A Field of Sunflowers.....

I love sunflowers, which explains why pictures of sunflowers appear on this blog so often. These are from a field down near Elko that I visited back in July. Gary Harmon found them while riding his bike and told me about them.  I had to check them out.  The top image was done with the fisheye at 10mm. I popped a little flash in so I could keep the deep blue sky and some of the sun, which is in the upper left of the frame.  The flash was on a light stand to my left at a bit of an angle o the flower. My exposure was 1/1250th second at f 9, the ISO was low, around 200.  There were some honey bees on the flower, which added to my interest in this one.

 

I swapped from the fisheye to the 70-300mm with a closeup lens for the bee shot, still using the flash to add some depth to the shot.

 

This last shot is the crown that surrounds the flower. Up close the texture really jumps at ya. Alas, no more sunflowers for a year now.

The Two Mae's, Real BFF's

My mom's 90th birthday is next Tuesday. Her quilting buddies had a birthday brunch for her in Columbus
yesterday, and I was fortunate enough to be invited. I was extremely blessed with the parents God saw fit to provide me with. I realized very early that I didn't have the complaints that most of my friends had about their parents. They taught my brother Tony and me right, raised us in a Christian home, and loved us unconditionally. They also loved each other with an incredible lifelong, no, make that an eternal love.

These photos were from the party yesterday. The photo above is my mom, on the left, and her best friend Mae Pettis. Mae and her husband Leroy were my parents best friends. The two Mae's are still best friends. Dad and Leroy have been gone for a while now, and these two are best buddies.

 

Our families were together a lot when I was a kid. Tony dated their daughter Sondra, and their son Mike was my best buddy until we moved away from Columbus. Mae and Leroy were like my other parents. I was so lucky to see these two couples, the way they were to each other, the way they lived their lives. 

Mae is still a big part of our family, and I know Mae's kids feel the same way about my mom. 
Mom still sends Mae's youngest son a birthday card every year with a dollar enclosed.

The two Mae's are what God had in mind when He created BFF's. If you ask either of them what a BFF is, they would not have a clue, but their love for each other sure tells it all.

Ivy League

In downtown Fort Valley there is a gutted building, sandwiched between two other buildings. The roof is gone, as is the back wall. One wall is almost completely covered with ivy. Well, it may not be ivy, could be weeds. But it looks pretty cool.

 

I have wanted to do something with this awesome scene for some time, and finally decided the way to shoot it was up against the wall with a really wide lens. I tried the 15mm, but it needed more so I shot the top image with my fisheye. The dark area framing the top of the image is the other side wall, you can see the sun shining down. 

 

The bottom shot shows the coverage on the wall. So, I got my digital fix for the day. Hope you like 'em.

 

Another Step In this Journey

Yesterday morning I saw this leaf on the trunk of Deborah's car. Can't tell you what drew my eye to it.
Shape, light? Just know when I saw it, I had to photograph it. So many things we pass each day just beg to be photographed. Too often we are in to big a rush and just don't notice. Can't see the forest for the trees and all that.  This was what I saw as I walked by bringing the pooches back in from their morning outing.
Shot it first, dropped down to one knee to get this perspective.

 

As I moved around, the shape changed, as did the light and texture. Love leaves, the texture and veins. The way light plays through them.  I first shot this much tighter, then noticed the reflection and wanted to keep it in the image. Glad I did. The background has changed as well.

 

This was the last image, 180 degrees opposite from the first, still get the texture but with different shape. 

Why did I shoot it?  Always wondered what is is in my brain that sees the possibilities in some objects.

Early on in this photographic journey, it was so frustrating to see something like this, but not know how to capture what I was seeing. How to use the light, to set my exposure to capture the mood and textures, what lens to use to get the certain look. Shoot with a telephoto for shallow depth of field, or use a wide angle so all is in focus.

And happily, the journey continues.

 

Macon's Terminal Station

 

The Terminal Station is one of the most beautiful buildings in Macon.  It was built in 1916 to be the union station for the 15 railroads that served Macon at the time. It is now home to the Macon Transit Authority.

The sandstone structure covers around 13 acres. The last regular passenger train left the station in the 1970's.

Some of the unique benches still sit in the grand lobby, along with a shoe shine stand. I was fortunate enough
to have passed through the structure quite a few times, often on the Nancy Hanks for trips to Atlanta. Our family made the ride several times, and if you were a 3rd grader in Bibb County back in the day, you rode the train on the ultimate field trip. We went to Atlanta for the day, visiting the Grant's Park, the Cyclorama, and the State Capitol.

 

The left end of the building still has the colored waiting room sign, carved in the sandstone. A reminder of a past we are not proud of, but should not be ignored or forgotten.

During the heydays of rail travel during the 1920's, there were over 100 arrivals a day at the station. Today, you can catch a ride with the MTA, or you can rent the facility for a wedding or other event. 

If you are at the lower end of Cherry Street, walk inside and see the beauty.