So, the song is “Walkin’ in Memphis” but I was hanging out in Nashville last week and it was such a beautiful day in a new city I’d never been to before.  I had a bit of time to kill before my presentation at the Nashville PUG (Pictage User Group) and mom and I decided to stretch our legs up and down Broadway – I guess it’s like the Peachtree Street of Atlanta!  Lots of cool architecture – from Gothic to Modern

Check out the cool gargoyles on this church!

And then just some fun observations. Anyone need a newspaper?  Anyone?

The morning after the PUG, we got up at our hotel early and headed out to try to see at least one more area of Nashville.  We had to be back to Atlanta by 6 AND there is a time zone difference so we had to boogie a little.  I’m so glad we ended up going here – the historical Parthenon of Nashville – located in their Centennial Park.  I was blown away with the history of the building.  It was originally built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, 1897 of temporary building materials.  The community loved it so much, they opted to have it reconstructed with permanent materials starting in 1931.  The addition of the Athena statue inside was added and more restoration completed between 1982 to 1990 and 1991 to 2001.  I was under the impression it was a much newer structure!  And you can also rent it for special events!  Wow, they were setting up for one when we arrived:

The museum inside was very informative and interesting but I also had a lot of fun with perspective, shapes, and shadows. Just playing around felt so good!

After we left the museum, we had just enough time to wander around some of the gardens.  The tulips were so bright and colorful – we didn’t want to leave!

We’re hoping to make a trip back soon.  Probably pass through Chattanooga and stay over in Nashville to get the full experience next time!

I needed to title this Part 1 because I know I’m going to have a lot more to say in the coming posts (how many? who knows!?) about the amazing experience I had attending and being a featured speaker at Pictage’s PartnerCon(ference) this year. So many of us photographers that attended have used a plethora of adjectives which include: amazing, inspiring, community, sharing, and on and on…

I haven’t been too public about my presentation and my honored position of speaking at the conference because honestly, I was a little afraid. Yep. I have no problem speaking in public but I wasn’t too sure how this was going to go. It went fine – what was I worried about? More on that subject later!

Most of us (all 500 photographers) wandered the beautiful, magical city of New Orleans taking photos of the many textures and sites that surrounded us. What a perfect location for photography. I am so happy that we will be going back there next year for PartnerCon ‘10! That made leaving Saturday a little easier….

What was sorta funny for me was the cemetery walks (ie. photo shoots). Growing up in photography, I abhorred cemetery walks and photos! I don’t have anything against cemeteries themselves, or death (while I want to actually be cremated, not laying in the ground), or all the usual stigmas. It was that EVERYONE was shooting cemeteries when I was a student and I certainly didn’t want to be everyone else and shooting the same thing. So when we wandered the famous New Orleans cemeteries throughout the week, I wasn’t sure how I would really like shooting there.

I’ll point out the obvious about these images:  all the ones I’m posting today are taken in infrared.  I have a love affair with infrared generally speaking, however, that passion was completely ignited when I started shooting the cemeteries with it.  The images I got with my trusty infrared camera (a Nikon 990 Coolpix I had converted several years ago) were some of my all time favorites of the entire trip!

The first thing I realized on All Saint’s Day (with Chris Williams, Will Jacks, Sarah Hodzic, Alex Abercrombie, David & Nancy Wittig, and Matt Grazier – what a group!) was how each cemetery had it’s own personality. I’m not used to that where I’m from in Georgia. Or maybe I just hadn’t noticed? Chris first took us to Greenwood where there were literally “streets” and all was uniform, stoic, clean. There were some occasional differences from tomb to tomb (these were all above ground graves) but I found a beauty in their uniformity.

Next Chris took us to Holt cemetery. A definite JOLT in your perspective going from Greenwood to Holt! Holt was originally a slave cemetery with all IN GROUND graves. And since there is occasional flooding, graves stones are damaged and repaired by hand and eh, things come to the surface…Holt is definitely quite striking in it’s own way as it’s so handmade, primitive, and frankly spookier. It feels like a definite possibility to be greeted by one of it’s residents since the whole place is so loosey-goosey. What’s to hold those spirits back?

On Friday, one of our last days in NOLA, a group of us went to another two cemeteries.  I got to “meet” St. Louis cemetery (just outside of the French Quarter) and LaFayette cemetery in the Garden District.  Once again, two more distinct personalities that I felt were speaking to me.  St. Louis was a little newer cemetery in some ways and maybe due to it’s proximity to the Quarter, a little more forthcoming with historical information in the form of plaques and tours given there.  I have just a few infrareds from there that I love but what fascinated me was the voodoo markings on some of the graves with offerings and gifts. Those are better in color so I’ll post those later.  Here is my favorite from St. Louis.

Finally, LaFayette – probably my favorite of all because of the magnolias & oaks dripping down with their branches and busting up the walkways with their roots.  Their presence felt like a hug, protecting the tombs and guarding them almost. 

More to come from New Orleans…this is just the beginning.  I’m pushing myself to post more personal work here as a few of us forget to do that now and then. (you know who you are ;o).