When I made my plans to surprise my Dad on his birthday, there was no way to know if there might be favorable shooting conditions in Macon during my visit. As it turns out, for the most part, there weren’t. But there were sufficient opportunities—note to self: there always are—to justify bringing flexible equipment. Macon does not have particularly picturesque bridges, and the Ocmulgee River is a sort of sleepy (ordinarily), meandering, muddy mess. And the environs are simply not very nice:

But you just never know. Yesterday evening, I camped out near the railroad bridge over the Ocmulgee. The odds of a decent sunset had just broached 50% at 2pm, so I thought I would take a chance. Unless you are in the finished River Walk area, most of the river banks consist of overgrown brush, and many spots are inaccessible without hip waders. And it’s all home to mosquitoes and fire ants. My rental car got stuck in mud for about 10 minutes, and then I ended up parking much closer than prudent to a Category 5 fire ant mound. When dusk arrived, so did the mosquitoes. All worth it though.