Allatoona Pass Battlefield, location scouting

Heading out tomorrow to scout the battlefield at Allatoona Pass.  Hope to find some good locations to come back to in October on the anniversary of the battle.  I will have a sneak peek image of some thing at the battlefield in a day or two. 

Don’t forget to check out may Kickstarter page here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/504639503/war-was-here

My personal paranormal experience at New Hope Church

Here is a link to a post I wrote for Paranormal Georgia Investigations blog.  It is about a personal experience I had while scouting the New Hope Church Battlefield for my book.

http://paranormalgeorgia.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/war-was-here/

Pickett’s Mill Location Scouting

Went out to Pickett’s Mill and New Hope Church with a friend today, to do some location scouting.  It was cold!  I’m looking forward to spring.  Here is an image from our walk on the battlefield.  It was taken from the approximate position of the 15th and 49th Ohio as they were facing the Confederate Line across what was once a wheat field.  The Confederate Line was just beyond the tree line at the far end of the field.  There is a road just beyond the tree line down the left of the image.

Even though it was cold, the sun was out and the wind was not blowing so it made for a good day of hiking.  I was able to pick out some good locations to come back and photograph in May.

If you have not had a chance please check out my Kickstarter page here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/504639503/war-was-here?ref=category  

Thanks for your support!

And So It Begins

Here is the big announcement!  As you all know I am working on a book project and in an effort to help fund it, I have created a Kickstarter campaign.

If your not familiar with Kickstarter.com, it is a website for anyone who has some type of creative project that needs help with funding.  It could be anything from a book, to a movie, to a new album for your band.  It is all or nothing funding and after my 30 days are up, I will either be funded or not.  If the project is funded, then I will receive the funds, but if it is not fully funded then I will not get any of the funds and none of the backers or supports will be charged for anything.  So it is very important that I get everyone’s help and support.  Please share with any and all your friends, family, history teachers, and whoever else you think would be interested.

Here is the link:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/504639503/war-was-here

I have lots of rewards for backers and supporters of my project.  There are a range of different support levels and all of them have some kind of reward.  The rewards range from a post card image to limited edition prints, copies of the book in Hard Cover or Soft Cover and even guided battlefield tours. All prints and copies of the book will be signed by me prior to delivery.  Some of these rewards could make for nice gifts down the road.

Thank you everyone for your support and please share, share, share with anyone you think would be interested.

War like the Thunderbolt, book review


War like the Thunderbolt

Here is my review of the above book.


War like the ThunderBolt, The Battle and Burning of Atlanta
By Russell S. Bonds
Mr. Bonds has done an excellent job detailing the battle that happen around the City of Atlanta while General Sherman was on his mission to destroy the war resources of the Confederacy.  There are highly detailed descriptions of the battles and of some of the soldiers themselves.  There are also some great maps for the battles that show modern roads in relation to troop movements, entrenchments, etc.  This was a book I could hardly put down.  I really like the personal aspects added to the book that come from diaries and letters of participants and onlookers alike.  I highly recommend this book if you are a history buff and are interested in the actions that took place in and around Atlanta in the summer of 1864. 

Cheatham’s Hill, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

A pair of cannons on Cheatham’s Hill, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

War Was Here, My new project

“War was here” is a documentary photography project that will be developed into a hard cover book, softcover book, an e-book, and hopefully a gallery show.

The purpose of this project is to document the Georgia Battlefields and other significant locations of General Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea.  This year celebrates the 150th anniversary of his historic military campaign through Georgia.  I plan on photographing each of the battlefields and locations on or as close to the actual anniversary date as logistics permit.  So on May 7th, 2014 I will be at Tunnel Hill making photographs of the battlefield that is considered the start of the campaign and in December I will be in Savannah making photographs of the end of the campaign.  My goal is to show the current conditions of the battlefields and locations as they are 150 years later.  For some locations, I will include period images as a contrast to the changes that have occurred over the years.

Some of the locations have been fairly well preserved, while some are all but lost.  Some are endanger of being lost and hopefully my images can be used to help document them and protect them.  I have spent over a year doing research, planning and location scouting.

While the majority of the images will be captured with a digital camera, I still work in film and some alternative processes and Pinhole as well.  While I am working I will be updating my blog http://www.warwashere.blogspot.com  several times a week and adding images that have been made recently and hopefully some short video of the locations.  After all the images are captured, I will be putting the “coffee table” book together as well as an e-book that will have additional images with more detailed descriptions and histories of locations and maps as well.  I will also be planning a gallery show of some of the images and I will also be donating copies of the book, e-book, and digital files of the images to the Atlanta History Center, the Kennesaw State University Civil War Center, The Georgia Battlefields Association, and to several other smaller museums, historical societies, and research libraries.