19
Dec
2009
New Years 2010 Deciphered
Since I’ve been in my own little world lately, I figured I should get in at least one blog update before rushing off for my 6th New Years abroad. In this order, the past five were Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party, Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay (rained out, drying off in a tiny hotel room watching Paolo Nutini sing in Edinburgh Castle on TV), a night train from Cairo to Aswan in Egypt, and a beach party in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. You never know when this string of celebrations will, for good or not, end. In fact, had I not sold my house in November, I’m not sure I would have felt so free to make these plans, particularly for a bit beyond a month of time on the road!
I also rarely posted trip specifics before, but it’s amazing how much more free you feel when you don’t have to ponder that you’re advertising an empty house! So, as things stand, I leave Dec 26th bound for Dublin, Ireland. I arrive the 27th and will be there a whole night! The morning of the 28th, I’ll be hopping straight on to a 6 day Paddywagon bus tour that rings around the whole isle. Granted you can only see so much in such a short period, but I’m considering it the appetizer. Beyond that, I have literally no plans until I leave for Paris on the 23rd of January. So, I have weeks to spend in Dublin certainly and perhaps revisiting somewhere from the tour or I’m looking a lot at the Aran Islands off the Southwestern coast. The largest island, Inis Mor, is about 9 miles long and at its widest point, about 3 miles wide. At this time of the year, there won’t be many tourists and it’s mostly a pedestrian place with some awesome prehistoric forts and beautiful geography. The photos I’ve seen of it call my name, but there’s a chance that somewhere I visit at the outset will call me back louder. Any one with Ireland suggestions, by all means, feel free to drop them my way!
On the 23rd, bound for Paris for 5 nights before returning home for winter and more reflection time. You see, at the outset of this grand experiment, the plan was firmly spending my savings on some good old fashioned travel time. And it may well stay that way, but I’m also toying with the idea of spending some of my savings on something a bit more lasting if I can find the right place, probably in one of Georgia’s “second cities” - preferably closer to the mid-state. It may surprise some of you that I nearly put down an offer on a house in Macon this month. At the literal last moment, I decided to shelve that idea for the moment.
Why not Atlanta? Atlanta was a chapter of my life I wouldn’t exchange. Like any good book, it had its highs and lows, and it set the stage for learning how much I loved seeing the world beyond and, of course, it was where I learned to love being behind a camera so much. But I also don’t relish returning to Atlanta. I would not be so bold as to say never. There’s especially some soft spots in my heart for intown Atlanta where I lived my first two years. They were the poorest years of my life (getting started after college), when every penny mattered, but it seemed everything was on my doorstep of my tiny apartment and it was the most diverse community in which I’ve lived. So, you can see, genuinely no hard feelings, but I have also grown weary of the size of Atlanta, not the people but the sprawl, for now anyway. Each trip back to see friends or handle business has reminded me what it’s like to sit in grid lock traffic and how frustrated I got not being able to get somewhere 10 miles away in less than an hour. If Atlanta can ever escape the car and embrace mass transit, it could be an awesome place.
So, I may come back at the end of January and decide to start down a new path, or I may come back and plan some more travel starting in Spring, or if I have an incredible light bulb go off, I may figure out a way to do some of column A and some of column B.
Where did this new direction come from? While I was already reading a lot about small living before my summer adrift, I’ve had a lot of time to really read about a lot of different topics, specifically centering around small living, urban homesteading, and trying to have a smaller impact on the world. And I don’t per se see myself in a travel camper (believe it or not, heavily considered), I do see that even my 1,500 sq foot town house was more than I ever needed alone. There are families, living in less space than I had to myself. Some are actually here in the US, but most you’d read about here have done so out of choice, i.e. the (hopefully) growing realization that we don’t really NEED 3,000 square foot houses. All they become is places to pile more and more belongings. Anyone who saw my storage unit would know that I’m in no danger of becoming an ascetic monk soon, but I have over the past few years (and will continue to) shed some of the things in my life that are truly just retaining space. Having a smaller place to keep your stuff is its own mandate to deal with excess. And if I can wing a way not to be paying for that space over 30 years of my life, all the better. When you look at how much of your budget is spent on your house and all the stuff in it, you’ll realize that those mortgages are not just a promise to pay a loan but an anchor to a way of life that may not offer you as much satisfaction as you thought.
Anyway, before I get all mystic and hippie-like here, I’ll let it go at that. I’m happy to discuss with anyone who’s interested and you are free to use it for my sanity hearing later. 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
I hope that everyone out there who I’ve known over the years has an awesome holiday! This is as close to a card as I’m sending, but the sentiment is heart felt. Even if I don’t talk to you every day, I think of people I knew last week as well as many years ago quite often. And even if I’m awful at responding, I love to hear from you about what’s going on in your lives! Merry Christmas and Happiest year ahead to you all!
22
Sep
2009
Atlanta Icons – Architecture of The City
This is the second in my series of Atlanta Icons, while the first focused on Restaurants, this one will be all the rest of the Atlanta area scenery that I captured while working on this body of work.
Checkmate
In my opinion, a couple of the most recognizable buildings in Atlanta will be familiar to any commuter on the north side of the City. These towers, officially Concourse Corporate Center V and VI, are known to the locals as the King and Queen towers due to the stylized decorations at the pinnacles of each building. These buildings are located in Sandy Springs just north of I-285 and east of Georgia 400. They were completed in 1988 and 1991 and have the distinction of being the tallest towers in a suburban setting in the USA. This photo captures them against a vibrant winter sky just before dusk.
Fabulous Fox
There’s a joke that every street in Atlanta has the word “Peachtree” in it. And it’s no joke that there are a lot of Peachtree courts, and avenues, and boulevards named for Georgia’s official fruit, but there’s only one Peachtree Street and only one Fabulous Fox. The Fox Theater was one of several old movie houses in the city and one of the last of the grand ones left. It opened in the 1920’s and came close to being destroyed in the 1970’s. But the local populace, having watched one movie palace after another razed, fought to save the Fox for future generations to enjoy.
Fox On Peachtree
One photo of this old dear on Peachtree was not enough! This one, taken with a fisheye lens, allows you to really take in the full street scene and almost feel as if you’re standing there right in front of the marquee for the Fabulous Fox. This was actually taken not long before I bid farewell to Altanta on a final walk through the city.
Atlanta Roxy
The Roxy Theater in the Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta started life as the Buckhead Theater in 1930, so it’s a bit younger than the Fox, but in that same general age range. It, however, was built for movies with their own soundtracks rather than subtitles and organ music. It changed names a few times over the years and eventually settled into life in the Buckhead Bar district that grew up around it, becoming a venue for live music. The city eventually squashed the bar scene in Buckhead when the headlines around it became a bit too big. The last I heard the Roxy was being renovated and possibly redeveloped for other uses.
The Future Is Today
I’m not sure if everyone would put this into the icon category, but for me the title fits. This is the rooftop lounge at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel. It’s been diminished by the buildings surrounding it, but when it was built, this space age restaurant sat at the top of Atlanta’s skyline and its said that it was the place to gofor noon meetings. The building was designed by John Portman, and this modernist gem features the first use of a full atrium in a hotel – a now common feature of hotels all over. Much of Atlanta’s modernist architecture has met with the wrecking ball, but one hopes this one will stick around.
The High
Atlanta has a pretty long history of supporting the arts. What we know today as the High Museum began life in 1905 as The Atlanta Art Association. It came to be known as the High when the High family donated their home on Peachtree Street to house the growing collection in 1926. It’s changed a lot since and continues to evolve. The current modern buildings began in 1983 and were expanded upon in 2002. The High continues to be one of the leading museums of the Southeastern US having a diverse and growing collection as well as working with museums around the world to bring temporary exhibitions such as works from the Louvre and the Terracotta Army from China in recent years.
To see even more of Atlanta and prints from other cities around the USA, please check out my Urban America Prints. For part one of this series, please check out Atlanta Icons – Let’s Eat.
20
Sep
2009
Atlanta Icons – Let’s Eat
Once upon a time, I started a series of photographs of what I thought were Atlanta’s iconic places. I was inspired because I had been traveling and kept coming back with what I though (hoped) were icons of the cities I visited. And until the recent idea of staycations, it wasn’t so common that people took the time to visit the things in their own backyards. My energy for the series eventually waned and unless I move back to Atlanta one day, it may be done, but I’m still proud of the images I did for this series! There’s no doubt that there are iconic places absent, but I think I hit some of the highlights (some more than once).
What'll Ya Have?
Without a doubt, my most popular print from the series is this of the sign for Atlanta’s Varsity Restaurant. This striking sign is visible from the I-75/85 Connector that bisects Atlanta’s downtown. The original Varsity (it’s now a chain) was opened by Frank Gordy in 1928 to serve students at nearby Georgia Tech. It eventually became the world’s largest drive in restaurant at more than two acres in size! If you go inside ot order, the inside is a bit of a madhouse as the cashiers are all yelling “what’ll ya have, what’ll ya have?”
This photo won an award for Best Use Of Color in the 2006 Atlanta Celebrates Photography’s annual competition – the theme for that year was “My Atlanta.” It was a perfect marriage of their theme and the series I had just started.
The Big Chicken
Next on the menu, one of the best known landmarks in Atlanta’s suburb of Marietta is The Big Chicken. Directions around Marietta tend to include the relative location of your destination as compared to the Big Chicken. For instance, turn right at the Big Chicken, or 1 mile north of the Big Chicken, etc. The Big Chicken came into being as the signage above Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake restaurant in 1963. It features a moving beak and rolling eyes. In 1974, it was bought out by KFC and despite one time thoughts of moving it, the public uproar quelled that idea and the Big Chicken seems to be there to stay. This photo was processed to appear like a vintage Polaroid image. I felt the vivid colors from the afternoon sun fit this take on Marietta’s Big Chicken.
Open Wide
Atlanta’s oldest bohemian neighborhood is Little Five Points where Moreland Avenue meets Euclid. When I moved to Atlanta, it was a place I had to see, and it’s a wonderful place for people watching. One of many colorful restaurants is the Vortex, which makes a mean hamburger and one of the few places I would rarely think of getting a plain jane burger. The main entrance to the Vortex in L5P is the mouth of a giant Skull. It’s truly one of the most unsforgettable sights on Moreland. This ismage captures the feeling of entering the skull.
For more of Atlanta’s Icons and images from around the states, please check out my Urban America Prints.
13
Sep
2009
Savannah and the Coast
This probably won’t be an especially long post since on phone. The hotel has two pcs in the lobby and I’ve yet to see them free even on a fairly empty Sunday night.
This is my third night here and I consider it little more than a taste but I understand why people have so often spoken kindly of Savannah when they heard I was from Georgia. The irony always was I’d only seen Georgia’s coast once and Savannah only from I-95 at night.
My trip has shown me I must come back! The funny thing is it’s not the city I’ve enjoyed so much as the coast. There’s something in the sea air that has always agreed with me. I think my brain protects itself when I get away from the ocean and blots it out, but it’s the same reason I have always enjoyed storms that blow inland from the sea. There’s something markedly different about the air.
I’ve been out to Tybee Island every day I’ve been here and out to Skidaway Island as well and saw Moon River of Johnny Mercer fame. I took some panoramas of Moon River – fingers crossed that they turn out as planned!
Got here late afternoon on Friday and after dinner took my first turn out on Tybee after a wander through downtown in my car. I saw the sun set behind me as I made my way out and dusk on the tidal marshes, my first moment of really getting the beauty of this place. I ended the night with a few night shots of Tybee Lighthouse.
The next morning I tried my best to make it to Tybee fir sunrise but missed by a bit, but I managed to get to a few spots in the marshes as people started to head out in their boats. Then on to Tybee and got a few early photos if the lighthouse and wandered on the beach until the opened the light.
I climbed the 170ish steps to the top. Think I may have been the first of the morning, but at least there was no one up there to see me spazzing at the height! I have never like bridges and apparently the little metal walk projecting out at the top is close enough! I clung to the wall and inched around for the view! At this point I was glad they had a sign up allowing no big bags as pulling out my point and shoot was more than enough for me. By the time others showed up I had chilled out a little but I still didn’t want too many people on it and headed down Toured the rest of the restored buildings and headed back to Savannah to finally see the city!
And I didn’t see a lot! If you’re planning to do a trolley tour my suggestion is to start first thing! I only got off at two stops of the dozen or so offerred and before I knew it, it was time to get on the last trolley back to the visitor center. I considered riding back in and wandering now that I had my bearings a little but decided instead for the ride to Skidaway Island.
There’s not a lot to say about the island from what I saw of it. It’s entirely possible that there’s something great out there, but all I found to take photos if was the view from a fishing pier at Moon River, but it was a great way to end the day.
Sunday was an incredibly lazy day. I had planned to check in and see if I could get on a ghost tour and walk around the city. The alarm went off and I decided not an early morning day which was probably just as well because it was a very overcast day – sunrise was probably disapointing. I finally got out and had lunch.
Over lunch I decided I’d go see Bonaventure cemetery and then back downtown to wander the historic district. Found Bonaventure fairly easily. At first I was disappointed. It was pretty but nothing super special. For those who don’t know Bonaventure is where the cover for Midnigt in The Garden of Good and Evil was photographed. I had wandered fir a good while before looping around to the much older part of the cemetery and it is quite beautiful in the way a lot of basically Victorian cemeteries are, massive monuments to death and egos but hauntingly lovely especially cloaked I. The canopies of live oaks. I wish I had found that area first, but maybe it’s good I was walked out! I started back fir the parking lot and sudenly realized it was a few minutes after 5pm! Not only was my car on the other side of a six foot fence, the gate was locked! Before I could panic and call the “emergency” number on the gate, I saw someone drive up to a gate about 25 feet away and made a mad dash to get there before she locked it! LOL. The fun thing was as I sat in the car, I could see people still driving around inside… I guess they have to let a lot of people out (there was a caretaker’s house).
At this point, it seemed too late to go downtown again so I decided that will wait for another visit. Instead, yes, I drove out to Tybee once more. I spent over two hours wandering the beach with my camera and soaking in the sea air and ocassionally wishing I had a beach towel with me but walking with the camera and just breathing the air was incredibly relaxing anyway!
Thus ends my first journey to the coast, not my last I trust! Tomorrow, bound for the airport for the next leg of this trip! Stay tuned!
17
Jul
2009
Brooding Farm Prints
Sometimes when you shoot landscapes, the weather decides for you what the outcome mood of the photos will be. Both of these images were shot the same day in the back roads of Macon County, Georgia.
The first photo was shot in the morning. It was an overcast morning and I was really out looking for some possible mist or foggy bottoms, but that never panned out. Finally, a bit of sun poked through and was illuminating this scene before me.
Future Days
There it was, a weathered silo in a field that’s obscured by the roadside flowers. It’s those flowers that seem to bring some balance to the brooding sky in this rural landscape. There’s something powerful in my mind about silos. They speak to the future and our preparations for days ahead when bountiful harvests have passed. They dot the countryside down here, and though they tend to be similar, they all have a little character of their own.
It was actually at this point that I also spotted this little weathered farm house. The sun was behind it in the morning which wouldn’t make for a great photo, so I resolved to come back in the evening, when the setting sun would illuminate it. Much as in the morning, the sun still didn’t entirely cooperate with me and decided that this too would be a bit of a brooding shot.
Farmhouse Gothic
The sky was still partially overcast in the direction the light was coming from. The glow in the windows is not house lights or some ethereal ghost light. It’s actually the reflection of the dim rays of the setting sun. Meanwhile, the sky in the background was a deep dark dusk blue. I knew even when I was taking this shot that I was going to take it into photoshop and imitate a lomo photograph. The results are above, what I have termed “farmhouse gothic” hence the title, however inaccurate you may think it is. It’s mainly a reference to the pervasiveness darkness in the shot. At first I was tempted to go back and try for what I was originally after in this shot but ultimately, I’ve found myself happy with what I got. It’s unique and I’m afraid anything else in this location would pale in comparison. Sometimes, you just know you’re done with a shot. Other times, you keep going back to the same place, looking for something different or more to your vision.
