In many ways my birthday has been just another day for me for years now, prompting no special planing on my part. Well this past Friday was the best one I can remember in years.

This year I decided I wanted to get out of town for a bit, even though I had so much other work I needed to be doing. I really kicked off the whole birthday experience Saturday night by going to see my friend Seth Walker play at Eddie’s Attic with my friend Nancy, which was a great show, and seeing how much she seemed to have enjoyed it may have been better than the show itself. Then Friday, I woke up pushing to get a bunch of business emails squared away before I could head up to the North Georgia Mountains to join my friend Tress and her friends where they were camping for the weekend. I ended up getting two different bids approved that morning, both of which are great jobs that pay well, so that put me in a pretty good mood.

Then, I get to the camping spot. It was a secluded spot way back on a mountain dirt-road that was right next to a stream. I then set my tent up maybe twenty-five feet from said stream. Yeah, it was nice. So, I got to listen to it in the background as I slept after having watched the leaves fall from the trees in the wind, while standing around a campfire with others that loved to camp too. I will be back to the same spot again — soon. These are some photos that I took for fun while there with one of my old beater cameras:

I saw this guy at a stop sign as I was driving to the campsite. I had to stop and do a portrait of him. His name is Ray, he’s 73, and is part of the Shriner’s effort to raise money for their hospitals. The money being raised right now goes specifically to a program that helps children as I understood.

My tent…

…and the view from the door of it.

Jack. He was another one of those people that I wanted to make a portrait of as soon as I met him. I got several good shots of him, but this one seems to represent his personality best. I had just met him when I took this. He’s an interesting guy.

There was full moon that night.

Max. This dog — it seemed like he was on valium the whole time. Super laid back. He didn’t bark. He didn’t wag his tail. All he did was beg for food.

Tress’ boyfriend, Howard, returning with wood for the fire.

Mike chopping would for the fire.

Coffee?

On Saturday it kept acting like it was going to rain, so Micah (on the left) rigged up a tarp for us to get under by the fire.

Chad opting for a hammock rig rather than a tent.

Upstream.

Tress in her hammock.

The Barista.

There is zero cellphone signal where we were camping. So driving up this road to the top of the mountain was necessary in order to keep an eye on my email, which I had to do due to pending jobs. I love riding a dirt roads though, so this was fine by me.

Downstream.
I took this one with my iPhone.

I ended up having to leave Saturday evening rather than staying Saturday night too, due to a job I had to shoot yesterday. I did not want to go, but I am always happy to have work. Another plus side of leaving early that night was getting to watch Florida State put a serious beat-down on Clemson with my friend Jack. Yeah, it was a good birthday.