Early morning conversations.

This weekend I’m in Augusta, Georgia. Why? C’mon! You know! It’s got to be basketball! Tony has a tournament which is actually across the river in Aiken, SC. it was about the same distance to here from Charleston, about 3 hours. This is my first time ever being in Augusta and probably my last, unless another tournament brings me this way.

I took one of the many tourism brochures from the lobby of the hotel. It was for a place called Savannah River Rapids Park. It sounded promising. Fortunately, it is about 5 minutes from the hotel. Last night I checked the time for sunrise, set my alarm for 5:45 so as to get there about 40 minutes before the sun came up, and went to sleep. I awoke at the proper time, got dressed and headed out. After walking down to the dam, I saw a trail along the river that might offer a better view. The wide view turned out to be so-so, but I happened to walk down to a place where people launch their small boats.

After I had been there for a few minutes, a kayaker, pictured here, came down, said good morning, told me about the otters, beavers, and various wildlife that I might see, and away he went. Of course, I had to take several slow shutter speed exposures of him. This was the one that I liked best.

Next came a man with a small fishing boat and a kitten. He said that he had just found the kitten in his driveway this morning and picked it up. He thought that the kitten might like to go fishing! He noticed my camera and wanted to know what I was using. I told him that it was a digital camera. He said that he used to be a photographer for about 20 years, shooting weddings using Hassleblad equipment. Now, he and other photographer buddies of his have day jobs. They no longer shoot. Him, primarily because of some ankle surgery and a torn ACL (knee ligament). He said, though, that he doesn’t miss it much. He’d much prefer to do his day job than to deal with all of the Bridezillas that he had to work with most every Saturday.

As he hold me his story, I watched the light continue to change. I was somewhat anxious to continue shooting, but then my whole attitude changed to one of thankfulness. In this time period where there is so much political correctness and fear about almost everything, especially strangers, I felt quite honored that he would take the time out of his day to stop and tell me his story. After that, I simply relaxed, didn’t care about the light, and was really interested in what he had to say. He told me about his one encounter with a computer in his home and why he got rid of it. His daughter did a search in the Internet for ‘toys’ and the pictures that she got back were not suitable for younger audiences. He is a very religious man, so wanted the evil thing out of his house. So, he’s not willing to bring another one in and learn about digital photography. He said he’d stick with film.

So, finally, we finished our conversation, which lasted about 20 minutes or more. The sun was now above the horizon and about to peak above the trees. I walked across the spillway’s walkway and attempted to get some pictures of the river, where I encountered more folks who wanted to talk. What can I say. Sometimes the morning is more about bonding and good conversation then it is about photos.