My Saturday started by being at the store for an 8:30 load time.  We had a 6 hour drive PLUS we lost an hour.  In other words, it was going to be another long road day.

One thing I’m looking forward to is playing with my newest camera, the Fuji x20!  This is the newest version of Fuji’s advanced point and shoot and I just got it yesterday.  I loved my x10, so I’m sure I will be really happy with this one too!

Wrapping up the trade show season is always a good thing.  By this time of the year, you are just ready to be done.  I believe I’ve been working photographic shows nearly 20 years.  I have had lots of fun and met a ton of great people that are now friends.  We enjoy going out to dinner and sharing the places we know about.  If you are in a new city and want a suggestion, just phone a friend and they will come through!  Lunch stop was just outside Atlanta at the OK Cafe, this was suggested to us by our good friend Brett Wells and he was right.  Robert, Johnny and I all had great meals here!

This is a classic diner that is super affordable with quality food.  The best, super thick chocolate milkshake I’ve had in a long time.  Old fashioned metal blender cup and a spoon to scoop it all out!  The decor is fun and the service was exceptional.  Look at the detail in the “burger and fries” shot. Hand held close up that looks good enough to eat.  (pun intended)

Next stop was Athens, GA.  Turns out that beside being the home of the Georgia Bulldogs it was also the place where Luke Bryan and Jason Aldeen were having their concert on Saturday night. This was the first ever concert at their field and it was a huge success.  We heard estimates of over 60,000 people at this concert.  There were cowboy boots and hats on most of the folks we saw.  To say the city was busy would be an understatement.  It was more like crazy!

It was awesome that Aaron’s show and our event were in the same city!

This was the high point of my weekend, getting to take some time to visit Aaron at the event he helped curate and assemble.  He also taught a class and was a featured artist.  So great to see the man he is and the gifted photographer he is becoming.  I love his creative eye and he has a gift for teaching too!  Not everyone can teach, it takes a very special talent and a LOT of work to make it understandable.  He nails it!

Now that I’m back home I can report it was not a great show at all.  Very sad for some of the turmoil going on in this association and others.  Poorly promoted and attended, sadly unless they recover well, this could have been the last SEPPA Convention.  I wish them well and hope they can regroup in the next two years.  Really nice folks that just have fallen onto some hard times.

As for me, I’m just glad to be back in Music City with my bride!  We just took at great couple mile walk and got caught up on all that I missed while I was gone.  We have a lunch date planned and then it’s back to business as usual.