Azaleas at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia.
One spring day in the late '90s, Louise and I journeyed to the little west Georgia town of Pine Mountain, where we toured the world-famous Callaway Gardens. Featuring North America's largest azalea garden, with more than 20,000 native and exotic species lining the winding trails and reflecting their beauty in the Mirror Pond and Valley Stream, it is a spring spectacle that must be seen to be believed.
Azaleas and their reflections at Callaway Gardens.
With 13,000 acres, Callaway Gardens is so many things that it's almost impossible to summarize it in a few paragraphs. It's a resort with lakes, beaches, boating and fishing, water sports, championship golf courses, tennis courts, eight walking trails, and bicycle trails. There are nine restaurants, nine shops, an inn, cottages, and villas. It is also an event venue and a conference center, and has one of the country's largest butterfly conservatories.
From mid-November to New Year's, visitors can drive a five-mile trail of illuminated scenery, or ride a trolley if you prefer, in Callaway Gardens' Festival of Lights, made up of eight million lights on 725 miles of light string.
Me and my trusty Pentax 6x7 camera. A real workhorse.
Accompanied by Louise (there should be a special medal for photographer's wives) I spent an entire day walking the trails and photographing the azaleas.
Looking at this photo (taken by Louise) makes me nostalgic for the days when I had hair.
My Pentax was mounted on a heavy-duty tripod and loaded with Agfa color transparency (slide) film. The Pentax was a great camera for me. Its 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens was very sharp, and to this day I believe it gave me a higher percentage of "keepers" than any other film camera I've owned. I might still be shooting one if I could afford the film and processing. (And could deal with the weight. They are heavy.)
The Pentax made ten exposures on a roll of #120 film, each transparency 6x7 centimeters in size. That's about four times the size of a 35mm slide. I don't remember how many rolls of film I shot that day, but it was quite a few. It was a great trip and a memorable experience.
Blog Note: This post is a day late. Sometimes life gets in the way.
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