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.  :)

The land of milk and honey...or rather milk and ice cream. :)

We spent the last few weekends driving around rural south Georgia and finally made it all the way over to Dothan, Alabama.  Fun facts: Newton, GA had a population of 851 at the 2000 census. The courthouse is this huge and beautiful red brick building from the early 20th c that is pretty incongruent with what seems like a tiny town full of abandoned businesses and damaged homes.  Apparently, once upon a time Newton was once a thriving little town, but it's been hit by a series of natural disasters as it sits in a flood plane and is prone to tornadoes.  Re: the peanut in the bathtub - Something like a quarter of the US peanut production comes from the lower Alabama area and so there's a lot of peanut-themed art and marketing.  There was a sexy peanut in a half-shell statue too, but the third camera I brought (and old Agfa) wasn't working properly and so I lost the image.  

I still haven't figured out what these tags are all about.  They're on the side of an abandoned institutional/industrial building in Dothan.  The sign says Dothan Industries: Supporting the Host Family.  My thoughts are that this was maybe a school for wayward youth or some sort of jail diversion work camp.  The graffiti leads me to believe someone died here.  Perhaps at the hands of the police?  I can't find anything about the building on the internet.  But, it's certainly creepy, I'll give it that.  :)

Horsing around, in more ways than one!

Jared and I have been tootling around GA and Alabama for the past few weekends.  We've been having a lot of fun and getting silly with our inner children.  I am so grateful to have a partner who is kind, fun, and shares my interests!!  We met some animals on our travels too, including horses, a mean-spirited pony, and whole herd of goats who were totally in love with me until they realized I didn't have an apple.  :)

I shot with my dad's old Minolta X700 and the Recesky TLR that Jared built.  Double exposures are so much fun!