Downtown Franklin, TN Pictures

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Downtown Franklin, TN Pictures

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 | East Tennessee |

We’ve been wanting to go to Franklin forever. We finally made a daytrip of it the weekend after Christmas. It’s a beautiful downtown surrounded by great old homes. The city was named for Ben Franklin and was the sight of the Civil War Battles of Franklin. You can see a plaque below commemorating the time Andrew Jackson’s army stopped in Franklin while on their way to what would become the Battle of New Orleans. On his return route he donated a brass cannon to the city in thanks.

The downtown is yuppified with a Starbuck’s, Ben and Jerry’s, and pricy boutique stores, but that beats rundown and vacant. The Wikipedia entry mentions that Franklin is the richest city in Williamson County, which is the 18th richest county in America. It’s always been rich due to agriculture, but more recently the wealth is from nearby Nashville.

The Wikipedia list of the city’s notable residents reads like a who’s who of country music stars. A partial list of homeowners includes George Jones, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and wife Nicole Kidman, all three Judds, NASCAR drivers Darrell Waltrip and Sterling Martin, baseball players Derrick Turnbow and Hank Sweeney, and teen TV star Miley Cyrus.

We had a little lunch at an Irish pub which we enjoyed. I know there are some Franklin and Nashville readers out there. What’s a good place to eat in Franklin?

This next picture is out of focus, but I love it all the same:

More Goofy Trips

Photography notes

I’ve been reading Scott Kelby’s The Digital Photography Book. In the chapter on shooting forests he recommends trying the shot with the forest floor out of the frame. By showing just the tree trunks and canopies you get a cleaner, less cluttered look.

I tried the same advice with buildings in Franklin - keeping the street out of the scenes. Here’s a picture of the church and tree with the street and cars:

And here’s the same scene composed without the street:

This goes back to the idea of photography as the art of exclusion - you choose not only what you want in your picture, but what you want to exclude.

6 Comments to Downtown Franklin, TN Pictures

cutter
January 6, 2009

I’ve only eaten at that Irish pub, but I heartily endorse it, mostly because they have Smithwick’s on draft.

cutter´s last blog post..cutter: Might be the best use of a newspaper yet! http://tinyurl.com/7r8aue

Craig T.
January 6, 2009

Good stuff. That sounds like a good trip. Did you stay there or just make it a day trip?

Also, some nice pictures, especially the tree and the church. Good color in the other ones as well. I got a new DSLR (Canon XSi), and I’ve been playing with it and trying to get ideas for pictures and techniques.

Les Jones
January 6, 2009

Just a day trip. It was pretty spontaneous.

The pictures aren’t more than snapshots, but they turned out OK for a gray day. It’s a picturesque town. Lots of good photos to be had there.

Lewis
January 6, 2009

I’ve eaten breakfast at Merrilee’s in downtown and it was excellent. I’ve had dinner (good down-home cooking) at Dotsons. I also highly recommend the tour at the Battle of Franklin. It was excellent and some of the buildings are still there with bullet holes.

Lewis´s last blog post..WHAT I LEARNED IN 2008

Les Jones
January 6, 2009

Check out Natalie’s hand in the next to last picture. This was the last time we saw Les’s cell phone! It was gone by the time she started eating ice cream….. MMJ

ATTN friends o’mine: cell phone number works again | Les Jones
February 2, 2009

[...] a Blackberry after the new year, which worked out well when I lost my personal cell phone in Franklin over the holidays. It took longer than I thought, but it’s all [...]