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Cornelia, Georgia located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Parkway, north of Atlanta was once the beginning of the Tallulah Falls Railway which ran North to Franklin, North Carolina.

It is located on the Norfolk Southern Railroad still today and has a nicely restored depot (open limited hours) along with a couple of cabooses on display.  There are plenty of seats to watch the passing trains.  Amtrak passes through in the middle of the night both ways, but the trains don't stop here anymore.

Cornelia is also famous for the "Big Red Apple" which is on display next to the depot which pays homage to the areas past as a large producer of apples.  See Patrice's photo of the apple here.

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We had the occasion to stop in Flowery Branch, Georgia for some quick photos downtown and also in the nearby graveyard.

Flowery Branch, which has transformed into a commuter community for Atlanta is in the middle of "modernizing" their downtown.  Where once there were quaint old buildings (and a nice mural), now there are multi-use buildings and torn up streets.

The new farmers market is quite nice by the depot and when the construction is over the residents and visitors will have a nice experience I'm sure.

Down in the graveyard, not as much as changed over the years.  There are still some interesting statues and also lots of historical graves.  Many of the gravestones have faded with time to the point they are almost unreadable. 

My favorite from the graveyard was this angel and companion.

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The last of the shots for now from the Duluth Cemetery in Georgia.  I always find the statuary fascinating.

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We recently made a trip back down to Duluth, Georgia and while there visited the old cemetery downtown. 

This had been a favorite photo location for us over the years.  This time, the amount of changes made to downtown Duluth was more evident, including the condos in the background of one of my favorite statues.  Duluth really did change during the nine years that I lived there and isn't the "quaint" downtown that I remember so fondly from when I arrived in 2013.

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The Saturday Afternoon Post.

Located on Lake Hartwell, just across the state line in Georgia, the Travelers Rest Historic Site is an interesting place to visit.

According to their website...
"This stagecoach inn and plantation home was built around 1815 by James R. Wyly. He strategically located it along the newly constructed Unicoi Turnpike, a busy highway over the Appalachian Mountains. Wyly operated the inn until 1833 when he sold it to his neighbor Devereaux Jarrett, the "richest man in the Tugaloo Valley." Jarrett continued to operate the inn, but doubled its size to make it the home place of his 14,400 acre plantation along the Tugaloo River. Three generations of Jarretts inhabited the site until the state of Georgia purchased the remaining few acres of the once-vast plantation for $8,000 in 1955. Thanks to both its architectural significance and its role in the early history of the area, Traveler's Rest was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Today, visitors can tour the house and see many original artifacts and furnishings, some of which were crafted by Caleb Shaw, a renowned cabinetmaker from Massachusetts."

Anyway, I loved how the sun hit this bedpost in one of the upstairs rooms.
 

Southern 630The Southern 630 rolls through the Chickamauga National Battlefield in 2015 pulling an excursion for the Tennessee Valley Railroad

A throwback photo today to my first trip to see the Southern 630 in steam at Chickamauga National Park.

I've always enjoyed photographing steam trains in action and some of my all time favorite photographs are of them in action or even standing still.

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On our way back from Georgia this week, we stopped at Table Rock State Park located off of South Carolina Highway 11 in Pickens County, to stretch and take a few photographs.  The Visitor Center is located on a small lake which has a nice pier for fishing. The main section of the park (lodge, camping, etc...) is located on the other side of the highway.

Out in front of the visitor center, there are several sets of rockers inviting folks to sit down for a few.

The image was taken with my Canon R7 and a 55mm/f2 Soviet-Era Helios M42 lens, using an adapter I purchased to make it fit on the RF mount. The lens is completely manual when it is on the camera and you have to adjust the settings on the R7 to "shoot without lens" for it to work.  I'll share some more test shots with it, but it is fun to use and makes me think more than the regular 50mm.

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My goal for 2023 is to get out and take more pictures.  We kicked that off right on New Year's Day with a drive to Campbell's Covered Bridge, which is the only remaining covered bridge in South Carolina.

They are in the middle of restoration and improvements at the park, so it was challenging to find angles where there was no construction materials visible.  The entire bridge has been repainted, so it has lost a little of the charm of aging that an old timer like this is entitled to.  However, the fresh coat of paint will keep it in good shape for years to come.

This was the first time out with my new Canon R7 camera and the 50mm RF 1.8 lens.  After shooting on a 5D full frame, it will take me awhile to get used to the 1.6x crop factor.  The camera is easy to use so far and I'm quite happy with the sharpness of the "nifty 50".