This past weekend we took a short trip to the Georgia Botanical Gardens, located in Athens, Georgia. It was a pleasant April day – cool, wind blowing  – relaxing.

We wound our way through I’d say three quarters of the paved trails of the gardens, spending around 2-3 hours doing this. Going in the spring is a great time to see all of the blooming foliage. There are also an additional five miles of more rugged trails that I have yet to check out.

The gardens are broken in several themes including:

1.   Heritage Garden
2.   International Garden
3.   Shade Garden
4.   Native Flora Garden
5.   Flower Garden
6.   Middle Oconee River

Heritage Garden info:

“The Heritage Garden contains plants of historic and socioeconomic interest to Georgia. Included in this garden are ornamentals such as heirloom annuals and perennials and antique roses; fruit crops such as apples, pears, and peaches; row crops such as cotton, tobacco, and peanuts; and a selection of plants native to Georgia.” -  Georgia Bot. website

International Garden info:

“…International Garden pays homage to three plant hunters whose work has had significant influence in the American South—the Bartrams, father and son (who named Franklinia in honor of Benjamin Franklin) and Ernest Henry “Chinese” Wilson whose Asian introductions have proven well adapted to the Southeast.” - Georgia Bot. website

Shade Garden info:

“Prominent architectural features of the Shade Garden are the wisteria covered arbor situated on the Azalea District Plaza and the Mathis Plaza with pool and sculpture, La Grazia Dello Stelo (The Graceful Stem) by Athens sculptor John Kehoe. The Mathis Plaza honors the first president of the Friends of the Garden, William Mathis. The Shade Garden is most colorful in spring when the dogwoods and azaleas are in flower but is interesting year-round.” – Georgia Bot. website

Native Flora Garden info:

“Many of the species found here are woodland species, some rare, threatened or endangered. Other rare, threatened, and endangered species can be found in the Bog Garden and Threatened and Endangered Plants section of the International Garden.”  – Georgia Bot. website

Flower Garden info:

“The Herb Garden contains collections of herbs used for culinary, dye, fragrance, and ceremonial purposes; medicinal herbs are displayed in the Physic Garden reminiscent of a 17th century knot garden. These two gardens represent the Middle Ages.” - Georgia Bot. website

There is also a tropical conservatory that you might want to check out as well. Which, I’ve dropped in some details below.

“The Visitor Center/Conservatory features a permanent collection showcasing these diverse crops. Examples include mahogany and bamboo used for furnishings; palms that provide timber, food, fiber, soap, oil, and fuel; and tropical spices used to flavor and preserve our food. Cinnamon, allspice, turmeric, cardamom, ginger, and pepper have been valued for thousands of years and continue to be used worldwide.” – Georgia Bot. website

Here are a selection of snapshots from the gardens to give you an idea of whats there.

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I just came back from a short trip over to the old bridge and mill spillway in Buford, Georgia. This spot is (I think) part of the Gwinnett Environmental& Heritage Center, or possibly Brogan park. I can’t really be sure.

Anyway, I attempted this spot early on a Saturday morning. Biggest problem, I hate getting up early… and I got there around 8:30 am. Sometimes I can get away with this lazy behavior with a ND filter. But, the biggest problem you will run into doing this at this spot is that the sun points directly in the barrel of the lens.

Buford Mill Spillway - too bright early in the morning

So you end up with something ugly and not very useful. Kind of like the photo to the left. And I was actually hiding behind a tree attempting to get a decent shot (silly me.)

Fortunatly I was able to talk my family into letting me come back later that day and try again. So, we packed up and drove back over around 4:oo pm.  Arriving around 4:35 pm. Just so you have an idea if you’re using something like Google Earth  to figure out the angle of the sun, this was in late November.

Another tip when getting there is if you’re coming down 85 south is to take the Georgia Mall exit but head to the Lawrenceville off-ramp, not the Mall ramp. When you get to the bottom of this ramp which is a tight cork-screw, you will see a little old gravel road that leads directly down to the old bridge. Jump off right there and park directly above the mill spillway. Now, I can’t endorse this being totally legal, I’ve done it a few times, and I know lots others that do as well. But, I can’t say whether the park frowns on it or not.

Buford Mill later in the day. Much better.

The shot I got later in the day was much better. Which turned out something like the photo to the right. See more natural and landscape photography.

Now, this photo is actually an HDR composite with some post-work to pull off the final image. Some other tips for this location is its really tricky to find a nice shot. Its a wide spillway, and if you don’t want to attempt to cross the water then look for a little island that should center you directly below the entire dam.

Another thing you will have to contend with is the junk. This spillway is below the mall and a major interstate. And as you might have guessed by now, lots of crap. Bottles, cans, tape, string, paper, bags… its a real mess. So, you are going to spend some time in post cleaning this crap out of the image.

Parts the automobile sim… By Mark Hewatt Book Preview

Check out my latest photobook, Parts at blurb.com

Finally, I played around a little more in post to come up with one more interesting image. The first image is what the orignal unprocessed photo looked like.

Buford Mill Spillway instructional - original

This is the second, tone-mapped image.

Buford Mill Spillway instructional - toned

And finally, the finished photograph with some added texture and depth-meddling.

Buford Mill Spillway instructional - finished composite

I hope this little list of ideas help you come with of your own neat ideas on how to take a very plain and average photo into something much more interesting.

Oh, hey this stuff is some of the first work I processed on my new laptop. Which is a Lenovo Thinkpad SL410 . Its a great little computer for those that can’t swing a macbook pro or, have a lot of dedicated PC software and programs. Its super-fast and has a nice display. Also, very sturdy and so far, very dependable.

Purchase photography from my gallery >>

I’m shocked, just shocked by my luck at Little Mullberry Park, located in Gwinnett county, Georgia.

Little Mullberry park sports these features:

• 890 acres
• 2 fish ponds
• play area
• hiking trails
• 2nd highest point in Gwinnett county
• nature preserve
• and… a 30ft waterfall

I’d read quite a few times on various hiking sites about a waterfall located in this park. And I’d never really made an effort to fully explore much of this park to substantiate this claim. Until this weekend.

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I got up early on a November morning, 38 degrees – plenty cool enough to keep my overweight self from dying of a heat stroke to get out this phantom falls and get off a couple shots. I arrived around 8 AM, and started walking down the main asphalt path from the eastern parking lot. Now, during this hunt I had no real idea where this thing was, and since its not really advertised I wasn’t sure which way to go.

So, I made the fateful mistake of going cross-county after walking about .5 miles into the forest, thinking hey if they don’t talk about this thing, it must be way back on a hiking trail. So, after huffing and steaming and almost going head-first down a ravine, I ended up at a slow-moving stream. And realized I was going to  have one hell of a time finding this elusive falls.

I clamored  back up the far side of the gully and had to stumble around a huge tree that had fallen. I then heard the flapping of wings and spotted a hawk perched on the top branch of this fallen tree. It was a very agreeable bird, allowing me to switch lens and squeeze off some photographs.

Right about then two hikers passed above me on the trail and I asked them about this so-called waterfall. My bird flew off then at the sound of us humans talking, drat! But, both of these hikers knew where the waterfall was, on a paved path – the one I had originally been on! Disgusted with my lack of patience, I thanked them and started back down the hiking path towards the trail head.

Walking back down this hiking trail I realized this park completely changed its character from a pedestrian walking park with a playground and fishing hole, to something more rugged and wild. There were little streams, boulders, dense pockets of trees and types of wildlife. I had taken a few photos along the path, but so far nothing I’m really happy with yet.

Whew! Ok, back to the paved path. The two hikers had explained to me that I should turn left once on the main trail and look for a sign that said “Caution, Steep Grade”. Steep grade? Here? And after being exhausted, sweating and blowing hard from hauling an extra 30 pounds of crap up and down through the woods and gullies in my quest for this secret spot?

And there it was, the sign! I stumbled towards it and looked up… the waterfall! And not some dinky little thing but a good 30 footer! With all the recent rainfall it was pouring water nicely, great for some long-exposure. I had to stumble down into the gulch that the fall poured into, getting myself soaked with ice cold water, but it was well worth it.

Ok, some details if you want to come and shoot this particular and unique waterfall in a county that has only a few really known locations (I happen to know of a couple more that are less known, but those are for another post.) First, stay on the main asphalt path if you park at the Fence Rd. entrance. I think  you want to stay on the Hog Mountain path and it will descend down to the falls. I can’t be exact on this  yet due to my overland journey.

Also, if you plan to shoot early, be in place by 9 AM -ish below the waterfall in the winter. The sun will still be below the top of the hillside and  you can expose longer. Wear boots, by golly I was cold in my walking shoes. In the fall the leaves will cover a lot of water making it look like solid ground, carry a stick and test it out first.

I have these prints for sale in my online gallery if  you would like to purchase one for your wall.

Gwinnett County Parks page.