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Photographer finds solace in shooting the rural South

October 20, 2019 By Rebekah Ledbetter

Pearson Creek Farm in the rural South.
Sean enjoys shooting the rural South.

Photographer Sean Essex was born in Lapeer, Michigan, but grew up in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Essex loves to hike and camp which led him to begin to take photos of what he found interesting on his adventures. He also loves shooting the rural South, and one of his favorite places is Pearson Creek Farms.

Shooting nature in the rural South
Sean doesn’t use any digital editing programs.

Photographing Nature

He began to share them with friends and family, and the compliments he received inspired him to pursue photography further.

Sean is unique in the photography world, as he does not use any form of digital image editing. He believes that it is a sign of a truly talented photographer to be able to take an amazing photograph that does not need editing. That’s what he wants to achieve every time he picks up his camera.

Corn field in the rural South
Sean likes to show the rural South in its raw form.

Rural Living

Sean’s work can best be described as simple, warm and nostalgic. With a focus on rural-living and the surrounding landscapes, he strives to capture moments that reconnect us with our modest beginnings and evoke a sense of belonging.

“I resonate with the people and places and want to share their character and lifestyle through my photography,” Sean says.

Sean Essex Inspired Southerner
Sean strives to connect us with our modest beginnings.

Capturing the Image

Like any great photographer, he is always looking for a great photo. He looks for something intriguing, inspirational, or beautiful, then photographs it from various angles. He also likes to envision what the shot might look like at different times of day, and if he believes he can get that better shot, he returns.   

Photographing the rural South
Sean believes the rural South exudes character which makes it easier to take great photos.

Pearson Creek Farms

Although he is not from the South, he has family here and makes the trip to the South a few times a year. On these trips, he not only visits family but also comes to shoot. As he believes, the rural South exudes character, which makes it easier to take great photographs.

Photographing the rural South
Pearson Creek Farms is a working farm in Bells, Tennessee

One location he loves to shoot is Pearson Creek Farms, a working farm in Bells, Tennessee. The farm has been in the Pearson family for hundreds of years and Essex is humbled to be a part of their family. “I try to portray the hospitality, comfort and warmth that comes over me when on the farm.”

Dream Photoshoot

When asked what his dream shoot would be he answered rural Alaska. “I hear Kodiak Island is gorgeous and I imagine the landscapes and structures on the island would make fantastic photos.”

Filed Under: Family, Inspiration, Life, Outdoors, Travel, Uncategorized Tagged With: Photographer, photography, rural, South, Southern, Tennessee

My niece’s Southern rustic wedding in South Carolina

May 12, 2018 By Kara Kennedy

Inspired Southerner Chandler and Kelly Ethridge
Photo by Trevor Mercer Photography

Becoming Ordained

It’s been at least 10 years since my family had a big wedding to plan. My youngest sister’s wedding in November 2008 was the last one I can remember.  When my oldest niece announced her engagement in 2016 planning for a Spring 2018 wedding began almost immediately.  [Read more…] about My niece’s Southern rustic wedding in South Carolina

Filed Under: Family, Life Tagged With: Family, Love, niece, South Carolina, Southern, Wedding

Middlins with Red Chili Chicken and Zucchini

February 26, 2018 By Jennifer Daniel

Birmingham, Alabama, Middlins

You’ll see middlins (rice grits) on lots of menus around South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where honoring African diaspora cuisine is a priority among the food community. Rice holds a special place in South Carolina history, for sure. The story of middlins, like so many other classic southern staples, is a humble one.

[Read more…] about Middlins with Red Chili Chicken and Zucchini

Filed Under: Food, Life Tagged With: Alabama, Birmingham, history, JH Daniel, lowcountry, middlins, recipe, rice, Southern

My Southern grandma

February 23, 2018 By Kara Kennedy

my Mam'maw

This was written in 2015- so my grandma would have been 101 today!

Southern girls can learn a lot from their grandmas. Today would have been my grandma’s or as we called her, ma’am maw Kennedy’s 98 birthday if she were alive. And how I wish she were.

My family and I moved to Opelika, Alabama, at the beginning of my third grade year, which was two and half hours away from Birmingham where my ma’am maw and granddaddy lived. Right after we moved my grandparents moved to Blount County, Alabama, Highland Lake area to live full time on the lake. Up until that time and when we stilled lived in Birmingham, my ma’am maw would take my sister and me to dancing school and she would sit and wait on us until our classes were over. Dancing she felt was something we needed to learn and we loved it.   After we moved, of course, taking me to dance class was not an option for her and it was something I missed.

Being so far away mean that I would only get to see her at Thanksgiving and Christmas and summer breaks. Those summer breaks spent with my grandparents on the lake were something I looked forward to every year. We waterskied and swam, and soaked in the sun. When I was old enough I began getting up early with my ma’am maw (5:30 or 6:00 am) and would sit at the dining room table with her while she smoked and drank a six ounce bottle of Coca-Cola; after awhile, the cigarettes went away and the cokes were replaced with ice water.. I would listen to her stories about growing up and she would share her wisdom about life. I learned a lot from those early morning sessions and I probably picked up some of her wisdom. After the coke and conversation, she would go into the kitchen and roll biscuits to bake and cook me, my sister and cousins scrambled eggs and sausage.

Later in the morning we would swim and sunbathe until lunch after lunch, my ma’am maw would have us shell butterbeans or purple hull peas while her stories (soap operas) were on. Those beans would be for dinner after which, we all would go waterskiing. The next day this routine would start all over again and would last until Labor Day.

I loved the time I spent with her. She taught me tenacity, told stories about my dad and uncles, and would always give me advice about boys. One of her most famous lines about boys was “In my day, guys were like buses, one came by the corner every few minutes. So stop worrying about them.” And for the most part I took her advice.  I miss those sessions with her and especially her advice she so lovingly gave. She died suddenly May 24, 1987, four days before my birthday. Even though time has passed, I still  miss those early morning conversations and the advice she would give me.

To this day, I can vividly recall our early southern summer mornings, drinking coca-colas and talking about life.

 

Filed Under: Family, Inspiration, Life Tagged With: grandma, grandmas, grandmother, Southern

Walk in footsteps of the Civil Rights Movement with new tourism website

January 20, 2018 By Kara Kennedy

Visitors to the South can now literally walk the sacred ground of the Civil Rights movement with new U.S. Civil Rights Trail website launched on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday.  Tourists will have the opportunity to tour areas pertinent to the Civil Rights Movement from the schools in Topeka, Kansas that were part of the 1954 desegregation case decided in Brown vs. Board of Education to the Lincoln Memorial, where the march for equality took place in 1963.

Civil Rights Trail Inspired Southerner
Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery, AL photo courtesy of CivilRightsTrail.com

The trail allows visitors to experience places where blacks died at the hands of opponents to desegregation and which are scattered across the Deep South. The courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where in 1955, two white men accused of murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till walked free. This courthouse has been restored, as has the Jackson, Mississippi home where voting-rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963, just hours after President John Kennedy proposed major civil rights legislation. [Read more…] about Walk in footsteps of the Civil Rights Movement with new tourism website

Filed Under: Southern History Tagged With: Civil Rights, Civil Rights Trail, South, Southern, Tourism, Travel

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We tell real stories about the south. ~Kara Kennedy, Publisher

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