One Last Wander

I set out to explore the Chattahoochee River near The Battery and came across Rottenwood Creek. I pulled on my hip waders and followed it for several miles, right through the water.

The creek winds under highway overpasses and through dense forest, over flat stones and still pools that mirror the trees above. Wildflowers and a buckeye butterfly lined the banks, and a worn baseball rested among the rocks, probably a stray from the ballpark nearby. Once I was a little way in, the city seemed to vanish entirely.

I didn’t know it then, but this was the last time I would photograph Atlanta before moving to my next home. It feels right that my goodbye was quiet, unplanned, and knee deep in water, finding one more hidden corner of a city that kept surprising me.