Places: The Farm

Summertime once again brought my family (the six of us, and also including one set of grandparents, 2 uncles, 1 aunt, 2 cousins, and 1 second cousin) together in south Georgia, in the sleepy little town of Andersonville. You may (or may not) recognize the name from the pages of history. During the Civil War, or The War of Northern Aggression as some call it, Andersonville was home to one of the most terrible prisons for a Yankee to find himself in. It was a cruel place and thousands of people died there. Now it is a National Park with a cemetery which looks like a smaller version of Arlington. Just for fun, let me set the scene with images borrowed from google...(I did not take these):

Andersonville Prison, 1864

Andersonville Prison sight, today

Adjoining cemetery...it is several acres, and quite a sight.

They made a movie about it too..

The town of Andersonville. It is seriously this cute, and only about 1 block in length..


So there is your history lesson for today. Ok, so that is a little depressing and has no relation to why we gather there. But I love Civil War history and have always found it a very interesting place to visit. By coincidence only, Andersonville happens to be the location of my great uncle's farm. You can use "farm" loosely, because really it is just a whole lot of land, for the sport hunting and fishing enthusiast. He also raises chickens for Tyson on one section, and hunting dogs on another. Anyway...it is a fun place to gather and hang out for a week, in a very non-traditional-family-vacation sort of way. Anyway, I am really rambling. I have lots to share, but instead of lumping it all in one post, I thought I would split it up. So in this post, I just wanted to share some of the scenery and experiences that can be found in and around the farm. Enjoy.

This is the view from the front porch of the main house. I love wide open space! It thunderstormed quite a bit, so there were lots of fun skies to photograph.

Crazy-cool flowers! I love this one!


And regular wild flowers...

The backside of a sunflower. I just liked this shot. It's actually from a market down the street from the farm.

Zinnias and Sunflowers! This field was full of them! And this is a preview of what is to come in one of my family shoots!

Playing with that macro lens adapter again!

There was a 3 week old litter of puppies to play with. They were sooo cute! If you need good huntin' dogs... let me know!

This is what the farm is all about! Every year we run this poor jeep to death! If there is nothing else to do, trailblazing in the jeep can provide endless entertainment. There are countless interconnected trails through acres and acres and acres of wooded land on the farm. In past years we have also 1)popped a tire, 2) caught it on fire, 3)let it roll into a tree. It's a tough piece of automobile! This year I decided to pay homage to the grand vehicle. I took it out and parked it on the trail and proceed to photograph it like it was for a Jeep ad. haha. It was fun... but seriously, who does that? haha. Me I guess.

HDR what?

We also drive around at dusk hoping to spot deer. These were 30 second exposures... I just like the motion and colors, really.


These I like to call "The First 48". I am a big fan of that show. Driving around at night in the jeep through the woods inspired me to take some creepy photos of what I saw. At first I wanted to lay in the grass and partially on the road like a body. Because, it just seemed like you could roll up on a body around any bend... or zombies or something equally scary. That did not work out however because of the crazy amounts of fire ants in GA. No way was I getting on the ground with those suckers around. Anyway, it was like 11 pm and I made my brother go with me.. I was too scared to go alone! Haha. I am really pleased with how they turned out. It's the not knowing what is beyond the light that is so creepy to me.



More to come! Sorry this post is random!

I'm Back!

Hello lovelies,
I have returned from my trip down south! I have lots to blog about my time away, but I am still sorting through the goods. So for now I will leave you with a signature Georgia icon... the peach. :-)

Traces: Vacation!

Just wanted to let you all know that the blog will be a little dull for the next week.. I will be in Georgia with my family!! Good old fashioned family vacation time! woohoo! Don't miss me too much:-)

Becca

Faces/Traces: Another Ring Shot

So I was playing around with a new lens adapter I picked up at a local thrift store for $2 and by chance I was actually able to make it fit on my old lens! Crazy crazy! Soooo since it was a close-up adapter, I played around with that ring shot again. What do you think? Creepy or cool? I can't really decide! Ha, but I was pleased with the $2 addition to my camera bag!! Hooray!

Notice something?

The Indie Image Blog has a new look!! Thoughts? Too much brown? Thanks for the input in advance:-)

Faces: Ashley and David

Alright, I am so excited that I finally get to blog this! Last Thursday I had the fun task of photographing two of my favorite people, who happen to be very talented photographers themselves. Ashley and David currently operate as NAS.IMAGE, but are going through some big, exciting changes! They are doing a little re-branding and wanted some fun pictures for personal and professional use. Another photographer friend of ours, April from Evoke, also shot them. Go check out her images here too... see if you can spot a difference:-).
Basically I tried to shoot on the moody side, and then trash them in post-processing. I may have gotten carried away on a few... but it's what I do best, I think? Here are just a few of the ones I got particularly involved in. Ha. Enjoy!













And thank you to The Raleigh Times for allowing us to shoot in their establishment! You should visit, and try their bbq nachos...yum!

Places/Traces: Scenic

I was just rummaging through some of my pictures from a trip I took in May. This may be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. So I thought I would share.

Thinking about it...my concept of beautiful is very moody and dilapidated. haha.

Back up to the back up

So last Saturday (the 5th) I was privileged to be asked by JoAnna to help her out at one of her weddings. Since she already had a second shooter, she only needed me to cover the ceremony part of the day. It was a little odd jumping in to someone's wedding day and jumping right back out. They seemed like a fun crowd, and I almost didn't want to leave! haha. Here are just a couple of shots I liked from the short time I was there!
The guitar player warming up

Bride and Dad waiting..

Over the video guy's shoulder


Happy newlyweds!

Faces: What???

Here is an outtake from a shoot I did yesterday! Good times were had...and that is all I can tell you at the moment! I am waiting to blog this shoot, just to make the participants wait anxiously:-D. JUST KIDDING! haha. Love you, Ashley and David!

PS. I didn't notice it then... but that is a woman. haha.

Faces: In Other News..

Last Wednesday I got to accompany my brother and sister-in-law to their second ultrasound. This one was special because we were able to find out whether the baby on the way is a boy or girl! It's been killing my whole family not knowing, and we were so very anxious to find out! The nurse let me take pictures as long as I didn't use any flash. Not so easy in a dark room with one low-wattage little lamp! But I tried anyway and got what is not the greatest technical achievement, but certainly one of the most meaningful pictures I have gotten to shoot: my brother's first family portrait (well, if you don't count the nurse!). BTW...it's a BOY, and I can't wait for him to get here! The picture on the screen is his profile (looking up).

Faces: Maren

Ok, so as promised, here are some pictures I took of my good friend Maren on Thursday! She is one of my two most photographed friends. I have done no less than 3 photoshoots with her, mostly because we just have so much fun doing it! We spent all day on a mission! First, going to the mall to have her awesome eye makeup done at Sephora, and then traveling to Durham to visit the Life and Science Museum and take pictures! Maren had bought this really awesome 50's prom dress on ebay that she and I have been plotting to use in a photoshoot for a while now. Thursday provided the perfect opportunity! We got quite a few stares but it was totally worth it. She rocked the dress (and PRADA shoes!!), we didn't get kicked out of the museum, and I am really happy with the images we got. These are a lot more cheerful and colorful than some of my last posts..I just LOVE fashion photography! Anyway, I have stayed up way too late playing with them, so I hope you enjoy!!