The view from the West Rim Loop Trail in Cloudland Canyon State Park.
Back in 2019, I was feeling really frustrated with my photography. In a conversation and my dear friend Jess (Jeeptographer), she reminded me of something we had heard at some point in our photography journey, that if you want to get better at photography you need to put yourself in front of pretty things. The second part of that advice that is implied there, but also said by every photography instructor we’ve ever had, is that practice is key to improving, and you just need to get out and shoot!
So from that season of frustration and a desire to grow the Adventure Forever State Park Project was born. It is our hope and desire to photograph every state park in the state of Georgia. A lot of the time we adventure together, but on some occasions, we go separately or with other friends. On our first trip, we headed to Cloudland State Park in the Northwest corner of Georgia, and we took our friend Brian along to celebrate his birthday. We hiked down to the falls our first day, and then did the Western Rim Trail, on the morning of our second day. Along the Western Rim Trail, we discovered that there wasn’t much to see in terms of view for most of the trail, though we recognized that with all the hardwoods it would be beautiful in the Fall. Our attention turned to the details of the forest floor for photography opportunities. It was on that trail that we fell in love with all things fungi, because of the vast variety we found along the way.
Since our humble beginnings and commitment to grow in our skills, our project has morphed to include National Parks as well. We have been to almost half of the State Parks and a handful of National Parks now and the memories and lessons we’ve learned along the way both photographically and personally have been invaluable. I’m so grateful for an adventure buddy, and so grateful we both have husbands who support our passion for photography and encourage us to get out there to practice and adventure together!
