The leaves are changing on top of Brasstown Bald in Hiawassee, GA.

This is the time to take advantage of the fall colors, especially in the mountains of North Georgia.  The peak is normally in the next couple of weeks.  The closer you get to Atlanta the closer the peak will be to the first of November.

Take some time and plan for a day trip.  Their are wonderful scenic routes that you can take.  Here is a link for planning your trip.

I like using telephoto lens to capture the mountains.

Shoot a variety of photos at different zoom positions on your point and shoot or DSLR.  You will be surprised at how often a telephoto captures more of the vista than a wide-angle lens.  One of the reasons for this is the wide-angle makes things look further away.  You want to bring the impact up close and personal.

Normally I like to shoot the wide-angle with a flower or something close-up as the main subject with the mountains in the background.  I didn’t see any flowers that I could do this with on this trip.  The drought has affected some of those plants.

You can see the leaves changing here closer to the top of the mountain.

You might want to bring a polarizing filter to help cut the glare on the plants and increase the color.  Here is a link to explain what it can do for you.

This is the visitor center at the top of Brasstown Bald. There are great exhibits inside, but we just stayed outside with the great weather this weekend.

The best part of just taking off to the mountains this weekend was the surprises you find. We stumbled across Jim’s Smokin Que in Blairsville, GA.  We asked the park rangers where they recommended to eat and they told us about them.

I liked the food so much I wanted to be sure I put them in my blog here.  I hope you try them out.  I shot a few photos to show you how on the spur of the moment with a Point and Shoot camera you can tell a story.  I shot all of these photos here with my Nikon P7000.  They make a newer version called the Nikon P7100 that I highly recommend if you are in the market for a camera. 

(Option #1) This is how many folks might want to start their photo story on Jim’s Smokin Que. does this really get your attention?  I don’t think so.

The first four photos here were me working until I could find the photo that I would use to start the story.  I was torn between #3 and #4.  Which one do you like the best to tell the story?  Notice I asked which one to tell the story and not which one do you like the most.

Why would I ask the question this way?  Tell me why in the comments below.

(Option #2) I like this better than the first photo, but I still think this looks too generic as far as unique and making you take a second look.

(Option #3) I went between this photo and Option #4 as to which one I would use the lead the story.  I think both work.

(Option #4) This is most likely the photo I would choose to lead the story.  You know what to look for driving into Blairsville on the side of the road.

Had I known I would want to tell this story for some magazine I would want to go back and show them Smoking the meat out back of the restaurant.  I would want to show more photos in the kitchen to show how fresh everything is they prepare.

When you Google Jim’s Smokin Que you will find write ups that not only mention the food, but how clean the place is for a BBQ joint. It was clean and made me want to come again.

I love Jim’s tag line of “You can smell our BUTTS for miles!”  If I were assigned to shoot the story and not just on a trip to the mountains for the afternoon, I would try and be here when the counter was full. I think then the sign with everyone in the stools would have a little more humor.

Their famous “Butt Sauce.”  They also have a “Kickin Butt Sauce.”

It is important to show the things that help make the story different from other places.  All BBQ places have a sauce, but how they name that sauce can make it more appealing or humorous.  I think we see the humor of Jim Guess and his wife Donna.

I ordered the Beef Brisket sandwich with Cole Slaw & Baked Beans

Review by Mike E.

The Real Deal. Just delicious. I stumbled on to this place during a day trip up to the North Georgia mountains, and I am glad I did. Everything I had here was fantastic. This is  BBQ how’s it’s meant to be. But unlike authentic BBQ joints, this place is clean and the staff is very friendly.

I had the Pulled Pork Sandwich and it was great. It came on a great soft bun with a ton of pork. They have this sweet BBQ sauce they make called “Butt Sauce” that is just ridiculously good. I couldn’t drench enough of it my sandwich.  The baked beans were really tasty too. They had some sort of pepper (I think) mixed in which gave them a really unique and delicious flavor.

They are also friendly to the motorcyclist, which come from far away to ride these scenic highways of North Georgia.

Review by Mike S

I’m a BBQ snob, and Jim’s is in my top 5.  Great pulled pork, lean but not dry with a deep smoke flavor.  Good sauce (i went with the hot) and seved on a nice soft roll.  Beans and slaw were good, not great.  Very nice people, you could do surgery in their open kitchen.  A nice surprise on the way to Blairsville.

This is Jim Guess the owner of Jim’s Smokin Que.  He is a friendly guy making you feel at home at his BBQ stand in Blairsville, GA.

Why would I put into this blog those reviews I found on the web? Quotes are the greatest tool for the writer. The only think better than a quote is the recorded voice of the customer.  I would really like to go back and interview some of the customers and put together a multimedia package on the place.  It would just be fun to do and give me another excuse to go and eat some more of Jim’s Smokin Que.

It’s October and the time for pumpkins and scarecrows.  This is in the overflow parking area, which we had to use when we first arrived.  They are a great place to eat while you visit North Georgia.

Dr. Ken Day enjoys catching up with Knolan Benfield after some 33 years.

A couple of days ago Nicholas Spratlen sent me an email that he and his friend Dr. Ken Day wanted to come and see the missions photo exhibit at Roswell Presbyterian Church.  They both get my e.Newsletters and read my blog and were fascinated with the concept.

I was pretty excited because they didn’t know that my uncle Knolan Benfield was coming to town the same day for a visit.  We met them at the church and frankly Nicholas and I barely got a word in, Knolan and Ken were just enjoying catching up and swapping stories about what it was like working together for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board during the 1960s and 70s. 

Dr. Ken Day and Knolan Benfield

“What impressed me the most about Ken was when he became the head of the communications division he went back to school and got his Phd in communications from the University of Georgia,” said Knolan. Today for the first time he told Ken about how he felt.  Ken was sort of paralyzed for a moment. No one had ever thanked him for doing that.

It reminded me how important it is to tell people the positive things they do for you.

The other day I wrote to my friend John Spink, a photographer for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.  I was just taken back at how consistent his work was in the paper and with all the cutbacks it is hard to work for a newspaper these days.  I just wrote and told him I was really impressed with his work.

John’s response was unbelievable.  He said the comments made a big difference for him that day.

The reason for the get together, the missions photo exhibit that I curated for Roswell Presbyterian Church.

Take the time today and pick up the phone, get on facebook, send an email or just send a hand written card to someone.  Thank them for what they did in your life.

I had to share these photos of Ken and Knolan, because you can see in their faces that they really were enjoying each other.  We all need that in our lives.

Three ingredients: 1) Ball, 2) Competition & 3) Peak Action

There are three things that I think make for a good sports photo:

1) The Ball
2) Competition
3) Peak Action

Not every sport has a ball, but for those that do I think it really helps to have the ball in the photo. Breaking this rule is possible to still have a good or even great photo.  But like all rules, when you break the rule you need to know why you did so.

Fan reaction to a play is a good away from the action shot where the ball will not exist for example.

If you have a great peak action photo and the ball it doesn’t look as good without the competition.  It looks often like a practice moment when the competition isn’t in the photo.

The competition in sports shows the adversity that literally you must overcome to be a winner on the field.

We have all three, but the competition isn’t up and close like the first photo.  This communicates the runner is outpacing the competition.

Just before they hike the ball in football you could have the ball and the competition in the photo, but lack the peak action.  It is a static moment.

Some of the things that can help communicate the peak action are expression and body language.  If you can see the expressions of the players you often can see the exertion of effort in the expression of the athlete. 

When they are at the peak of their jump like going over the defender you can see a peak moment.

Remember, in all of photography if you wait to see it and then click the shutter you will always miss it.  You need to learn to anticipate a moment.  This is most likely the one thing separating the great moments from an almost good moment. 

Here we have the ball and peak action, but there is really no immediate danger with the competition.  So there is less excitement than the photo above.

These three tips are on top of the things necessary in all photos:

1) Good exposure
2) in focus
3) Well composed
4) Good use of light

Mark Johnson talks with his photojournalism class at the University of Georgia.

Yesterday I talked to Mark Johnson’s Photojournalism class at The Grady College of Journalism and Multimedia on the campus of the University of Georgia.  I shared with them business practices and marketing concepts for the photographer.

If I had more time I would have told them to also about the importance of a personal project. If you ever hear a successful photojournalist speak about their work you will most likely hear about the “personal project.”

Today I want to talk about why I think this is a key to the success of the visual storyteller

I have hit the delete key way too much here to capture how important having an “inner drive” is to the success of your career. You have to be excited about a project that it consumes you enough that you are excited about thinking about the possibilities that it motivates you to act.

You need to have a passion about something so that when you pick up the camera to capture the subject emotions are driving your compositions and not a formula.

You need a support system, because going something all alone is difficult.

My faith community talks about the individual call and the corporate call. While a person may feel they are called to do something it is the corporate call of the community that must confirm the call.

By sharing your ideas with some close friends they can help encourage you and challenge you in the process.

Mark is more than just their teacher, he can serve as their coach or mentor, but they must make that decision

You really need someone who has been where you want to go or at least has taken on a personal project and succeeded.

Your coach will talk to you before you start. They should ask questions and help you to articulate why you have chosen an approach.

As you shoot your project you should be taking it to them to review. This is when you will discover with their help you have some holes in the coverage. You then will reshoot and show the results again to your coach.

Sometimes you will discover that the project you tried to cover just doesn’t work for one reason or another. This is when your coach might suggest taking on something else that might be better match for your heart and abilities to capture.

 
When you are done with your project you will know it because you have achieved your goal.

Sometimes your long-term goal may take years to achieve, but due to your efforts people have hired you to shoot some of their projects. Sometimes you may have a very successful career and still not achieve your goal for a long time.

Just the other night my wife Dorie helped me to see I had achieved some of my goal.

I had been asked to curate the art exhibit on missions for our church. It has been up now for a couple of weeks. Some people had come to tell me how much they loved the photos. “They are so real and we just love them.” Soon I had a couple folks talking to us. Then I overhead my wife telling a couple that this was not just Stanley’s profession this is the essence of what he is all about.

You see my goal was not to be published only, I have wanted to know that my photos were having impact on people’s lives. I hope that because of the art exhibit people feel called to give, go and/or pray for missions. If this happens then this personal project met the objective.

Students listen to Mark as he introduces me to the class

What is your personal project?

I assumed everyone knows about getting the lowest rates when traveling. On some recent trips I realized many are paying top dollar for things like hotel, rental cars and airfare.

By booking with Hotwire you still get to use your hotel chains reward points.  So I have joined Priority Rewards, Hilton Honors and Marriott Rewards.  Sometimes I must weigh the travel time between the hotel and the events or airport and the choice is not just based on the lowest price but how much time I will be spending to and from those locations.