Jekyll Island - Driftwood Beach

Rainy Atlanta Day

Whew!

I was having a morning today, what about you?

I needed to get a blog post written, along with what felt like a million other things.  

It was raining again and I haven't been out to shoot in a few days. Then I was looking at my website and it hit me that it needs a total re-working and re-organizing. It's gotten a bit hodge-podge as I've taken a few things down and added others. 

Then my mind jumped to the hacked oil pipeline and how it's affecting Atlanta.

My friend called me yesterday and said I might have to pick her up because her car was almost out of gas. She had pulled into no less than three stations and all of them were out of gas.

Yikes.

She lucked out at the fourth station and was able to fill her tank and get home. 

Then my thoughts circled around to my neighborhood where the shootings are getting seriously close to home. Two people were shot at Jack's Pizza and Wings on Monday night/Tuesday early morning.

Thankfully, no one was killed, but that is steps from my home. It takes me less than a minute to walk there.  

I walk by Jack's pretty much every day, though I don't walk around the neighborhood after midnight. 

I try not to let the madness of the world affect me but sometimes it seeps in, thoughts going round and round. 

Whatever you might hope to find
Among the thoughts that crowd your mind
There won't be many that ever really matter - "The Only Child" by Jackson Browne

I was listening to Jackson Browne on Pandora while writing and the above line jumped out at me. Yep - all in all, most of those thoughts don't amount to much. 

Instead of writing a long post, I decided to pick out a few calming photos and post them instead! I should have some new photos for next week's blog...

Flower photos are compelling to me, and this shoot was fun to set up in my home. It's challenging because my place is small so there's always something in the background when I'm shooting. Here, I used a black blanket and set it up behind the flower. I used a super cheap, flimsy ring light that I have for my iPhone to light the flower. 

This is an abstract I shot of a tree. I did this with a zoom burst. You spin the zoom lens as you take the photo. Use a slow shutter speed - around 1/15th or even slower. I try to get some focus in the center of the photo. I love doing these and need to get back to them!

Classic beach with clouds! Wish I was there right now instead of rainy Atlanta! 

Okay - time to get back to focusing! Have a great rest of your week, and...

See you between the raindrops!

xoxo,
Susan

www.susanjphotography.com