Today was a full day of photography. First there was the portraiture class in the morning. Later in the afternoon, I met up with some of my friends from the Greenville forums on UrbanPlanet.org for a photowalk around downtown Greenville.
Eric (aka RestedTraveler) and Ron (aka ManinthePark) were waiting for me under the canopy overlooking Falls Park. Ron wasn’t able to walk with us due to a foot injury, so Eric and I headed out along Main Street to do some shooting.
Our first encounter was just after crossing the South Main bridge over the Reedy. Artists Maggie and Ivan had decided to repaint their car, and were doing so right out on the sidewalk.
We chatted with them for awhile and watched Maggie fling paint on the car ala Jackson Pollack. Occasionally we had to step backward to avoid paint hitting our camera equipment.
From Maggie and Ivan’s we continued up to the Court Street area, taking pictures of various buildings, statues and architectural elements.
As we reached the mid-section of Main Street, Eric and I both bemoaned the number of empty storefronts on the street. With all of the success Greenville has had with revitalizing downtown, it’s disheartening to see so many businesses now closing. These include Bentley’s Bookstore, Earshot Records, O-Cha Tea Room, Eden’s, and others I can’t remember. The restaurants seem to do OK, and Mast General Store has deep enough pockets to make it, but the smaller shops that give the area character just can’t handle the high rent.
Eric and I made our way to the rickety, rusty stairs that lead up to the Church Street bridge to get some shots overlooking the city.
From there we circled on back to Falls Park. The late afternoon light was being diffused by clouds, so we were missing the warm glow to illuminate the scenes. After shooting a few shots from locations both of us have shot many, many times, we wandered into the Park in the direction of the Cancer Survivor’s Park.
There was a woman sitting right in front of the sign for the Cancer Survivor’s Park, puffing out huge clouds of cigarette smoke. I’d hope to capture the irony, but she put out her cigarette before I could get the camera set. We lingered a bit and took some photos of the small falls back there and the remnants of the old Furman campus.
As we were walking back, we encountered some guys on mountain boards doing tricks and jumps off of one of the hills in the park. We spent the last of the walk trying to capture their antics. It looked like tons of fun, and if I were younger, I’d love to give it a shot.
I gave the guys one of my cards, and promised to upload the rest of the shots. So, if you’re one of the mountainboarders, you can see the rest of my shots on my Flickr account here.