Jabulani Jonny

This Saturday afforded my buddy Eric and I an opportunity to get out and shoot some more photos on one of our little Photo Journeys, for lack of a better term. We’ve done it a couple times before and decided on an old abandoned mill on the banks of the Chattahoochee in downtown Columbus. We scoped out the place for a few minutes and quickly came to the conclusion that there was not going to be an easy way in, and it may not even be possible, but we were going to try.

See, the walls of the mill go right down to the waters edge and all the windows and doors were locked up tight. Hmmm…we just want to take some photos. Well we saw this iron structure stretching from the bank out to the back of the mill. The only thing was that it was about 20 feet off the water and what you were standing on was about 1/4″ thick. Thankfully there were handholds. Here’s the structure looking from the mill side back to the bank on our way back:

And here’s a shot looking at the back of the mill from the dam.

So once we got across we came to a covered wooden platform that was eaten up by an old fire and missing some pretty big chunks. This platform was about 20 feet above the old turbines of the mill. The platform stretched out to the water and the dam that served the mill. We tried to find a way inside, by climbing up and over a tin wall into this out-shed off the back of the building, but there were no openings. We did find an old book in there that turned into a couple cool shots.

We thought that was the end of the line, but as we climbed back up and out over the wall, Eric took a quick glance across the roof and saw an open window. Eureka. Here was our opportunity to get a few shots and do some exploring.

This place has been deserted quite a while, but you can see evidence of the random visitor…like us. I ended up only getting a few shots I liked, but I’ll post several so you get a sense of the inside of the mill.

I did manage to squeeze off a couple shots of Eric to demonstrate our tour. Unfortunately, I didn’t even take a shot of the mill itself to give an idea of what we’re looking at. Next time. This was definitely an adventurous outing and we had a blast, got a few decent shots out of it too.

We’re gonna change it up a bit next weekend and shoot some different subjects. Hey, if there are any pro guys out there that see this blog, ie. Daley or Dustin, please let me know what I can do better either from composition or from a post processing standpoint. I’m using Aperture 2, not PS, so I don’t do any layer work. Just your typical color correction, sharpening, and maybe some vignetting. Let me know what you think!

There’s this tough little joker I know. His body has been beaten up a little and he’s got lots of issues that nag him. Things that would make me whine and snivel, he just takes in stride. Yeah he gets ornery some times, but who wouldn’t. I really wish I could just take half of his burden for him, but I know I’m not strong enough to carry it. He knows my voice, but I don’t know that he can really see my face. That makes me sad, but to him, maybe my voice is enough. He’s a tough little T-monster and he’s got 100% of the love that is in my heart.

I guess they finally got that “special” order in. I took this photo in Newnan, so if you’re in need, you know where to get that new recliner for your date.

Since I got the new camera, my buddy Eric and I have decided to take a photo safari each weekend. We both want to get better at photography and shooting’s the only way to do it.

Downtown Columbus has some pretty rad old warehouses and deserted buildings. So we took a few hours on Saturday to explore one and see what sort of photo opps we could stumble across. Below are some shots taken with the Olympus E-510 with some minor post work in Aperture 2, which I’m diggin by the way. You can see larger versions in the Photo Album to the left. Eric’s putting together a separate blog for us to post our images to each week. I’ll keep you posted for links in the near future.