More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts
These are photos I’ve taken over the last 5 years or so from the rural part of Southwest Alabama. Some are just a few weeks old. Others I took back in 2003. I’m putting these on my blog as much to test adding Slideshow Pro Flash files as anything else. Seems to work. Watch for more slide shows in the coming weeks!
Wow! I’m really impressed with how well photoshop creates panoramas from multiple images. Had I been a bit more careful, I think this would have turned out even better. There is a bit of distortion–mainly from using my 17-40 mm lens at the widest setting. The photo below is a compilation of 8 photos taken last weekend. Even with my relatively wide angle lens, I couldn’t quite get the whole Tutwiler Hotel in the frame. This hasn’t been doctored by me very much at all–there are a couple of rough spots along the roof line, but nothing that a little touchup can’t fix. This took just a few minutes–and most of that was just processing. This would have taken a lot longer before they added the photomerge feature to Photoshop.
Another photo from my trip back from Thomasville, Alabama. This was taken along Highway 25 between Faunsdale and Greensboro. There were about 30 cows all gathered in a corner. I liked this shot. Not sure where I can use it, but it provides a bit of that pastoral feel.
I sent our new Canon 40D with Ann to take a photo of someone at her office for their newsletter and went to the backyard to take a couple of photos of some flowers we have using our old (probably about 5 years old now) Canon 10D. Snapped a couple of photos. This photo of chives is one of my favorites and the other is a flower I don’t know the name of, but dug in Octagon, Alabama last year. It is beautiful–the flowers close every afternoon when it is hot and open up when it is cool.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day in the Black Belt of rural Southwest Alabama. The morning involved working with the Ala-Tom RC&D Council on, primarily, the Southwest Alabama Tourism website followed by lunch at one of 3 Chinese restaurants in Thomasville, Alabama–okay, I can’t imagine how a town the size of Thomasville can support 3 Chinese restaurants, but it was a tasty lunch buffet. (I’ve got a rough draft of the front page only developed so far on my server: joewatts.com/southwestal)
After lunch, I struck out, first taking Highway 5 north to the intersection of Highway 25. I turned north on 25 and passed through Vineland then on to Thomaston, Alabama and the Rural Heritage Center. What a neat place. It has been there for years, but somehow I’ve managed to avoid going. I really was surprised that it had as much stuff as it does. If you ever make it to Marengo County, Alabama, it is well worth a stop. From there it was the typical route to Birmingham: through Faundsdale, Greensboro and Moundville and on to Tuscaloosa. From there, the boring but expedient interstate took me home.
Below is a shot from the drive down early in the morning taken along scenic Highway 5.
I’ve always liked this shot (taken in 2003 between Selma, Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama). The grass is green and the water and sky are blue–thanks in part to a little touch up work in Adobe Lightroom. I’m thinking of using this photo in a project I’m currently working on for the Southwest Alabama Rural Tourism group (www.alabamasfrontporches.com). It is in large part thanks to Adobe Lightroom that I’m even able to track it down. I’ve since gone through and done a better job of keywording some of my photos with place specific tags (they already have keywords relating to the specific city/town but not to the larger region. I’ve gone through and tagged about 500 or more with Southwest Alabama in addition to rural or byway or Marion or Greensboro. Hopefully, this will help me in this project and in the future.