Updated Gallery: Downtown Macon, Georgia

The first photostroll downtown this year involved some new gear, an extremely sharp and astonishingly compact zoom wide-angle zoom from Sigma. I’ve wanted something wider that the 35mm-equivalent that is my daily driver for a minute now, and this absolutely fits the bill.

It also gave me an excuse to see a couple of new and updated spots in Macon:

Rosa Parks Square (Memorials and Seating), Poplar and First Sts.

First up is the refreshed completely redone Rosa Parks Square, now with extensive hardscaping, seating and more — a much needed change to one of the most important areas in the city, right next to the City Auditorium and downtown’s Hotel 45:

Rosa Parks Square (Circle), Poplar and First Sts.

Also completely new is the Otis Redding Center for the Arts, a refreshingly contemporary building with its own new landscaping and gardens:

Zelma Redding Amphitheater (with Statue), Cherry St. and First St. Ln.

It’s a pleasure to be able to get a huge amount of detail, landscape, and space into a single photograph; the wide-angle itch is well and truly sated. Better still, when asked to focus on details, it shines very brightly indeed:

Cherry Blossom Festival Decor (#1), Parish Seafood, 580 Cherry St.

It does retro well, too:

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church (Spire), 830 Poplar St.

So, ask me how I feel about this upgrade. Well, how ’bout this:

I Heart Downtown (Sculpture), Second St.

Sigma got this lens just right. Including the seven posted here, a total of 30 new photographs have been added to the Downtown Macon (2022-2026) gallery. The new items are near the middle of the stack.