511 - Stone Mountain
You know you’re in the South when you’re climbing a giant rock to see the view.
But this ain’t no ordinary rock. It’s called Stone Mountain, like a fucking badass. It’s essentially a MASSIVE boulder in the middle of nowhere. It’s 1,600 feet tall, and more than 5 miles in circumference. From a distance, it looks like a giant meteor crashed into Georgia.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that it’s only 16 miles from Atlanta, making it the busiest tourist destination in all of Georgia.
Which was a strange change of pace for me. The past couple months have been dedicated to exploring the obscure waterfalls of Tennessee and Kentucky. Thus, when I pulled into the parking lot, I decided to never take waterfalls for granite ever again.
But either way there’s a good photography tip here. Just know that if you’re at a major landscape within 50 miles of a major US, it’s almost always going to be packed. That’s just science.
But either way, I had a solid time. (I’m going hard on the puns, fuck you.)
The hike to the top took only about 30 minutes, and I realized how out of shape I’ve gotten since I broke my foot 6 months ago. I think this was my sign to start running again… I’ve used the “my foot is recovering” excuse for too long now.
But I got up soon enough... Right when the colors started getting interesting. And they weren’t just good today, they were freaking fantastic.
To warm up, I figured I’d start with a zoom shot of the Atlanta skyline. Check this out:
“ATL Haze”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 500 ~ 198mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/400s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Damn that’s sexy. One editing tip I have for these types of shots is to go hard on the Orton (blur) Effect. When something is far away, it’s almost never going to be sharp- due to atmospheric haze. The further away it is, the more blur you can use. I wanted to keep that shot as subtle as possible.
Moving on, I figured I’d have to get some kind of rock shot. What else do you do on Stone Mountain?
So I started searching for some kind of small rock formation I could use in my foreground. Eventually I landed on this trio of rocks, right when the sun started to dip:
“Sky Mirror”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 500 ~ 17mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/60s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
I actually sat with the shot for a while before snapping the shutter. The clouds were moving fast, and I wanted to see if they would create some type of neat formation.
Spoiler alert, they did. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the rocks almost mirror the clouds exactly. Who thinks of this stuff?
The tip here is to always keep shooting away, even if you think you have got the shot. Especially if there’s clouds involved. You never know what they can turn into. I also prefer to keep my clouds centered above the subject- if possible, of quartz.
Imagine if the clouds were too far to the right or the left… They’d simply look unbalanced.
And with that I decided to go for one more zoomed in shot. The sun was looking wicked as hell, so I snagged this bad boy:
“Eye of the Sun”
Sony a7rIII + Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM
[ISO 1000 ~ 198mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/2500s]
(Want a Print? Get it here.)
Looks like the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Almost like the sun is melting away into oblivion… God I love that.
What would I do without these commentary blogs? I’m not sure. They help me visualize what’s going on in these shots in new ways. It’s not just for you folks. These write-ups change my perspective.
Anyway, that’s all I got today. This is OFFICIALLY my last shoot in the South. I’m going back to Colorado for a few months… The mountains (the real ones) are calling and I must go. Wonder if there’s a Hard Rock Cafe on the way.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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