Walking in Memphis

With due respect to Marc Cohn, today I was walking in Memphis. My flight home was at 7:55 a.m., so I got up early and went down to Beale Street for a few photos, then on to the Mississippi River for a few more. So, we start with what Beale Street looks like if you have been there all night... I saw two young men come out of a bar that appeared to be open at 5 a.m.--I'm sure they were serving coffee. Here it is:



As the two young adults came out of the bar, one was holding the other up. I thought it was mutual support, but it turned out, one was just a bit more bent than the other. Luckily, one of them knew which way they were going, so they weaved their way up Beale Street.

BTW, my lens was fogged by the humidity, not real fog. Here's a closer look at BB King's sign in the fog:




And here is a clearer shot of the street. You couldn't take this shot at 10pm the night before, I would imagine. Luckily for me, I was sound asleep at 10pm the night before.



Most of the people I saw on Beale at 5am were homeless. The longer I was there, the more they came up to ask for money. "I'm not a panhandler, but do you have $2 you could give me?" was the gist of most of their communication. Though, Warren did offer to educate me on the local sights. Of course, I was just taking pictures so they weren't too impressed. As the pressure to produce something for them increased, I decided it was time to move on.

I went down to the river for some night/cityscape shots. Here is one of the Memphis cityscape:



And one of the Mississippi River:



The bright light is a tug pushing a barge. I was able to capture some pretty decent shots and then headed for the airport for an on-time departure (thanks SkyWest) and an on time arrival home (thanks United).

This evening I shot the sunset on Mount Tam using film. Yep, just film. I didn't even bring the G9 with me. Just the light meter and the Hasselblad. I shot a few B&W shots with TMAX100 and a few colors with Velvia 50. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. No chimping could be done, so I can only hope they are good...

BTW, it's nice to be home. Lori made me a great dinner tonight!!

That's it for tonight. C U 2morrow.