So last year I posted here about the trip that Jessica and I took to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In usual Jebb Graff form, I mentioned how I would post photos soon. Well, I just recently realized I never got around to posting any. Here are some from the trip. I did have around 150, but then thought better of it and decided to post a “handful” of faves. Maybe I’ll make a slideshow with the rest. So here they are with captions and all…ooooooo, ahhhh!

Did I mention that George & Lauren drove up too? They didn’t stay the whole tim, but just long enough for George to show off his hovering skills.

Jessica and I take a self pic on the chair lift.

Insert cliched postcard photo here.

The clouds were doing some funky business on the neighboring mountains and I thought it was photo worthy.

The majority of the week we were there was spent looking at the bears at Ober Gatlinburg. We were also fortunate enough to see some bears in the wild. That was pretty much the coolest.

Dang ole flaming fountain man.

The trees in the park were so tall. It was pretty rainy and muggy for October, but the hike was really nice and quite pretty.

Insert cliche waterfall photo here.

Yup…we like bears alright…we’ll gladly watch you sleep if you happen to be one.

Slope Sans Snow -or- Green Grass Gulch

We climbed in that little blender and took a flight around the mountains. Pretty much the coolest.

Again with the cool. I think helicopters have to be the best machines ever built. My friend Ben agrees and says he will name his child “Laser Helicopter”.

Jessica in her flight mode. She turns into a silhouette in every aircraft. It’s a gift…don’t judge.

Here we are taking another self-shot on a chair lift. Little did she know I had a diamond or two in my pocket.

Following the diamond discovery and proposal it was time or another self pic at a bar where we celebrated our engagement with a cup of coffee.

We got up way too early to go up the parkway to watch the sunrise. While it was pitch black I played with the moon, my tripod and a pen light. It was pretty damn cold out.

Sun is finally starting to light up Gatlinburg with a gorgeous cobalt ceiling.

Yay for tripods and remotes.

Yay for sunrise and Jessicas after pancakes. Yeah…we went up so early for the sunrise that we ended up leaving to go get breakfast and then coming back. It turns out that sunrise in Charleston is a different time than sunrise in the mountains several states away. I’m not always the brightest…sue me.

That’ll do for now.

-JG

A couple of weeks ago I posted a teaser here about a wedding I photographed with Leigh that was done in two parts. In the morning was an Indian ceremony and the afternoon was a Christian ceremony. Both ceremonies were stunning. Here are some of my favorites from the day. Warning…there are quite a few more than normal considering there were two ceremonies, so give them a little time to load. :)

-JG

I’ll start by saying it isn’t my style to talk politics and I especially don’t make any habits of debating them. I did want to share this though. A photographer from one of the photography forums I frequent is from Abkhazia and the conflict in Georgia has a real impact on him. Sometimes when I’m listening to NPR or watching the news it’s easy for me to forget that the stories impact real people. Yes, I’m outing myself for having a narrow view sometimes, but it’s the truth. Gray buildings, gray skies, gray streets, gray earth and people in gray clothes that live in a somewhat geographically gray area are hard for me to relate to. Now here’s a guy from a forum that I might otherwise be reading about f-stops or last Saturday’s wedding from, helping me to realize that when countries are attacked…people are attacked. I’m not an idiot. I know people are hurt in wars. It’s just easy to overlook the humanity when it’s often served as something else.

Here’s an excerpt from his post…

I hope everyone has heard about the war in South Ossetia and Georgia. You probably are convinced by what the media reports, in particular that “Russia is the aggressor against innocent Georgia”. Our government is backing Georgia and also telling us about Russia’s aggression. But that is a lie. I have always made fun of the conspiracy theory people, but I find myself in the same position–criticizing the government and sounding crazy. But I cannot keep quite when such an injustice is going on; so please do not take my words as that of a crazy man who hates America–on the contrary, this country has given me many blessings for which I am endlessly thankful; I care about it and am deeply saddened by how effectively the media has fed us propaganda over the last week. Please read the following short account of my story:

He has offered some insight to the other side of the story we haven’t been getting a lot of lately. I’m not saying you have to believe him or the videos, but it seems like it’s worth thinking about. I’m not the first person to beat the dead horse of the “Evil Media”, but some of the things I’ve read and seen lately sure don’t help make a cleaner image.

I’ve turned comments off for this post because, this is just meant to be a “hey look at this” and not a “believe this or you’re dumb” kind of post. Like I said, I don’t argue politics…everyone is free to have their own opinion in this country and I doubt there is anything I can say to make you change your mind. You like tomatoes or you don’t and that’s fine by me. Even if I do think you’re wrong for liking them. :)

-JG

There’s nothing better than embarrassing yourself on the internet for the whole world to see right? Right! Yesterday I was emailing with a friend of mine about photos from the past (distant or recent) that made you feel like “who was that person?”. So I thought I would maybe share one of those once in a while around here on my blog. This first one is from a very fun time in my life when I was going out and having a lot of fun with my friends in Columbia almost on a nightly basis it seemed. It should also give you one reason I keep a beard…I really don’t like the mush-face look and it’s even more embarrassing when you’re all sunburned.

-JG

Two posts in one day!

Yesterday Leigh and I photographed a dual ceremony downtown Charleston at the William Aiken House. We started at 7:30am and finished up last night around 11:30pm. Can you say exhausted?! The first ceremony was a traditional Indian ceremony and the second a Christian one. Both were beautiful, and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to photograph them. Anyway, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of these photos, but wanted to share one of them that stood out to me.

The second photo is one that Leigh snapped of me during a tripod plate change while she was holding my camera. I usually cringe at photos of myself and even though I’m a bit self conscious, this is one I can live with. One benefit to being a photographer is that your photographer friends make better better photos of you than you are usually capable of (see some of my old attempts at self portraits…they usually involve me jumping or something stupid as not to feel too vain).

I hope to post a whole bunch from this wedding soon.

Off to the Apple store!

-JG