Rural Atlanta

During the Thanksgiving holidays, we went to visit family in Northern Atlanta area and Fayetteville NC. Since we were able to spend more time in the Atlanta area, I was able to get out and do a little exploring and photography. My first stop was an old abandoned house on Union Hill Dr, that they had pointed out to me while out and about one day. This house was a bit of a challenge to capture, being on a busy street, up on a rise with thick brush all around it, so the only way to shoot it is from the street front. I took  several different images from almost every conceivable angle and settled on this one as my favorite from the bunch. I also decided on B&W, as the scene, in color, was so busy with the overgrown brush, converting it to B&W made for a much simpler image.

Once I was finished with the house, on my way back to the kids home, I spied this large majestic tree looking over an old cemetery and made a mental note to come back the next day. The weather was supposed to be cloudy, but of course you can never trust the weather and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with nice high clouds, not quite what I had in mind for a cemetery shoot. Now before I go any further, I want to say, I always struggle with shooting in cemeteries, as I don't want to be disrespectful to these solemn places. I always treat the area with respect and take a moment to pay my respects. Ok, on with these shots. It is a small cemetery, with this large tree in the very back, I knew I wanted to capture the whole tree in the shot, which meant I needed to be back pretty far. The headstones created their own problem, as they all faced north and I needed to shoot to the east. I worked the scene the best I could, I finally settled on this composition to get the best angle and still capture the entire tree.

For this second shot, I wanted to the oldest part of the cemetery. The headstones are much smaller in this area and with having to be farther back than I wanted to get the whole tree in the image, it made them appear even smaller. At the same time giving the shot a more eerie feel. As with almost all Cemetery photography, they just lend themselves to B&W. I hope I was able to do this place justice out of respect for the occupants. 

Next on the list was the Roswell Mill Park in Roswell, GA. I was really lucky with this one, as I did a little research before leaving home and found it was just a short 20 minute drive from my daughters house. The park contains a covered bridge, old power plant, grist mill and waterfall all in one place. I also looked at several photo sites and found this was a pretty popular place with thousands of photos taken from the same locations. My goal, was to try and find something just a little different. Once on site and doing a little scouting I noticed no one had taken a shot from this angle, getting both the covered bridge and power plant in the same shot. As you can tell, it was well past peak fall colors, leaving the trees barren and not very photogenic. Well, we photographers have to work with what were given sometimes and this was one of those times. In the first shot above, like with others, a B&W conversion really helped simplify the scene and helps to hide the messy clutter. In the second shot, in order to remove the messiness I shot it vertical, getting more substance in the frame.

 

In this version, I decided to embrace the leafless trees and include them as a subject in the photo. I changed my location to the other side of the bridge, the sun had already set leaving some subtle pink hues in the wispy clouds above. I was also careful to line up the large tree to the left with the corner of the building, which just so happens to allow the best of the small cascades in the water to be in the frame.

And of course the waterfall, a challenge in itself. The challenge was the large number of people at waters edge. Luckily I was able to hide them with this large tree. The other stroke of luck, was, I really liked the base of the tree, it had so much character I knew I wanted it as part of the shot anyway, funny how thing just work out sometimes. Although luck sometimes plays a part, it knowing what to do with it that matters too. There are several things I like about this image, the tree of course makes a nice and interesting foreground. The river and rocks within leads you back to the waterfall itself and the natural light coming in from overhead illuminates the remaining fall colors above the falls.

Well, that brings us to and end of my photographic adventure, while visiting family for the holidays. These little outing took no time away from our visit as they were just quick trips out. I was able to scout the park the day before as the whole family went together, then my daughter and I ran down the next day to get these shots.

I hope you enjoyed this little holiday adventure with me and as always, if any of these images strikes your heart, and you would like a beautiful print just drop me a line on facebook or leave me a comment here. 

Take Care and Until Next Time..........................