To see what’s in your new and old neighborhood and surrounding areas, one must go out and check them out. Like I have probably mentioned in one of my blogs (at least I think I did), I was told when I moved to Florida and photography “there’s nothing here to shoot but wildlife and water”. Yes I totally disagree and will have to prove them wrong.
Looking on the map, I never look South of where I live because that takes you straight to the water; I have to look North to find some land. No I’m not looking for mountains or even a little hill (and that includes man-made hills) but I do know there’s something there. Jay, Florida is not far from me at all; actually maybe 30 minutes. I enjoy visiting towns early on Sunday mornings: 1) families are slowly waking up, and 2) families haven’t made it out for Church services. Saturday’s everyone is out enjoying their weekend and I don’t want to get in their way or have them thinking I’m a street photographer that’s trying to take their photograph. You know me, little towns have a lot of character…we need to appreciate today because they may be gone tomorrow. Sunday mornings I can inhale it all.
Even though it was early morning, it was bright out. You know how sometimes you get some morning clouds or the sun slowly comes up? Nope…not here. So I decided to shoot in monochrome and/or black and white. Look in my viewfinder and see no color – just black and white. That way I won’t try to fight the sun/or see if there’s any clouds I need to worry about or second guess my compositions….just shoot and worry about it later.
I made a stop or two driving to Jay. I saw a farm grain storage! I saw some farmland!! I saw cows!! LOL I thought I was back in West Virginia!!!!! 😁😁 When I got to the Main Street, just like any other town, closed businesses. As I drove through Main Street and made an u-turn to go back, I decided to not stop but make a complete circle and drive back home another way. I had a feeling I was going to make some stops along the way. See, if I had walked Main Street, too much time would have passed by and if it was something interesting driving back home, the traffic may have been busy – which may have made it difficult to stop and shoot.
I must say it was a very nice, pleasant drive. Not much traffic on the roads which made it easy to pull off to the side of the road and not have an angry person mad at me on a Sunday morning. Driving I was trying to figure out what was being grown in the fields. Researching later, Jay is a farming community with cotton, soybeans, peanuts and hay as their major crops. Later in the year, probably fall season (my favorite season) I definitely have to drive back to Jay and the surrounding areas to check out the fields…..early morning, midday, and evening drives.
I stopped at Concord Primitive Baptist Church. The church was Constituted September 7, 1907. I came back home and researched for more of the church history. I couldn’t find much of anything. There’s information for the cemetery but not much on the church. I don’t know if the church is still active or what. The only information I’ve found was that there was a fire on a Sunday morning, 4 February 2018. The fire started in the attic and no one was there. There wasn’t much more than that. If there’s a fire, then there will be water damaged; how much I wasn’t able to find out.
Another stop was at the Griswold Peanut Company. Paul Griswold is the president. The company has been in business over 21 years. During my research, which really wasn’t much, Griswold Peanut Company is an industry of oilseed and grain farming.
All in all, it was a nice drive around Jay, Florida. Next time, I will actually stop in Jay and walk Main Street. I have done some research on Jay. Not many people of color… therefore I will walk fast, wear my West Virginia hat, and pray…😉😉
Gear used: Leica SL2-S, Sigma F/2.8, DG DN lens.
Visit my website: http://www.dawndhester.com
HAPPY SHOOTING!! 😁😁
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