High Falls State Park

Rock Sculpture at High Falls

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One of my goals is to visit most, if not all, of Georgia's State Parks. High Falls State Park has been high on my list, and with the recent rains, I thought this may be a good weekend for a visit. I also discovered that Indian Springs State Park was near, so I added that to my list.

I must admit that although I love to hike, I mostly went to see and photograph the falls. Since I had to drive over an hour to get there, and since I was also saving some energy to visit Indian Springs and then the drive home, I didn't walk any of the trails end to end.

Yard Photography: Ice and Snow

You can actually see a house through the ice on the branch.

It was supposed to snow overnight, possibly up to six inches. So when I woke up and looked out, I was a little disappointed to see what would best be described as a dusting. Those wacky weather people!

A Last Day of Firsts

Entrance to restricted area at Panola Mountain.

I wanted to participate in a First Hike this year—that's where you get out and hike on the 1st of January. I thought it would be interesting to hike somewhere that I've never been and maybe somewhere that isn't as accessible as the regular hiking trails.

Happy Holidays from Smyrna!

Downtown City of Smyrna Christmas Tree

Last year, I went to downtown Smyrna—the Village Green—to photograph the tree. But I didn't spend a lot of time shooting the tree. You see, I got distracted by all of the cars and spent most of my time shooting long exposures to get the traffic light trails.

Arabia Mountain is Other Worldly

Yellow daisies at Arabia Mountain

I had scheduled a beach trip for the September full moon, but my trip got rained out, and I really don't have a go-to place to shoot the moon in the Atlanta area. Although, that's something I've been wanting to find, but more often than not, it seems to either rain or be extremely cloudy on our full-moon nights.

Time for Chihuly

A sun flare makes Chihuly even more beautiful!

The Atlanta Botanical Gardens (ABG) had a Dale Chihuly exhibit in 2004. I didn't get to see it that year, but they've retained a couple of his sculptures. One of them is outside in a fountain in the Levy Parterre. I can't imagine what that fountain looked like without it because that's the only way I've seen it, and it just seems to belong. And every time I see it, I'm amazed that it survives the elements the way it does—it's outside in the heat of summer and in the cold of winter.

Free Birthdays at the Georgia Aquarium

Here's looking at you, kid.

This post isn't so much to make you ooh and ahh over my photography skills as much as it is to make you aware of a wonderful offer from the Georgia Aquarium. If you are a Georgia resident, you can go to the aquarium for FREE on your birthday. How cool is that!