Animals in farm and stone

A few weekends ago, Jared and I were driving down to Perry, Florida and I saw a pig farm on the side of road!  I'd never met any pigs before and I was so excited to touch and love them.  There were maybe a half dozen adult females and a few dozen piglets playing in mud puddles and generally being adorable.  The matriarch was a large black and white female who immediately charged the fence when I approached and sent all of the piglets scattering for cover.  I was a little frightened by this, by which I mean that I think I peed a little.  Pigs are HUGE!  And REALLY scary when they charge and only a hog wire fence stands between you.  :)

After a few minutes though, she relaxed a bit and all of the mamas and piglets came back out from hiding.  She did keep a close eye on me and even picked a fight with another pig mama in what I can only assume was a display of her dominance.  The pink pig mama below snuffled my hand and let me touch her (squeals of joy!  From me, of course!), although her interest in me waned when she realized I didn't have an apple for her.  She yawned (adorable) and then went back to the mudpits where she sneezed (even more adorable) as she flopped around, flinging mud everywhere.

All shot with a Pentax 645 on 120 film.

Small town south

I have been super busy with school for the last little while, but Jared and I did manage to get a few weekend drives in.  Here are some shots from Perry, Florida and Hahira, Greeville, and Asheville, Georgia.  Perry is really beautiful and charming.  They even have a store called the Fair Store! Adorable.  Hahira, Greenville, and Asheville are all small towns on the way from Thomasville and I-75.  The old school fire truck is on display in Hahira, and they have an old fashioned stage with bleachers where they screen movies on the weekend.  For Halloween, they had fright night movies planned including Goonies!  How cool!  The super abandoned building on the bottom was in...one of those towns in Georgia, I forget which.  BUT, the door is padlocked, just in case you were thinking about any funny business.  :)  The abandoned diner window shot (from downtown Perry) is one of my all-time faves.  I just happened to catch Jared looking off into the distance on the street behind me!  All shot with Pentax 645 on 120 film. 

Taggers in town!

Now that the thunder weather is starting to clear, Jared and I went on the search of all of the new graffiti in town.  This tagger, whom I lovingly refer to as "Big Sperm," is definitely escalating.  The tags now have color and texture and facial features and are literally all over the warehouse district near the art park.  I also found some smaller little thought bubbles (the more PC name) in the BFA warehouse, so I'm thinking our artist is getting some classical training.  :)

The rabbits telling you to Hoist Your Rag were done by the artist I call Paper Monster Man.  Though, as these are rabbits, maybe I need a less gender and species specific moniker for him/her.  The shot at the very bottom is of an old Coca-Cola plant, covered in our version of gang tags and stripped of all the copper and aluminum.  And as for the butterfly, well, that was just the world's happiest accident.  :)

What I did on my summer vacation, by Stephanie

I took six (yes, six!) film cameras on vacation with me.  The pics below were shot on my dad's old Mnolta X-700, a Diana 120, a Soligor 45, and a Recesky TLR.  We went to Mexico and the Bahamas and had a blast with the fam!

Here's a few from the Mayan ruins at Dzibilchaltun outside of Progreso, Mexico.  This is the Minolta here, and I love that every picture it takes has such a vintage 70s flavor.  The tourist shot is the most post-card looking photo I've ever taken!

And some random shots from Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas and a couple from Cozumel, Mexico:

Grave art in rural south GA

There's a lot of different cameras in play here: an Argus Matchmatic 135, a Soligor 45, and the Pentax 645.  I am a huge fan of weird grave art and this past weekend, we found the mecca of all things grave related in Cairo, GA!  It was a bit overwhelming, even by my standards.  Here's a few of the more successful ones.

And, here's some of the more unsuccessful ones.  Just in case you thought I might be overstepping with my description. :)

This is an old graveyard behind a working mill in Whigham, GA.  The blurrier pic is from my Soli - it shows the Slow: Children Playing sign.  But the sign is behind the mill...and in between the graveyard and the train tracks.  I feel badly for these children.

And there were tons of dixie flags (some new, some tattered and faded) in these old, dilapidated, and very remote graveyards.  I recognize that the confederate flag is a part of the south's history - it's a part I'm not sure should be celebrated, but like any flag, I find it interesting as a visual symbol.  Here's the best of the dixie flag pics.

Whigham and whatnot

Wound up in a sleepy little town called Whigham, GA last weekend.  It was a true small town, where people waved from their porches and everyone was eager to tell us of the town's healing springs long ago used as a baptismal well.  The PO-lice station had one cop with one car, and he was windexing the front door as we walked by.  I love rural America.  All shot with a Pentax 645.

 On the way, we swung by Southside Tallahassee: shot with a Pentax 645.

  

As promised, here's more Big Sperms!  I love spotting familiar taggers all over town!

My dad's old Soligor 45 (a 35mm camera that requires me to drill out the bottom of the 35mm canister to fit the pre-auto-rewind build) is semi-magical when it comes to animals.  Almost all of the animal shots I've taken have been with this camera.  So, whenever I'm in the mood to make some furry friends, I've only to load up the Soli and wait for them to appear.  :)