Hello all, from the other side of vacation... here I sit, in that need-a-vacation-from-my-vacation and already jumping back into edits, invoices, shoot planning and deadlines. 

But don't get me wrong. I had FUN. and I really really needed to be gone from my town long enough to be able to miss it. I can say wholeheartedly, it's great to be back Joplin Missouri!

I wanted to take a moment before I'm COMPLETELY back into the groove and remember great times had. I honestly didn't pull my camera out a great deal- ya know, it'd be like a doctor still treating patients while he's sunning on the beach- but I can't keep the camera in the bag for too long before I get antsy. 



We went and visited my wife's family in Nashville, and they were awesome hosts.  I'm going to name all the cool stuff we did and didn't take pictures of. Is that annoying? Yeah it is, TOO BAD! But seriously, these are all fantastic stops if you ever make it that way:

• Nashville Farmer's market (I ate a Venezuelan sammich and drank some nitro infused iced coffee from an RV-turned-mini-coffeeshop)
• Frothy Monkey coffeeshop
• Grimey's record shop (didn't stay in the main section long since I didn't have the funds to purchase newer stuff, but their used shop two doors down was great. I bought Elton John's "Captain Fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy", which is admittedly one of the most bizarre and suspicious titles ever.)
• The Pharmacy (yes, they do make some of the best burgers ever)
• The Opry hotel (enormous indoor atrium, free to walk around, super fun and relaxing)
• Goodwill (don't laugh, it was the biggest goodwill I've ever been in)

One of our stops was the Parthenon re-creation. Decidedly tourist but, yeah, pretty cool. 

Until you can say you've given a high five while running full tilt through the Parthenon, can you say you've really fived at all?

without a family picture, I can't prove our presence. So here you go... (thanks Mallory for getting this picture for us!!)

This was a fun and unexpected detour. In the park across from the parthenon is an old school locomotive, and on this particular Saturday, a group of mechanics was there actively working on it. 

Pictured below is Joseph Darrel Cason- he isn't able to climb around on the train like some of the others, so he plays the voice of the project. He let us and other visitors know about this nonprofit project on the part of the Nashville Steam Preservation Society, to get this locomotive not only restored but actually running again and moved to a stretch of track prepared for it.

All those present working on the train were volunteers. I asked to get a portrait of Joseph, and next thing I knew, we had the whole crew in the shot. 

The next stretch of photos is from my outing downtown that night. It was a great creative exercise- we were constantly moving, so I typically only had a few seconds to catch each shot. I cranked up the ISO and did my best to capture the overall mood of a city that's on the rise, during the peak of its' weekly action.