Hey Ya'll ! Happy Friday! Hope your week has been going well. Mine not too bad. It's been hot so I'm staying in and writing trying to get ahead of the curve so when the weather does get nice I don't have to worry about writing blogs just shooting. In this blog I want to talk about a photo shoot my camera club did in Fayetteville NC. This was also a very hot day but we survived. I have shot in Fayetteville quite a bit as I've worked there for 10 years commuting back and forth from where I live. Fayetteville is a rather large town in the sand hills of North Carolina. It is flat and spread out by the Cape Fear River that runs by the town. It always seems to be 2 or 3 degrees hotter here than everywhere else in North Carolina. Don't know why but it is. It's the home of Fort Bragg the largest military installation in the US. Also Pope Army Airfield is also attached to Fort Bragg. So there is a big military presence here. Which I like being retired military myself. This was the first time that our club GAPC (Goldsboro Area Photography Club) has visited Fayetteville. We usually pick someone to be the outing lead. This person is responsible for organizing the shoot .  The where , when and most important where are we going to eat aspect of the shoot. I must say the lead of this shoot did a good job of getting everything ready for us. Way to go Jean! 

Our day started at 9am at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful venue that I have never been to before but have seen in passing as I was going too and fro in my travels to Fayetteville. This venue is very nice and beautiful and is used also for weddings and functions . I think I was invited to a wedding there once that I did not attend. There is a fee to get in but I think it is well worth the price of admission. Which I think was 12 or so dollars. I got a discount for being prior military. Although we went in end of June there were still lots of flowers and things to see. But I bet it is gorgeous in the springtime. We spent a few hours shooting here and it started to get hot. I would recommend getting a map that you can download to your phone before you head out because you can get turned around .  They have lots of trails and neat things to see like artwork. There is a gift shop there with all kind of things to get. Then it was off to our next stop.

Our next stop was to Hay street. It's located in the old part of town. It's filled with shops and cool coffee shops and pubs. At the end of the street is the Market House that was once a place where slaves were bought and sold. Iconic to Fayetteville but also controversial as you can imagine. Lots of cool stuff to shoot here. There a murals, the shops , people and just a lot of coolness. We shot here for maybe 45 minutes and then it was time for Lunch. We ate at a bar and grill and the food like it always is in these places was very good. And it was air conditioned! Another plus. It was starting to get really hot outside.  While we were there we decided to do something inside to stay out of the heat and headed to the Special Operations Museum. 

The Special Operations Museum is a very nice museum and takes you through all of the different conflicts from WWI all the way to the present. A very cool museum and very interesting. Especially the conflicts that others and I were a part of. It brought back lots of memories and stuff I had forgot about. The museum was free to visit and a must see if you're visiting Fayetteville for the first time. After the museum it was around 1pm and we decided to call it a day. Robert and I decided to head to Fort Bragg and visit the PX there where we spent some of Roberts money. (One of my Favorite Pastimes) and then headed home. All in all it was a great trip.

So if you're looking for something to do on a Saturday Fayetteville NC wouldn't be a bad choice. Until Next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link