Crew Wednesday: Little Five Points
5/8/2019 CrewThickATL Photo Walk
The Little Five Points Photo Walk changed my life. This photo walk I was able to take a photo that ended up on my very first Billboard!! AT&T “It’s a (404) Thing Campaign Billboard.
We started our walk meeting at The Vortex. I had just had their burgers for the first time a week prior and whew that was a good burger! We started walking the main area snapping pictures. True street photography taking photos of what’s around. This walk I probably took the most portraits; the people and colors really stood out to me in this area.
As I walked around looking for my shoot the shooter shots I seen Dennis & Rod setting up their Criminal Records photos and I wanted in!
This ended up being one of my favorite shots I took this walk. I love the blues, the colors and the record, plus the two Black people walking.
After we got shots of the outside we went inside and Dennis got some more heat!
When we left the record store I was intrigued by the people in the neighborhood. That’s when I got the shot of this person standing in the doorway of one of the shops. Looking in a daze. I instantly wanted to know her story, know more about what she was thinking about.
Learning from the Reflection King I was starting to pick up on reflections. This silhouette and cow stood out to me because my best friend at the time was nicknamed Moo.
We kept walking when we seen a young girl playing chess outside of the barbershop Groomzmen.
I wondered who taught her how to play chess? Who was she waiting on? My storyteller brain had so many questions. You can see my focused look as I shot this chess board thanks to Exuberant Mind.
Dennis was really shooting this day, he got a really dope shot of the chess board with his sunglasses. It’s one of his signature styles that I really enjoy.
As we continued to walk we walked thru the Inman Park Neighborhood to the Beltline. This lady stood out to me because she had a Greg Mike shirt on and I was just getting into Greg Mike’s art.
One of the things I learned with CrewThickATL is to look around when taking photos because something else might pop out and sure enough this house with these beautiful roses did. If you know me you know I love looking at houses. I named this photo Drawn because I felt drawn to this house between the way the sun was setting, the baby blue color of the house, in contrast with the beautiful roses; I loved it.
We kept walking and just before we got to The Beltline we stopped at a few restaurants and took photos.
My favorite of the photos I took was of Beetlecat because tho I edited, the original straight out of camera photo would’ve worked just fine.
We went to my favorite ice cream shop: Ben & Jerry’s!
I took what I felt to be a super cool shot of Sunny. It gave 70s vibes. I edited intentionally decreasing saturation, adding yellow, and adding grain.
After Ben & Jerry’s we headed towards the Historic Fourth Ward Skatepark part of The Beltline. I absolutely love finding Tiny Doors around Atlanta. I had so much joy getting this shot.
We kept walking towards the skatepark when I was able to capture this photo of Sunny & Karm talking. Two Black Women who are inspirational to me, spoke life into to me in a time when I really needed it, and always gives good vibes. It was cool to me to see that these photo walks were therapeutic girl time, time to be creative, time to enjoy, whatever it needed to be that day it was.
Once we got to the skatepark as usual it was a lot going on. People playing soccer, people skating, some taking photos, some droning, some walking, some people watching, some people playing volleyball, it was The Eastside Trail of The Beltline.
The interesting thing about my photos at the skatepark is that I didn’t know what I was doing. I asked AJ for help on my settings because all of my photos were missing the people since they were in motion. Once she helped me I was able to take this photo that eventually became my very first billboard.
I captioned this photo: “The truth is there are many lessons that skateboarding can teach. My two favorite are that in order to move you have to trust yourself and the board. The other is that there will always be highs and lows, enjoy both and keep moving.” I didn’t know that this photo would end up being on a billboard that I made money from but I’m so glad it was. I get to say I had a billboard.
I think the cool thing about my first billboard was that Historic Fourth Ward Skatepark is very much a 404 thing. That part of The Beltline encapsulates so much of the city, lots of people go there all the time, and literally right around the corner from the park I was the billboard.
The Little Five Points Photo Walk was a really good day. It was a good day before the billboard because I was able to explore, ask questions, learn, enjoy and be myself. I literally had on ice cream socks from an eccentric shop in Ypsilanti, MI called The Rocket while walking 5.1 miles throughout the city. When I shared the photos I shared my favorite lessons and things I thought were cool. I think one of the things I love about this so much is that I didn’t expect anything I just went out and did something I liked and got rewarded for it because I created something beautiful just being myself.
Another really cool note was that Drawn, Criminal Records, Life on the Beltline, and Beltline Volleyball, weren’t edited and shown to the world til over a year after they were taken. In 2020 I found some presets that ignited my love for editing. I edited these photos with them and it felt like I was painting pictures.