, but by really looking, I saw more. With a camera attached, I could grab the image and keep it.

Around every corner

While taking a hike across the campus of UGA on Sunday morning - and it is an uphill hike - we wandered into a little courtyard and discovered a coi pond full of turtles and a few beautiful koi. It's a cute little spot and both the turtles and the fish hurried to gather in front of us. Clearly someone has been feeding them though we eventually came across a sign hidden from view that says "Don't feed the fish!"

Reflections create very interesting photographs. Here is one of my early favorites - "Koi in the sky"

Learning history

As usual, we headed out on the backroads this weekend to see what was new and interesting. There was a lot to see, but for me the most interesting was a beautiful farm south of Colbert, GA. We came to a very rural intersection and right ahead of us was an amazing spread with rolling hay fields, a huge brick barn, a small lake, horses and all framed by a brown fence that ran as far as we could see. As we explored a little further, we came to an old brick house next to a huge white frame plantation-style home with a brick silo. There was a gated drive onto part of the property and a sign that said "Tucker Plantation."

The 3 brick horse barns and the brick house all had large iron S on them. On the map this area is called Smithsonia as is one of the roads that runs by.

One would think I could look up Tucker Plantation or Smithsonia on Google and learn about the area. Not so fast. The plantation site has a short website about weddings on the grounds and mentions that the farm once belonged to Kenny Rogers. Smithsonia, GA shows up as being near Atlanta and nowhere near Colbert (as in Steven, we claim).

Clearly there has been a huge and impressive farm here for some time, but at this point it's history remains obscure. And Cindy and Jewett Tucker, the current owners, seem to be strangers to Google.

Next stop is the GA historical society, I think.

But, this is why backroads and alleyways are so much fun. There is fodder here for hundreds of great pictures as well as historical research.

This picture is of the first sight we had of the farm as we approached. More to follow.

Stop and....

Turn Around

I keep learning this lesson, so I thought I'd pass it on to anyone who might learn it quicker. The one advantage to being a slow learner, however, is that I keep getting surprised.
We were out in Athens (GA) on an overcast day and as I got into the car, I turned around to see this old, rusted, graffitied water tank. I still need to get a picture on a clearer day, but here it is with some photo techniques I used to bring out the color and texture. It's not done yet, but it's such a good example, of the benefits of turning around!

Event announcement

We will be selling photographs at a small event in Bethelem, GA on Saturday. It is the annual Spring Fling at Bethelem United Methodist Church. The event is from 11 - 3 and we will feature many Athens and UGA scenes as well as a selection of our other - backroads - work.

The photograph to the right is representative of our currently featured pictures. It was actually taken in FL several years ago but was uninteresting as a photo until I got to work on it with photoshop. The only transformations are in hue and saturation and the neat little trick I love of inverting....

Our next currently scheduled event is the Strawberry Festival in Slater, SC on May 16 where we will also have a collection of interesting Greenville photos.