Posts Tagged: photowalk
“Wisdom outweighs any wealth.”—Sophocles
In the beginning, when I first decided to roll into the blogging community, I didn’t get many comments. But, as friendships started to blossom, more interaction took place. One of the first people to comment (and connect with me) was Victoria, aka *Vdog. Back then it was all about the memes. There was Haiku Friday, Wordless Wednesday, Sunday Scribblings, and so on. My people would comment all over mine, and I would comment all over theirs.
Lotus commented on a post after I had commented on one of her posts about her Weekly Winners. Here we are, a few years later, still sharing our photography winners. Here we are a few years later, teaching photography workshops together, cultivating ideas together, sharing, supporting, encouraging, and constantly building upon the friendship started because of our little hobby.
Going around and around the blogosphere you find people that you would never have found in life. Take Mrs. Flinger for example. The first time I ever saw her, I actually saw her, like in a video, but that totally counts. All I remember was that it was “fucking great day”. When I saw that video I knew that I would be great friends with Leslie.
Because of these three women, I met Dawn, and countless others who I have added to my arsenal of friends.
We all got together at the first second Blissdom, where Room 704 was born (today’s their birthday, actually.) Where I led a photo-walk in downtown Nashville with Lotus. Where I spoke on a panel with Leslie. Where our online friendships crossed over into living breathing life.
Photo credit: Malia
*Vdog–Victoria came to our house when we drove to Asheville, NC for Type A Mom Conference. To this day Davey asks if Vdog is going to come over. One day he said, “Can Vdog, with the purple glasses, come over please!”
My Bliss: Part III
After Lotus and I left everyone that was gathered by Stax, we got got back to our room, we talked while I unpacked (to which I came prepared with my own hangers, yo!) We were waiting for Leslie and Victoria to come in, so naturally we sat around on our laptops, munching salt and vinegar almonds, going in and out of conversation, while classical music played in the background.
Soon there was a knock at the door. Our beeshes were finally here, and a love-fest ensued. We delighted in each others company, told each other secrets, shared travel stories, caught up on Tweets, and soon-thereafter tucked into our beds, like the little-old-ladies-in-training that we are.
Our plan was to get up early enough to make it to breakfast.
*Our plan failed when we woke up with fifteen minutes to spare.
We jumped up, put bras on, ran our fingers through our hair, and booked it to the breakfast area. I made one of the worst mistakes ever: I didn’t brush my teeth. And, of course, I ran into tons of people who wanted to hug and talk to me. All I could do was eat breakfast and hope that I wouldn’t offend anyone with my breath. Ask me if I’ll ever not brush me teeth ever again.
I’m sure people thought we had gotten totally drunk the night before, when the fact of the matter was we were sleeping. Hard. Remember? Little-old-ladies-in-training!
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Lotus and I had our Wisdom Workshop at 1:00pm, so we got back to the room and prepared ourselves.
We left after noon to grab some lunch (our lovely friend Rachel’s recipe, FTW!) and met up with our fellow workshop leaders—Amy, Angie, Casey, Dawn, and Deanna.
Photo Credit: Hannah Braboy
We broke all the workshop attendees into groups. Dawn and I took care of covering the basics about how to get off the green square. Lotus and Amy talked about creativity, detail, and composition. Angie covered natural lighting, while Casey and Deanna went into depth about aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
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After the workshop, which was Ahhh-mazing!, we went on a photo-walk in the Delta Atrium. It was an intimate group, and just oh-so-fun! There was lens exchanging, head-shots, group shots, creative shooting, and just a major photogranerd fest.
Afterward Lotus and I went back to our room and greeted our girl, Dawn!
And, Lotus did some cool, feel good, Tai Chi’ish thing. I don’t know, but it made her feel good; that’s all that counts.
Soon we’d be getting ready to go party the night away! [To be continued…]
*Leslie was the only one who got up early because she had a meeting to get to. I’m sure she brushed her teeth!
I {Heart} Photo Walks
If there’s one thing that I love to do it’s walk around different cities, camera in hand, taking pictures of anything and everything.
I try to mark each photo walk by taking pictures like the ones above.
It’s like a little special signature from each city whose streets I plant my feet.
Nashville, Asheville, New Orleans, New York City, Chicago.
And on June 5th, I will add Atlanta.
Dawn Camp and I will be leading the walk that will be held on Saturday morning, June 5, 2010, from 9-11 a.m. beginning at the Oakland Cemetery Visitor Center and ending at Six Feet Under restaurant.
Here’s the registration link for Atlanta.
Keep Asheville Weird
A while back I was asked to be a part of Kelby Carr’s Type-A Mom Conference this September. I was excited and honored, to say the least. Surely it’s the validation and recognition for doing what I do here in the blog-o-sphere that makes the honor so great. Then Kelby kicked it up a notch and asked me how I felt about doing half of my session in a room (like a traditional panel) and the other half on the streets of the host city. The photowalk through the funky streets would give the attendees of my session a chance to get some hands on experience as well as give me a chance to do what I do best; mixing my photography and people skills together in a big pot and pouring it out on the streets of Asheville. Weird they want to keep it and I have no problem with that what-so-ever.
Kelby told me that the Crown Plaza was willing to have me spend the night as their special guest. So, I planned and took off last Saturday for Asheville. The trip was just under four hours and I was to meet up with Kelby and her family around noon. While I waited for them to show up I talked with Pauline on the phone and guzzled another iced Americano. Once they got there I hopped in my van and followed them to our first destination: LUNCH!
We ate at the Mellow Mushroom, much to their eldest daughter’s dismay. Even the promise of coloring pages couldn’t help her erase the frown. That is until the pink lemonades were cracked out. Lunch was fun. Kelby’s husband Mike picked up my camera and hence began our efforts to try to get each other in portrait. Photographers aren’t too into getting their own picture taken by others. I think Mike and I felt the same way, making this game of cat and mouse even more fun!
Once we were done with lunch we headed over to Izzy’s coffee shop to get some caffeination, then over to Malaprops bookstore where Mike found a book for me, Journals by Kurt Cobain. I see how easy it is to get lost in a place like that. When I was checking out there was some comical banter between myself and the guy behind the counter. Oddly enough it was about a plastic bag.
I didn’t stop snapping once and I imagined how it would be to lead a small group of women through the streets. Early on I started to devise a plan of attack for the conference. Then I just forgot about the plan because I was having way too much fun. There was so much to see and take in; I felt right at home. I wonder if I could get Michael to move us there?
Kelby took me in some great shops and we even got to stop at something called the Bizarre Bazaar, where many local artists were showing off and selling their work. Everywhere I looked was a nugget of amazement. I armed myself with my business card to give to the artists that I photographed. I wanted to make their images available to them here on the blog and/or at my flickr stream. [If you are one of the artists that I met on Saturday, please let me know by leaving me a comment. Remember me? Dark hair, big lens, pretty smile, long white skirt!]
We walked on towards Grove Arcade and Battery Park Apartments. Mike paused to tell me some stories about both buildings. He told me of how a young woman was brutally murdered in the Battery Park Apartments and how people have committed suicide by jumping off.
The Battery Park Hotel is now an apartment building. It is said to be haunted by the spirit of a woman who was brutally murdered. On the morning of July 17th, 1936, Helen Clevenger was discovered murdered in room 224. She had been savagely beaten, her face slashed, and she had been shot. An employee, Martin Moore, eventually confessed and died in the gas chamber. The Battery Park Hotel also has been the scene of a number of suicides committed by jumping from the roof. On stormy nights Helen is seen wandering the halls of the old hotel. People have reported seeing bodies falling from the roof. A tragic suicide being replayed over and over?
–Sarah Harrison, Founder and Lead Investigator for Asheville Paranormal Society
Afterwards Kelby, the twins, and I strolled through Grove Arcade, looking at all the shops and gabbing non-stop while Mike and their eldest daughter scattered to another book store. Inside I was totally lost in the architechture and the symmetry. It was so beautiful and the way the light was coming through the sky roof was incredible.
I had the best time talking to Kelby and learning more about her. I was grateful that I had the chance to meet her like this. After we found the bathroom and cheered her boy twin for going potty in the public bathroom, we headed out to wait for the book hound and daughter.
Then I was introduced to Ben and Roger. This is Ben:
We then walked on to Pritchard Park where we encountered a Salsa dancing troupe and an accompanying group of musicians. I scoped out a space on a bench and had myself a seat. The sun was beating down on me, but I didn’t care. The moment was perfect. I could feel my body sway to the music and a huge smile spread across my face.
Delighted I turned to the man next to me and was all, Don’t you wish we could go down there and dance? And he was all, Oh yeah–I live for this stuff. As he leaned in closer to gab some more I smelled the beer on him. I don’t know why I love to smell beer on men, but I do. Then he leaned over to the lady on the other side of him, to talk about Ft. Lauderdale. Talk about random!
Our last stroll for the day was through the Wall Street area. This street has such a European feel to it that you can’t help but want to photograph it. I could have stayed there all day photographing little details like the brick lined sidewalk, the beautiful people, the store fronts, the animals hanging out in the store fronts, all of it. It was all so perfect that I was even able to ignore the blister on my toe!
After this we hopped into the comfort of our air conditioned vehicles and took a drive through the Montford area that is reminiscent of the Garden District in New Orleans. We quickly took a tour of Riverside Cemetary, too, planning to come back the very next day to walk it some. The cemetery is the final resting place for Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) and has much interesting and historical meaning. I anticipated walking around the next day, but we were spent.
It was time to head to my hotel so that I could check in, rest, and get ready for the night ahead. Later that night I would be attending a walk through of The Haunted Woods (also known as The Body Dump) with the Asheville Paranormal Society. But first, I needed to shower and relax. The big day had caught up to me and when I crashed into my bed (the bed I have nicknamed Heaven) I fell asleep for a solid 25 minutes, but it felt more like 3 hours. I woke up ready to go and tackle the ghosts in the woods.
Oh and being the VIP that I was/am, Crown Plaza sent me a little gift. How did they know that I love chocolate covered strawberries? I can’t wait to go sleep there again.
