Ariel Bravy: Photoblog

Sliding down Bridal Veil Falls at Tallulah Gorge

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:12 -0500

Gotta get caught up on some hiking photos! A weekend or two back I hiked down to Tallulah Gorge. t'was awesome. There's a river crossing, walking over steeply sloped rock, some boulder hopping, and finally arriving at this beautiful natural waterfall. There's a place to sit down up top and then slide down. You can go on your bum or even on your belly like superman. Both of them are a lot of fun, and the waterfall is smooth enough to let you do that.

The weekend before I went down another waterfall slide, but it was more bumpy and I practically had a near death experience as my head whizzed just inches past a log near the bottom. This slide was much safer. Nothing to get in the way of your splash into the water. Just smooth sailing... without actually sailing. :)

Here II Here performing at Unity North

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:12 -0500

I got to see Here II Here perform live again today. It was so great to see them perform. Some of them I've kept up with on facebook and so it was a reunion of sorts, a wonderful story unfolding.

From left to right is Jamie, Ash, and Alex. Off-camera to the left is the guitarrist/foot pedalist/accordion thingy player Edwin. Off to the right is the percussion/box jammer Kaz.

After the performance I had time to chat with the band members and the band manager. Edwin's wife is trying out for American Idol tomorrow. Go Lisbeth! :)

They're gonna be performing on Saturday at the Center for Awareness and Ash is going to be giving satsang. Woohoo!! So excited about that! If you're in Atlanta and are interested in the whole spiritual enlightenment shebang, you should totally come! :)

Gus chillin under a bush

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:40 -0500

Our cat Gus likes to make a dash outdoors when we open the front door. I can't blame him.. there's so much exciting stuff to see and do outdoors, many things for him to smell and hunt, new areas to explore, and so on.

Here's a shot of him just chillin' under a bush, enjoying some quality time outdoors.

Guster Live

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:36 -0500

Ah man, what an awesome past few days.

Yesterday was mountain biking around Kennesaw, as well as here in Smyrna. The highlights include going up a big hill with logs turned stairs and then biking back down it. A lady I passed on the way up was wondering why I wanted to do such a thing and said she was gonna pray for me. :D

Biking through wet sand and 8-12 inch rocks is tough. You gotta get some momentum going and be careful not to pump your pedal too hard to get going as your back wheel will just spin out and you'll fall over.

Biking through the shallow part of a river is a LOT of fun with the water parting to both sides of your tire and splashing right up at you, cooling you off and goofing around with you as you go. Just gotta dry things off afterwards. It's a great feeling to be driving down the road with a mountain bike visible in your rear view mirror. :)

Today, Saturday, was spent sleeping through an REI scratch and dent sale.. didn't feel like going, and then heading off to Vickery Creek, the hiking trail behind the Roswell Mill. I'd peeked in there before after shooting some portraits of Katie. It turns out there's this awesome waterfall back there in addition to the shady (thank goodness!) trails. At the top of the falls is a river with a rope swing. You gotta climb up a tree, swing off the rope, and then fly into the water. Click here for a pic!

At the base of the falls are plenty of boulders to hop around on, a swimming hole at the base of the falls, some places to sit right at the base of the falls, and even a small cave you can access by going THROUGH the falls. It's an amazing feeling to actually be IN a waterfall, with stone craggy walls all around you, a sheet of water before you, stone above you, and water below you. Like a private little hide-out.

After this hike I headed downtown for the free (!) Midsummer Music Festival. I got in in time to see a bit of Rusted Root and all of Guster. I'd initially brought a 1D, 17-40, and 70-200, but I took it back after finding it too annoying to lug around in my Camelbak. Opting for the P&S instead, I made my way right up to the front of the crowd, getting a spot right on the guard rail. It was awesome. Beach balls all around, a great view of the stage, great music, and not so loud that it blows out my ears. :D

Guster was fun to listen to. The guitarrist on the far left played both guitar and trumpet. The lead singer to the right played a bunch of guitars, ukulele, keyboard, and harmonica. The guitarrist on the right played guitar and bass. The drummer in the back switched between two drum sets. They even brought out an asian kid about 22 yrs old or so to drum every now and then. It was hilarious when they played "Don't Fear the Reaper" and had him coming out to play the cowbell, Will Ferrel style. They also did a song called the "T-pain voice," where the lead singer's voice was all digitized and whatnot. Sounded awesome.

The lead singer cracked a joke about how many people were twittering about the concert during the concert. So I had some fun with it. The girl next to me saw what I was typing, laughed, and shook her head.

I wanna figure out a way to get more pics of me hiking. Maybe I'll try something with a camera on a tripod and a timer, or perhaps a cheap pocketwizard knockoff to trigger the camera remotely...

Mimi skiing and having fun

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

Look at Mimi enjoying herself and admiring the scenery as she skis along the lake. :)

Mimi getting ready to ski

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

Here's Mimi, Robert's girlfriend, getting ready for another pass during her runs.

She's not quite in position yet to go, so this is just her bobbing around, getting ready as the slack on the rope tightens.

Robert skiing with his hand in the water

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

and just to get a little fancy, why not let one hand skim the water? :)

Robert cutting hard on the water

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

Skiing on two skis is pretty easy. Skiing on one is tougher. You get less lift with only one ski, but apparently it's a lot more fun. One thing you can do on a single ski that you can't really do with two is cut sideways really hard the way Robert is doing here.

Oh, I love shooting skiiers with the afternoon sun on their face. The light looks so good, doesn't it? :) Everything just glows.

Robert Waterskiing

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

Robert's an amazing skiier, and a great coach as well. Here's him on the water, doin' what he does, and makin' it look easy.

Ariel Waterskiing for the first time

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:17 -0500

About two weekends ago I went water skiing up on Lake Allatoona with my buddy Robert. It was the first time I'd ever gone water skiing and I LOVED it!

It took me a little while to even be able to stand up on the skis and it's an amazing feeling when you pull it off. You're basically floating above the water, almost like magic. It's so beautiful to see the way the wake parts in front of you. Once I got the hang of standing up without getting the rope ripped out of my hands, I started learning how to move side to side in the water, how to cross over the wake, and even started getting a little fancy by seeing if I could drop a ski, which basically involves standing on one foot, dropping the other ski into the water so that it pops off your foot, then putting your free foot on the back of the remaining ski so that you're left skiing on one foot. Didn't quite get the hang of that the first day. :)

It was such a blast learning to ski. I still gotta work on my form a bit and get more comfortable handling the rope, but that's just a matter of getting used to it.

While I normally post only photos that I took on this blog, occasionally I like to post photos that others have taken of me doing fun stuff. Sort of a way for me to log some of the things that I do. This is one of those exceptions.

More skiing photos coming up!