Alex Martinez looks closely at one of Andrea Fremiotti's prints at Big Studio Gallery.

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Andrea Fremiotti Gallery at Big Studio

Here’s a picture taken (not by me) in downtown Atlanta…(click picture for source)

My apartment complex was severely flooded and everyone was evacuated. It all happened very quickly. I had been out of town for the weekend and came back at about 3:00pm. One side of the complex was already flooded and it was getting worse by the minute.

Peachtree Creek, which runs through the center of Buckhead (my neighborhood in Atlanta), and right next to my apartment was flooding its banks. Normally running at about 3 feet, anything above 13 feet is considered flood level. It eventually peaked at 24 feet around 6:45pm.

They had to key in to some apartments of people that weren’t home to save their pets!

They were also pulling cars out of the flooded area.

They also feverishly made sandbags and tried to protect areas that were about to be flooded.

At around 4:15 I came to the conclusion that my apartment was going to flood, so I started throwing everything up on top other stuff. I took my most valuable possessions and loaded up my car. That’s my car parked right outside my front door.

This is the parking lot behind my apartment, below about 2 feet of water.

Around 5:30 the firefighters came around and told everyone to evacuate. I left around 6:15 and the water was ankle deep around my car. I took Charlee and my computer, harddrives, camera gear, and some clothes and went to a crappy hotel that my apartment complex was kind enough to pay for.

When I left the water was just about to come up in under the sliding glass doors on my back porch and about 2 inches from coming in the front door. I knew the water was going to get in, I just wondered how high it was going to get. Atlanta was predicted to get several more days of rain.

Fortunately, the rain stopped at about 6:45 and didn’t start again.

The next day I came back to inspect the damage and discovered that the water had receded and my apartment had only gotten wet carpet in a few areas. It smelled terrible but the damage was very minimal. The water did come in through the front door a little bit but the sliding glass doors didn’t have any leaks. The worst areas were on one side of the apartment where the floor was lower than the ground outside. Somehow the water seeped through either the wall or came in at the foundation level. We had about 4 feet of wet carpet along that whole side of the apartment.

I was lucky. Many of my friends weren’t.

I moved out of that apartment a few weeks later and moved in with a friend of mine into a house that he just bought. I’m finally getting settled in a little bit and have the time to write up this blog post.

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The Great Atlanta Flood of ’09

Click here if you don’t see a gallery below.

 

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76 Monte Carlo

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Not Dead, just busy!

Here’s what the entrance looks like:

The Elvis Burger consists of a juicy half pound burger, fried bananas, bacon, and a large slathering of creamy peanut butter. Yep, Peanut Butter on a burger… interesting… I’m a big fan of a peanut butter so I knew I had to try this epic burger. So last night was the big night.

First of all this thing was huge! Probably at least 6 inches tall. As I ate it, I got lots of peanut butter and hamburger juice all over my face and hands… I liked the combo of sweet fried bananas mixed with the peanut butter but paired with the bacon and burger just didn’t seem to fit together that well. There was definitely a flavor fight happening in my mouth. I don’t think I would order it again but I’m really glad they make this thing and I’m really glad I tried it. I do want to sample the other burgers on the list, like the Double Coronary Bypass Burger! yummy!

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The Elvis Burger from The Vortex

It was moderately interesting, but my favorite part was definitely tasting all the variety of drinks that the Coke company manufactures. They have over 60 options available and you just walk around and try as many as you like. I tasted about 12-15 and that was plenty.

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World of Coke

Luckily she only had minor injuries to one knee, but the car couldn’t be driven. I was close by so I went to give moral support while she waited for the tow truck. Now she’s dealing with insurance companies and doing that whole routine. No Fun!

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Diana’s Car Accident

Luckily no one I know was hurt, although there were some fatalities and serious injuries associated with this storm. Hopefully that was the last of the spring storms and we can start enjoying the sunshine!

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Atlanta Storms

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Asleep at the Bus Stop

The one above is actually one that I submitted for the assignment. The assignment was to explore motion using natural light.

The one above is another one shot for an assignment called “Shaft of Light”. I ended up taking another shaft of light picture because I didn’t want to have two images from the aquarium in my critique portfolio.

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Georgia Aquarium

This one reminds me of how I feel when it snows!

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More from Snow Day

Inside the building were all these old canisters labeled Civil Defense Carbohydrate Supplement. Some were rusted out and empty.

Some were still sealed up and not rusted. So I was pretty curious about what a Carbohydrate Supplement was, so I busted one open to take a look.

Turns out, it’s hard candy. I ate one to see what it tasted like and it tasted the same as any other candy I’ve ever eaten.

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Carbohydrate Supplement Circa 1963

The Steak & Shake franchise is celebrating 75 years in business and in a clever marketing ploy (or desperate?), they got nostalgic and decided the best way to draw attention to the long history of the restaurant was to lower the price of a burger to the original 1934 price of 15 cents.

Well they certainly got my attention. So I grabbed my roommate and we headed to the location on Northside Parkway NW to check it out.

Doors open at 8:00am and we pulled up at 7:45am to find a line of about 60 people.

A group Georgia Tech students even had sleeping bags and lawn chairs and obviously had been camped out for quite a while. Shaun Byun had been waiting since 2:00am. “Yeah it was cold but it was totally worth it. It’s very gratifying.”

As it turns out, the first 75 people through the door got a membership to the VIP club which allows for one free meal per month for a year. When we walk in there is a good vibe floating around the room and everyone is really excited about the occasion.

Most of the tables are already full but we manage to grab a booth and our server Dominique Haynes is prompt to take our orders. Of course it doesn’t take long for us to decide what we want because we are working off a special event menu with the special pricing.

We both order two burgers at 15 cents each but I add cheese to my burgers for an extra 39 cents each. We also get coffee for $1.49 each. Dominique brings our food and he seems genuinely surprised about how excited the customers are. “When I pulled in and saw the long line, I thought maybe I shouldn’t come to work today. It’s going to be a crazy day!”

I could talk about the taste and quality of the food, but to be honest, does it really matter since I’m only paying 15 cents for the burgers? It could be the worst meal of my life and I would still be getting a great deal.

Our combined tab is $4.71, but here’s the thing, even though we are getting burgers at 1934 prices, Dominique and the rest of the staff still have 2009 bills to pay. So this is one of those rare times when the tip is higher than the tab!

As for eating burgers for breakfast… I think I’m okay with another 75 years before I do it again.

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15 Cent Burgers

I’m loving it so far!

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My New Home- Atlanta

Last week was big item stuff like a bed and desk. This week I bought a bunch of little things I needed like lamps and shower curtain rings. Also last week I bought a new camera and lens. I bought the Canon 50d and the Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L lens. More on that in another post…

I think during the month of January I’ve single-handedly kept the economy going. Now I need to plug up the hole in my bank account.

School is going well. I love my assignments and am working sort of hard on my homework. I’m in an Intro to Photography class and I’m kind of slacking in there because I know everything that’s being taught. However, I am paying attention to the way my teacher is teaching it, so that I can become a better teacher of photography. He does some stuff well and other stuff not so well.

I must confess I haven’t been getting up at the sunrise lately. It’s been pretty cold in Atlanta and it’s very hard to wake up. So, in return I have been putting in extra effort for my sunset shooting. I feel like I’ve gotten a few really good images lately. I would share them, but… well… I just don’t feel like it.

I’m in a photoshop class too. I’m learning a lot and getting comfortable with some stuff that I definitely should have already known. Photoshop is one of those things I knew I needed to get some training in. I knew a lot, but wasn’t professional level yet. With this class and then the next photoshop class, I feel like I will be a true photoshop ninja. However, I still don’t really like working in photoshop, so I’m going to keep trying to get it right while I’m shooting.

My Illustration class is going well. I’m learning to paint and my teacher makes me feel good about my efforts even though I can tell I’m even worse at painting than I am at math. I might never share my painting efforts with the world. I don’t want to lose my few readers.

I’m getting around Atlanta without having to consult a map now. I pretty much know the major roads and have figured out when not to be driving, although sometimes it can’t be avoided, because most of the time rush hour coincides with the rising and setting of the sun.

I signed up for Netflix. I’ve been wanting to do that for awhile, but haven’t had a stable address. However, now that I’ve got an apartment, I’m all about watching some dvd’s. Before you bust my chops for watching movies while I’m supposed to be doing school work, let me point out that I’m in a visual communications school. My teachers are constantly assigning us to watch specific movies or a certain style of movie. I’ve already watched two movies about painters with a third on the way, and two films about the Vietnam war (for my first big photoshoot). Watching movies is a big part of being a visual artist.

And because I like to post photos with each post, here is a shot from the official New Student Welcome party a few weeks ago. The theme was “Hollywood”. I present to you the Spice Girls:

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School Week 3