Today’s Sunday Morning Adventure was a meet-up with fellow LF-ers from the North Georgia Large Format Photographers Group, Bryan Garris and Brandon Ward. I set out at the crack of dawn and drove downtown then west on I-20,  to attempt to arrive at Westview Cemetery as soon as the gates open. I arrived a bit early so explored the area. Cascade road is not the safest zone in Atlanta but I could see the recent repairs and attempts to portray the area in a good light. Even on a Sunday morning there was still a bit of activity that would make one nervous about leaving the car.  So I headed back to the cemetery and met the guys at a gas station within eyesight of the main gates.

The website and sign on the gate said 8:00 AM Monday – Sunday. But after waiting nearly an hour we decided to head to Sweetwater Creek State Park. The park has trails along a large creek that is full of granite with an occasional small set of falls and rapids. The walking trails are wide and relatively easy for the first half mile. In some places you can get right down to the water and out onto the rocks. But the summer sun was bright early today so water shots had lots of specular highlights. Choice of angle to the sun, backgrounds,  and the use of a polarizer allowed for some compositions of the creek. As always we were on the lookout for details and motifs the casual photographer might bypass. Roots and rocks, stumps in strategic places, and canopy covered ditches offered up some alternative shots. Of course no trip would be complete without incident or loss of gear. Sweetwater Creek is a target rich environment that should be visited at different times of year and in various lighting conditions.

After a couple of hours we hiked back to the cars. We took a bit of a rest a the local Firehouse subs, ate lunch,  and chatted about photography and our personal experiences. We then returned to Westview Cemetery for some “monumental” work. Westview cemetery is the final resting place of some prominent Atlantans and is a large cemetery still in use today. At one point we all diverged on one particular monument of a woman sitting against steps under a cross – see image at Ryan Memorial Westview Cemetery Atlanta. The cemetery is filled with magnolias and oak trees that could keep one busy for several hours. At the back of the grounds is a lovely mausoleum with rustic stonework outside. The interior is mostly marble and flat so is lacking opportunities, but it does contain a marble chapel with decorative ceiling, that with a wide lens could be captured. Hint – light switches are at the back of the room. After I shot my last piece of film I returned home passing through grid locked traffic in downtown and remembered why I like driving in the North Georgia mountains.

I ran out of film today, something that almost never happens.  So I will be busy this week developing the negatives in the kitchen since it is still too hot for my darkroom. I hope to get back to the darkroom during the cooler weather coming up and have some prints to display here.