Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

Work

July 2008 Postcard for AccuPrint

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A postcard for AccuPrint featuring downtown Birmingham. This photo is actually 4 photos I took using my Canon 40D and 17×40 wide angle lens and combined in Adobe Photoshop. it is so much less complicated to merge photos than it was just 5 years ago. Would have taken an hour to merge these photos–now it only takes a couple of minutes and the heavy lifting is done by your computer. There were a couple of errors–mainly with the concrete work around the edge of the pools. Easy enough to correct.


Notice my link to the LinkedIn Network at the top right of the page–if you would like to join this networking site, just click the button. (and don’t forget to add me as a connection!)

Photos From Downtown Birmingham

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Took a quick trip downtown today to snap some photos for a project. Went to 2nd Avenue North and 21st Street for a little while then drove over to Kelly Ingram Park.

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A Busy Week Last Week

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Wow! Last week was about the most hectic I’ve had in a while. Monday and Tuesday started off normally, I guess. Finished up a newsletter for the Sierra Club and got a good bit done on a website for a new client, Aztec Construction. Oh, and I finished a postcard for the Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama’s summer fundraiser, Hot Diamonds in the Summer.

Then, Wednesday, I headed to Gadsden, Alabama for a final meeting with the Lookout Mountain Parkway Association on a corridor management plan we’ve been developing over the past 12 months or so. Got some good press on this one–including a nice long article in the Gadsden Times and some coverage–thankfully not including me–on local Jacksonville, Alabama channel 24. Channel 24 TV video: http://www.tv24.tv/news/?newsID=4959#. Looks like the Gadsden Times really believes in the project, as they ran a Sunday editorial on the Lookout Mountain Parkway.

On the way back from Gadsden, we had a flat tire–I didn’t know if I’d remember how to change a tire. I doubt I’ve done it since I was forced to learn how in high school–a teacher thought that everyone should know how. I was successful, however.

We made it back to Birmingham around 3 p.m. I hurried home, packed a bag and hustled away to Camp McDowell for the 2.5 day Your Town Alabama workshop (see the photos below). As luck would have it, I left all my hanging clothes hanging in our guest bedroom, so I stopped in Jasper to buy new shirts–at the tractor supply store because they had a sign for Carhartt clothes. Good deals on 4 shirts. I took about 450 photos over the course of 2 days.

To cap off a busy week of being in front of people, I got a copy of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s quarterly newsletter, ACTION, that has an article I wrote on scenic byways. I’ve copied the article and added it to my Your Town Alabama blog.

Your Town Alabama 10 Year Anniversary

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I wasn’t at the first Your Town Alabama workshop (held in 1998) but I’ve been involved since 1999. This year was the biggest workshop ever. Below are a few of the photos from the two-and-a-half day workshop. The Your Town Alabama blog is one of my favorite projects, with almost daily updates of events taking place around Alabama, grant opportunities for small towns, and tourism news, among other things.

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AIA Design Awards Updates

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Wow, I had no idea just how much work I was getting myself in when I suggested to my friend Rhea that we do a “Special Edition Newsletter” for the AIA Design Awards this year. The design awards are one of the biggest things AIA Birmingham does each year (well, they really do a lot, but awards ceremonies are popular). They have a jury of outside experts review submissions of area architects (there were 37 submissions) and give awards in several areas, including residential and commercial. One submission was an alpaca shed–fun stuff.

Anyway, we finished up the section of the website this morning. It managed to grow dramatically. From what I imagined as a one page event, the section turned into a separate slideshow for each entry along with a slideshow of winners and another slideshow of the event itself. Huge…

Cool stuff, though. Check it out at http://www.aiabham.org/2008designawards.html

The Week Ahead

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A busy week coming up this week.

  • Preparing a special section of the American Institute of Architects website dealing with their big annual event, Design Awards. Lots of photos, lots of projects. Should complete that later this afternoon or in the morning.
  • I’m starting work on Aztec Construction’s website, a new client.
  • I’ve got some work to do for Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama–mainly surrounding their summer fundraiser, Hot Diamonds in the Summer. (you can buy tickets to win a $5000 pair of earrings. Tickets are $25.00 each.)
  • I’m working on finishing up a website I’ve been working on longer than I care to admit for an architect.
  • I have my monthly newsletter for the Sierra Club, Alabama chapter.
  • I’ve got some work to do on my byways project for the state’s scenic byways program.
  • Oh, and I’ve got to make two trips out of town.
    • First to Tuscaloosa for a meeting about tourism and some loop trails that the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is working on.
    • Then, on Friday, down to Thomaston, Alabama for a board retreat for the Rural Heritage Center to discuss with them website/marketing opportunities along with a general discussion of tourism and why the Black Belt and rural heritage matter so much. (For those of you who don’t know, Thomaston, Alabama is only about 15 miles from Octagon, Alabama where I grew up. The Rural Heritage Center sits right next to the school that most of my sisters attended. One of the board members is the probate judge and another is my old high school English teacher Mrs. Friday–small world!)