Places to Photograph in Georgia

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T

he best landscape photographs are made in place you are familiar with and can visit often.

There are a few reasons for this.

One, the more familiar you are with the landscape and its particular characteristics the easier it is for you to know of those special spots that really shine. Two, you can get there a lot quicker and setup a lot faster than someone that’s never been there before. And three, you can visit in every season and time to develop an eye for what looks best in each.

Below is a short list of places that I’ve visited and taken a few pictures. Hopefully these will help you get started on making your own list of local favorites.

Hurricane Shoals Park

Hurricane Shoals is a pretty large park that sits in Jackson County. This park like many others has a sordid past with fights among Indian tribes, revolutionary figures, mills, plants and a sundry of other legends and tails.

The park sits on 26 acres with its crown jewel being the shoals itself. The rushing water moves down and over the shoals tumbling between large boulders and over slippery rock outcroppings. Also located at the park is an old mill and a small village of old homes named “Heritage Village”.

If you’re a photographer there are a few things to bear in mind if you want to take photographs of the shoals. One, in the summer its very popular with the local folk to get cool. This means its going to be exceedingly hard to get an image of the shoals without a lot of people.

Two, the shoals are a wide area and, you might think would make an amazing shot. So far, I’ve found isolating interesting features provide a better image.

Three, check out the village for some more nostalgic images. It can be tricky to get a got photograph without some type of modern convenience, like a hand rail or trash can in the shot but, it can be done.

Little Mulberry Park

Little Mulberry Park is situated in the northern half of Gwinnett County. Within its domain sits the second highest point in the county, two ponds a nature preserve, many hiking trails and some very interesting water features.

I can say that this park is in my opinion the high point for the county in regards to providing a park with the rugged outdoors feeling combined with some wonderful photography opportunities.

It’s a very large park, 860 acres in total. You can hike the back wood trails by foot or, by horse if you’re so inclined. In fact there are so many rugged trails that I quite honestly have not been through most of them.

One thing that makes this park so amazing is that you must – and I stress – must make multiple visits in many seasons to have it truly unfold for you. There are many facets and faces to discover and I have yet to see more than a few of them. The highest point of the park will give you a nice view of the surrounding countryside. It sits at the top of some grasslands that almost always have a slight breeze. From here you can make some decisions on which direction you would like to take next.

Next, the nature preserve has a few hidden gems. A narrow waterfall near the base of the preserve and if you take the hiking trails you can find a stream with lots of large boulders that offers some interesting opportunities. If you instead decide to go down the Ravine Overlook trail you will find a trail littered with beech wood, a cozy bridge and yet another shelf waterfall.

Two notes about visiting Little Mulberry as a photographer. One, its very popular with other photographers – so you will eventually bumble into one. And two, the water table at this park is an odd bird. If you plan to shoot water features make sure there has been a lot of rain – otherwise the waterfalls will not be flowing very well and, some of the creek beds will be bone dry.

As a safety notice this park perhaps due to its rugged features suffers from wash. Many of the trails will at times be closed or completely washed away due to heavy rainfall or deadfall in the forest. Of course you can just bypass the signs and keep on going but, be aware of the risks.

Sells Mill Park

Sells Mill Park is another little spot located in the southern edge of Jackson County near the town of Hoschton. Its comprised of a small pond retained by the dam above the mill, the mill a small pavilion and a large granite outcrop.

Though this park usually doesn’t offer much return-visit punch for photographs its still a nice little park for a quick walk or, just to get out of the house. There does seem to be a path that leads further back into the forest but, I haven’t explored that as of yet.

If you are going to photograph you might find a few interesting spots.

The first is the dam which works well with long exposure. The second would be the mill which is great to shoot below near the end of the small river pool. And, the third would be some of the interesting features of the granite outcrop.

Take heed, this area is also popular with bathers – if its hot you might be shooting around people standing in the river.

Yellow River Park

Located on the other end of Gwinnet county is the little Yellow River Park. Since it’s a little farther than I normally like to travel I’ve only frequented this park a couple of times.

It’s a pretty straight forward small park that’s main focus in the river itself. You can walk from the parking lot down a short trail and out onto a section of rock with many larger boulders and small eddies of water to take a look at.

Much like Hurricane Shoals – taking a wider shot of this area usually ends in failure. The angle of light makes long-exposure difficult until much later in the day. I’ve found focusing on some of the smaller features of the park to be more effective.

Mount Arabia Park

Mount Arabia is a made up two granite outcrops. Both are siblings of the much large granite outcrop known as Stone Mountain.

This park is pretty large and offers some spectacular granite features for a rustic rocky look. There are areas you can explore like the granite quarry, lots of boulders some rare and unusual plant life and old quarry buildings.

Alas this park is also protected because of these same rare plants. In fact one of the mounts if pretty much off-limits except on reservation. So, you will need to be aware of this fact when visiting or, you might find some of the things you’d like to see unavailable.

As a photographer be aware of a few things. In the summer its going to be very hot. I found this out the hard way. This area can offer a few interesting wide shots but, also many isolated and unique images as well.

If you want some of the rocky look of granite boulders and crags but, don’t like all the people like at Stone Mountain this might be the spot you’re looking for.

 Fort Yargo State Park

I’ll be honest with you here. I used to live near this state park and, for the most part never found anything truly remarkable about it from a photographers point of view. It is a nice relaxing park and, if you like to bike it seems to have created a name for itself.

But, there is one redeeming quality if you do plan on visiting with camera in hand. It’s a little trail right of the lake called “Birdberry Trail.” If you can get there early in the morning and be pretty quiet you may be rewarded with some great wildlife shots.

There is also a pavilion that sits right on the edge of the marshes that provides the chance to get off some great shots of cranes and herons as well

The tradeoff for this spot is the entrance fee to the park. You will need to pay at least 5 bucks to get in.
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Freemans Mill Park

Freemans Mill is nestled in a little valley in the north eastern side of Gwinnet County. It consists of an old mill, spill way, and park area.

This is another little secret gem of Gwinnett County. It’s not a large park. You can reach the dam and mill directly from the parking lot. And, you can cover most of the interesting features (if you’re just scouting around) in around thirty minutes.

But, the dam makes a great spot for long exposure. You will need to climb down some broken walls to reach a good elevation but, its not too difficult. Bear in mind that it does have more visitors in the warm months so, be aware of people possibly being in the shot if you come to early.

The mill itself is unfortunately in my mind, not that interesting. Its been fixed up and made weather proof. That’s good if you want to preserve the mill – which I’m sure was the goal. But, for an interesting and weather-worn image it just comes across as flat.

Here is the secret part about this park. There is another waterfall here. And it’s a really nice one. To reach it you will need to go by foot across the bridge on the main road and hike back in about 200-300 feet. You can actually see some of the falls from behind the mill.

If you’re really brave you can hike to the top of this waterfall, go around a bend and be greeted by an even more interesting waterfall. Probably one of the largest in the county.
Word of warning about the second and farther back waterfall. Do not attempt to climb. On a recent excursion I decided to shortcut my walk and climb directly up the stair-stepping falls. Believe me, even with sturdy hiking boots those rocks are extremely slippery.