Saturday Night in Atlanta

Wow! A month sure flew by fast.

This past Saturday night was another Atlanta Urban Photo Walkers meetup (AUPW). Seems like we just had one.

We were going to do some street shooting in the Summerhill area. It's over by the old baseball stadium that's now owned by Georgia State University.

The area is seeing somewhat of a renaissance, thanks mostly to the University. 

Unfortunately, we never made it down there. There was a hip-hop concert happening at the stadium and for some reason, the traffic was completely gridlocked.

It didn't make sense.

I used to go to baseball games there when it was Turner Field and the traffic moved through pretty well even on a big game night.

Maybe it's because they've put up so many new apartment complexes and taken away some of the parking, but it was insane.

We sat through 20 rotations of a stoplight without moving. I was riding with my good friend and neighbor, Lauren. AUPW is her meetup group.

Lauren finally handed me her phone and I messaged the group that we were going for a plan B. 

Plan B was to do a U-turn (the only move we had available) and go to the Fairlie-Popular district by Woodruff Park and the Flatiron Building in Atlanta. 

It was an unusually mild evening for July.

It was so nice to be out on the street shooting photos. About eight of the 25 people who were scheduled to be at the meetup made it over to plan B.

We got a late start but ended up wandering around shooting photos for a couple of hours. 

I never even got out my tripod. I just played around with a couple of different lenses and pumped my ISO up when it got dark. 

Look Up, Atlanta!

There are some cool views in Atlanta that you may not notice if you don't wander around looking at the sky (which is probably not the safest way to walk around Atlanta or any busy city!).

I was looking up so much throughout the evening to get some different angles that I got a neckache! 

I love looking up and capturing the buildings from that angle. It's dizzying but I like the look of the photos. Something about the crazy angles reminds me of M.C. Escher.  

We ended up on a parking deck where I've taken shots quite a few times before. It was the first time some of the group had been there, though, so I'm glad they got to see it. 

Blue hour lasted a long time because there were some low clouds reflecting the light everywhere. We didn't leave downtown until after 9:30, and by then it was raining. 

Busy Saturday Night

As soon as Lauren dropped me off at home, I changed (was glad the evening was mild and I wasn't a bucket of sweat!) and walked down to another neighbor's house.

We walked over to Highland Bistro to a friend's birthday party.

He's also a nearby neighbor and one of the first people I met when I moved here almost seven years ago. He's a great guy who is very involved in the neighborhood.

Almost seven years! I know I already said it but...time sure does fly!

By this time, I was tired because I was out late with my cousin on Friday night and only got about five hours' sleep before my busy Saturday.

I didn't think I'd last too long at the party but we were having such a good time meeting and talking to people that we ended up shutting the place down at midnight. 

My poor body. It doesn't know how to sleep in.

I was awake around 5:30 a.m. but forced myself to stay in bed. I fell back to sleep until about 7.

I had a deadline for an article I needed to get back to a client, so I worked for a little while on Sunday and then crashed on the couch and watched some mindless television. 

Sometimes you just have to. 

Here we are, already mid-week! 

Hope you're having a good one, and see you between the raindrops - of which there have been many in Atlanta lately! 

xoxo,
Susan

I promise I'll get some new photos on my website by the end of this week!