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.
byways
In the Gadsden Times
There’s a good article on the Lookout Mountain Parkway in the Gadsden Times this morning talking about the Parkway’s plans for the future and about the meeting I had with them yesterday.
National Byway Status Goal For Lookout Mountain Parkway
Always exciting to get some positive press for the scenic byways program. (And always nice to be mentioned in the news in a positive way!)
Lookout Mountain Parkway
Had a corridor management plan meeting along the Lookout Mountain Parkway today. Here’s a shot of the Noccalula Falls, in Gadsden, Alabama. Photo taken by Joe Watts, Canon 40D, 17-40 f4 lens.
Getting Ready For a Busy Week
This, the last week of January, looks like it will be a busy one. I’ve got a meeting to finalize my upcoming work on the West Alabama Regional Tourism website, www.alabamasfrontporches.com on Monday.
Then, Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be heading to the Gulf to be part of our final presentations relating to the development of a Corridor Management Plan for the Coastal Connection Scenic Byway (one meeting on Tuesday in Bayou La Batre and the next meeting on Wednesday morning in Fairhope). This is part of the Alabama Scenic Byways project I’m working on with the Alabama Association of Regional Councils and we’ve been actively working on this for almost a year. (The kick-off meeting was held in February 2007. That’s when this photo was taken.) It will be good to be finished.
This really is the time of the year to go to the gulf, although I won’t have time to enjoy it.
Another Newsletter–for the Alabama Byways Program
Seems as though I’m working on lots of newsletters these days. This is a newsletter I’ve intended to put together for a long time and just haven’t gotten around to it. This is the first newsletter for the Alabama Byways Program. Future issues will have more topical information including grant deadlines, tips and more, but for the first issue, it seemed a good idea to send out basic information about exactly what the program is.I’ve been working on byways in Alabama since I took a job at Scenic Alabama back in 1999. I’ve long since left Scenic Alabama, but really fell in love with the byways program. It is one of those really great concepts that lets small communities around Alabama (or, in larger terms, around the country) band together to create something bigger than any of them can create on their own.
Growing up in rural Alabama (I’ve always referred to it as the edge of nowhere because people have actually heard of the middle of nowhere), I’ve always had a love of rural life and the small towns that exist nowhere else. The byways program is my chance to work with these communities. (I’ve also managed to work with Alabama communities on some other projects, too. More on that in another post on another day.)
To read the newsletter, just visit the Alabama Byways website: www.alabamabyways.org/news.htm.
And, in case you are wondering about the seagull, this was taken in February of last year along the beautiful Coastal Connection Corridor that runs from north of Orange Beach over to Dauphin Island and beyond.