Nashville Skyline

To learn about something, you study its history. Today you are about to learn all about me, and get a little glimpse of what makes me who I am! I grew up in Nashville and I love going back there to visit. Most of my family lives around there and on my most recent visit I got to see alot of them and recharge my batteries on the family farm. This is a little bit of what I was doing while Rissa was missing me so much.This is the house that I grew up in. Most of the house was built by my Great Great Uncle Bill but the original part is a 20x20 frontier log cabin built nearly 300 years ago. Our farm was first bought by Uncle Bill and Aunt Ruby in the 1920's. This history of the farm itself is an entirely different story.
This plant was given to Rissa by her Dad on her 16th birthday. She gave it to me in 2000 when she graduated from WKU were we both went to school. I moved it to the farm in 2003 just before I followed her up here to Baltimore. The plant was about two feet tall most of life until it moved to the farm, which is quite a magical place. Now it is over 6' tall.
The cutie pie you see here is Addison Leigh Corn accompanied by my Dad. I got lots of Addie time since my brother and his wife were out of town, ironically at a wedding. She is two years old and every time I see her she talks more and more. My name is uncle camera head because whenever i see her I am taking her photos. Its funny not only how much she looks like her parents, but sometimes when I see her I feel like I am a baby again looking at my big brother.This is King. As you can see he rules the roost and can often be found keeping watch over his kingdom. He is the only cat I have ever known who comes when called. I used to go hiking and camping in the woods all the time on our 128 acre farm and he would always be right there with me. What an incredible friend!
I grew up very close to nature. Animals of all sorts were all around me. Many of the animals on our farm have grown in numbers over the years because of encroaching developments. There are so many different kinds of creatures living there I could not begin to list them all. My love of nature and desire to preserve it comes from this close relationship. Our company trying to be as green as possible comes from a long history, not a passing fad. I, much like many other photographers, love photographing nature. This seems an odd off season shot too but there is a drought in Tennessee so a tulip poplar had shed some of its leaves. I loved the stark contrast of the color on the dark black shale. One of my dreams is to have a book or two of nature photographs so hopefully this shot will have a home in that dream one day.This is my grandfather Jack Corn, the man who inspired me to be a photographer. He is standing in his woodshed were he just showed me an incredible dining room table he made out of cherry for Rissa and I. He is going to bring it sometime this month and I am so excited. On the right is Trey, my cousin looking like a typical Corn farmboy in a long line of Corn farmboys. I see him sitting in a spot I was in so many years ago and I really start to feel some terrible cliche´come on like, "I remember when I was that age." or "I can't believe how old I'm getting." Its true I see him and remember how much fun it was to be that age and how much trouble his dad and I got in, but I don't regret being older now. I truly appreciate every stage of life and every season. Wishing I was young again would only make the present years go by faster and be less fruitful. This way I can look back as an old man and be truly happy with the time I took advantage of now, just as I am truly happy of the time I took advantage of in my youth.