The Eyes on LaFollette - Continued...

It’s been a busy week and I’ve been putting this off so I’m making myself post the continuation of my last entry – finally.

After a rough night of sleeping on the floor, I got up around 9. I took a quick shower and after packing my things, I headed to the continental breakfast at the hotel at the bottom of the hill. There I found a group of classmates eating a meal before the day's events. We enjoyed pleasant conversation over cereal, donuts, fruit and of course, coffee.

Once we were all prepared for another day of shooting, we returned to the hunt for the perfect picture. I decided to the visit the local park. Cove Lake State Park included a network of roads linking tennis courts to campgrounds, lakes and boat docks to swimming pools and even an amphitheater. I drove around looking for any kind of action: people pitching tents, cookouts, or fishermen standing on the banks. As I turned around from a dead end section of road, I saw an all-too familiar black Nissan Maxima coming towards me. It was Ben Moser looking for the same photo opportunities I was. We decided to team up and look for interesting people doing interesting things.

We drove over to the lake and found a couple walking down a paved path, fishermen casting off the bank and boaters paddling around. Ben made use of his 55-300mm lens and audio recorder by taking photos of the boaters and sound from a flock of geese swimming around. We then headed over to the campgrounds. We bravely decided to approach a family cooking breakfast beside their fifth-wheel camper. The family was interesting to say the least. The theme song Dueling Banjos from the movie Deliverance faded from our minds as we walked back to our cars.
At that point, Ben had to return to Knoxville for work. I left the lake and continued on my adventure. Once back into the populated area of LaFollette, I spotted a petting zoo in the mall parking lot. It seemed like a great opportunity to find people petting animals - which can sometimes make for good pictures. There was a family there that had a little boy who was having the greatest time. I shot a few pictures, got their names, and when things got boring, left.

Charlie - the baby Camel

My next destination was back at the gun store. When I arrived, a couple cars were outside so I was hoping for some customers guying guns. Nope. One guy was inside and was pretty much shootin’ the breeze with the owner about black powder rifles. I some picture just to say I did. At this point, I was wondering if staying for Saturday was worth it.

Continuing on, I found Jordan Vest taking pictures at a skate park beside a massive rummage sale. I took at least one great shot of a skater’s mid-air tick before exploring the rummage sale.


Not finding anything of interest there, Jordan and I went to lunch. We enjoyed talking cars and cameras over Wendy’s before heading back to Knoxville.

Jordan Vest behind me on our way to lunch