Wooden Slat Wall - "Lines"

And a few others from the walk…

Wet Berries

Chain Link Fence

Thomas

You can see the rest on Flickr:

• Cold Wet Walk Along the Hooch (8 photos)

Gorilla

First of all, the class was wonderful and I highly recommend it. Ron Mayhew taught it through Emory Continuing Education.   The class was geared more toward photographers with digital SLRs, and I mostly used a Sigma 50-500mm on my Nikon D50.

Ostrich

There was a little bit of instruction, but most of the time was spent photographing the animals. What made it different from a regular trip to the zoo is that we got to go behind the scenes to get photos up close.

Orangutan

The day started out with a talk about minimizing the zoo-y (fences, unnatural lines, glass reflection) look in your photos. Next, we had a group tour of the overall zoo. After lunch and some more instruction, we had our close up sessions with the gorillas, orangutans, giraffes, ostriches, and birds.

Eagle Owl

At the beginning, the instructor asked us what single thing we wanted to focus on for the class. I said that I wanted to get a nice portrait of an animal, and I’m happy with a few shots that I captured.  I think the big keys are patience and a telephoto lens.

Gorilla

If you want to see more, I’ve posted the whole set on Flickr:

• On Safari at Zoo Atlanta (34 photos)

It’s a cozy converted house with a patio outdoors where they have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. They have a bookcase with boardgames and books, and display (and sell) handmade Rwandan baskets. They even stay open until midnight.

This is exactly what I was looking for in a coffee house – it’s almost even better than Third Place in Raleigh. (Third place wins because I used always run into friends there.) We played a game of Scrabble – I won…barely – and then headed to Chaplins for dinner where we sat on the patio and ate and chatted in the cool Fall air. It was a great, relaxing night, and hopefully we can do it again soon.

Conveniently, I fit in his spare jacket and pants (that’s me in the photo above), and he has an extra helmet for me.  He recently got me some boots and gloves so that I could be ATGATT (all the gear, all the time).  While on the bike, the gear isn’t too hot, but when we stopped to walk around, the jacket gets pretty heavy.

The ride was nice.  We drove back roads through North Georgia and saw lots of farms, horses, and corn.  We were looking for a sunflower field, but no luck.  After two hours, we stopped at Carter Dam and stretched our legs, and then headed to Pizza Hut for lunch.

I took my camera with me and took photos along the way, though most came out pretty crooked and a little blurry.  The ride overall wasn’t that bad.  By the end, I was tired, but I didn’t even mind the rain we had to pass through.  I don’t think I’ll be ditching my car anytime soon, but I might consider another ride (or as Thomas calls it, a 4-hour hug) sometime.

Thomas posted a trip report on his blog, and the rest of the photos are on his Picasa album, “No Sunflowers.”  You can see the route we took with his photo map.

Thomas and I participated in Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk on Saturday. Groups of photographers, amateur and professional, gathered in 236 locations around the world to photograph their surroundings on the same day. We joined up with the Buckhead (near downtown Atlanta) group, led by Judith Pishnery, and took some urban architecture and night photography.

This is not our typical subject matter for photography, but I had a good time learning about long exposures. I downloaded the new Lightroom version to edit them, and so far, so good. I’m really enjoying the free presets offered by Lightroom Killer Tips.

This is my favorite shot that I took. My battery was running out, but when I turned around to see where Thomas was, I saw the bus passing in front of him as he was taking a photo of the sky and tried to quickly snap the shot. It feels a bit frozen but with a lot of motion to me.

Thomas and I have posted our photos online and submitted a few to the contest Flickr group. Check them out if you get a chance.

• My submitted PhotoWalk shots (7 photos)
• All of Thomas’ PhotoWalk shots (29 photos)
• Thomas’ Blog Entry on the PhotoWalk
• The Buckhead PhotoWalk submissions

I haven’t decided yet, which photo to use.  They don’t seem to be speaking about the same town.  The first says Roswell is rundown, which it really isn’t.  The next one shows that it’s a little quirky, but old.  The next one makes Roswell look proper.  I’d say more preppy, than proper.  And I liked the little peek through the window in the last one.

I think I like the second or third one best.  You can see all of the photos I took on Flickr:

• Downtown Roswell (9 photos)

The pub was packed, but cozy and the food was delicious. It’s supposedly pretty authentic Belgium-style, so the beer was served in wine glasses, and the cider was in a teacup. I went with the cider.

Dave and Anna invited two of their new friends along, Steve and Stacey. I really like this photo of Stacey that I took.

After dinner, we headed over to Java Monkey for some dessert – their cheesecake was superb! We sat out on the patio and chatted until 11:30PM. It was a totally different feeling from our part of town. At that time, our city would be shut down, but this place was packed and people were still hanging out outside.

Anyway, before we headed home, Anna asked if I could get a few photos of her and Dave. Of course it was dark outside, but we found some streetlights to help. (Anna – if you want another try at photos during the daytime, just let me know. )

Dave and Anna are expecting a baby in a couple of months, so that’s what’s up with the belly shot. :) It was a great time and I hope we get together again soon.

More photos are on Flickr:

• Dinner in Decatur (16 photos)