Barbie Beach, LaGrange, and a Walking Dead Reunion

In 2011 a friend of mine had an idea to collaborate on a project about Barbie Beach. Barbie Beach is a local (Turin, GA) landmark on Highway 16. The beach has many fans, including the crew of The Walking Dead. In 2011, TWD crew gave the beach a batch of zombie Barbies. Recently the crew returned with more Barbies. My friend and I have been shooting this oasis for almost two years now. We are expanding our original exhibit for a show in LaGrange opening in August at Cochran Gallery. The reception is Friday August 23, time TBA.

I have tried to watch The Walking Dead and can't quite get into it. Sometimes I find it a bit too creepy; other times I find the walkers staggering around a bit comical -- like they have been hitting the bottle a little too much. Recently the TV show reunited me with a high school friend. My house is just minutes from one of the main shooting locations for the show. The little town of Senoia sees a LOT of tourist traffic. They have some of the signs used on the show up and in place for all to see and take souvenir photos standing along side. A few weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, while browsing on Facebook I see a photo of an old friend posted from Senoia. He was in Atlanta visiting family and happened to be a big fan of the show -- so he made the trip to see the places used to shoot the show. I hopped in the car and met him for a brief chat and to point him in the right direction to find the old feed mill in Haralson.

So save the date for the Barbie reception -- I promise a fun time will be had by all, including Barbie!

Percolator

I have a new app. If you follow me on Instagram (@donnarosser) you already know this. Oh, and I love it.

with Percolator

I have used this app on photos of the dogs, blueberries, and a macro of a yucca. I love them all. This one -- the lilies in my backyard pond is a favorite. There have been some attempts that did not turn out so well -- and you will never see those.

The images look nice printed -- I have a couple at my framer now and plan to show them later on this fall. I am cautious to not become dependent on the gimmick of the app. This is fun and looks wonderful to me -- my math background is loving the geometrics of this effect.  But (a big but here) I am afraid I have already over used it. So in thinking about how to make an app more personal to my own vision I am taking these images a step (or two) beyond the app. These images are lending themselves to wonderful mixed media and collage works. I will also show these end results later on this fall.

I am a big fan of Hipstamatic, Wood Camera, Snapseed, and Viewmatic. I think at last count I have over 25 photo apps on my iPhone. For anyone interested in the un-Percolated version of the Lilies -- it is below.

original image