By Matthew Osborne
CNI News Service
Matthew Osborne/CNI News Service. Donna Shirley poses with a copy of the new Mountain Traveler magazine that is available countywide. Shirley’s photo graces the cover.
Donna Shirley loves marking her journey through life with photographs, and she has done so twice on the cover of Mountain Traveler magazine.
Her latest picture, appearing on the cover of the summer edition of Mountain Traveler out now, depicts the Nacoochee Mound in White County surrounded by its daily throngs of hungry cows.
As fate would have it, a car accident indirectly led to the photo.
“We had a rental car and had to take it back to Cleveland,” Shirley said last week after collecting her $100 prize. “We rode around and took pictures of Yonah Mountain, and every time we go to Helen, we take a picture of the Indian Mound. On our way home, the cows were out there and the sky was perfect. It looked 3D when I took the picture.”
Shirley has relatives in the Sautee Nacoochee area and her grandmother was from White County.
Shirley nabbed the prize-winning photo with her cell phone but she also has shot with 35mm cameras.
Another time after a fender-bender, Shirley was able to take some beautiful pictures of azaleas.
Shirley likes to document where she goes on social media, particularly for some of her friends who are homebound and have physical challenges that make it difficult for them to travel.
“When I go somewhere interesting, I take pretty pictures and tell where it is, something interesting about it, the history behind it,” Shirley said.
Shirley and her husband have traveled almost the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and have traveled to many other landmarks in the region, including marking off waterfalls they have seen.
“But there’s no place like home,” she said. “We live riding around here, riding around Rabun County where my husband is from. This is a beautiful place to live.”