St John's Episcopal Church

I don't know much about the Episcopalians, but they sure do make a pretty door for their church.

Dutch Colonial Hip Roof Barn

This is the old Humphry's barn in Meadowview Va. I expected to find this barn on a farm but it's located right behind a car wash. The other side of the barn is starting to fall in, which is pulling the ends of barn in toward the center. This is causing the 'chicken coop' to tilt backwards and twist, it might not last through the winter.

The roof style is typically seen on a house not on a barn, it's part dutch colonial, part hip roof. And the tin is definitely not typical for barn in southwest Va. I really like the texture and the color of the roof.

It was a bit blustery, so when I arrived onsite the clouds were beginning to dissipate, and by the time I had circled the barn to scope out the best picture spot the clouds had already moved so much that I lost my cloudy background sky. Cloudless sky causes the halo around the barn - the bane of HDR processing.

Oh HDR Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree this year, 3-exposure HDR, cranked to 9 ... 'cause 10 was a bit too much ;-)

Christmas Card Practice

One of the 'throw-aways' taken while we were trying to get a picture for the family Christmas card. I love Emmy's laugh in this picture.

Brethren Church Road Church

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, when the big maple behind the church still had leaves. The color wasn't at peak, but the rain and wind that blew through later that afternoon took most of them down.

Three shot bracket, HDR.

D.C Trip #3

This picture is of the Wall of Honor at the Air & Space Museum - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The Wall is a permanent memorial to the thousands of people who have contributed to our aviation and space exploration heritage.

A hand-held, three-shot bracket, HDR. It was raining when this was take so the sky is pretty stinky, but the wet surfaces made for some nice coloration, so it's not all bad.

D.C. Trip #2

A fine tobacco shoppe in Old Town Alexandria. I spent several minutes parked on that bench enjoying the with an insanely good aromas wafting out the door.

Another hand-held, three-shot bracket, from the recent trip to D.C., all HDR'd up. 

D.C. Trip

This picture or an SR-71 Blackbird was taken at the Air & Space Museum, Steven -Udvar-Hazy Center. This HDR picture is from a 3-shot, hand-held set of brackets.

Mabry Mill

A picture of Mabry Mill on the Blueridge Parkway this past Sunday evening. Between the ducks in the pond mucking up the reflection and the plethora of folk milling about, it was a chore to get a pic that wasn't full of, uh, 'undesirables'.

Rocky Fork

Here's two HDR'd pics I made from yesterday's trip to Rocky Fork in Unicoi county.

Iced Trees

I took the women-folk on a ride across Unaka mountain this afternoon and came across this oddity. It had been cold enough snow the night before and the spruce trees were covered in rime ice ... pretty cool, huh?

Steam Whistles

I went to the train show in Erwin this AM, camera in hand, hoping to find some photo-worthy subjects like old railroad lanterns and such ... and ... I found almost nothing.

It was just too crowded inside for any pictures. But there was a guy outside selling some spendy railroad stuff out of a trailer, and he had this rack of steam whistles for sale. I had to wait around quite a while for a chance to get this picture without arms or backs of heads.

A 5-frame, faux-HDR, processed with Lightroom and HDR Efex Pro.

Marion Fish Hatchery

This picture is of the aerators at the Marion Fish Hatchery in, you guessed it, Marion Va. I can remember going to the hatchery on field trips back when I was in grade school. In all honesty I was surprised it was still in operation.

I saw them from the road as I drove by as was immediately struck by the color and shape ... they are so cool looking! It was closed when I got there but the nice lady that works there saw me taking a picture from outside the fence and let me come inside and walk around to take all the pictures I wanted ... she was a really nice lady. She had two 'plow dogs' that kept me company while I walked around.

It was so bright that a slow shutter speed was out of the question. And the center three were in partial shade making it that much worse. So what I ended up with was this over-cooked, faux-HDR version. It's ok, but I definitely want to go back some day when the conditions are better for picture taking.

Marion Train Station

I saw a recent picture of the train station in Marion Va. What caught my eye was that the construction dumpsters were gone! The last time I was by there the place was being refitted for some retail shops and there were several dumpsters and lots of trucks all around the place. Definitely not ready for pictures.

Once I got there and walked around I realized that it might never be ready. The retail-ization of the property has cluttered the property so much that any picture will be 'busy'. So I snapped a bracket from the best angle available and ran them through HDR Efex Pro and then straight to Photoshop for some serious clutter removal. After a good amount of work I decided to convert it to black and white, crop it rather tight and add the vignette for an 'old timey' look. It turned out rather well.

Dorothy

This picture is of Dorothy, the shay at the Little River Railroad museum in Townsend TN. The weather couldn't have been worse for picture-taking: 95 degrees and hazy - which led to the odd-looking crop to get rid of as much of the flat gray sky as possible.

Another More Tractor

Oh yeah, there's plenty more tractors.

This beauty has been sitting along the road at the Sell's farm for several weeks. She needs a few parts to get her back on her wheels ... okay, she needs lots of parts, but she worth saving, right?

I don't know much about the lineage of this one, there's no markings of any kind, so it's just a yellow tractor.

Fordson Part Deux

Another shot of the Fordson tractor.

Fordson

Here's another tractor that sits along the road that I travel to work 3 days out of 5. I could have sworn there was another piece of the sign that had a "4" on it ... as in "4 Sale". Regardless it's dang cool.

I've not heard of a Fordson brand tractor, so I did what any rational guy would do .. I googled it ... and I found this: "Fordson was a brand name used on a range of mass produced, general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son, Inc, from 1917 until 1920 when it was merged into the Ford Motor Co.". Well there ya go.

Fireworks

I snapped this picture last night of the thunderstorm over Johnson City that is one-upping the neighbor's fireworks ... pretty cool huh?

Mad Max

If the bad guys in the mad max movies were going to drive a tractor, this would have been it ... check out those rear tires!

This McCormick/Deering tractor has been getting a face lift over the past couple of weeks, it used to be yellow with a red engine and wheels, but the yellow has been sand blasted away and now it's just covered in rust ... not sure that's an improvement.

Lakewood Morning Storm

This picture was taken just after dawn on the day we left Lakewood Campground. These storm clouds were rolling in as we were packing up to leave.

Paddle Boats

I took this picture of the rental paddle boats at Lakewood Campground while the spousal unit was finishing the laundry.

Old Beach Trucks

Some pictures of the old trucks at the Whales Nostalgia City shop in Surfside Beach.

The Green Beast

This purpose-built piece of hardware is the tea picker exclusively used at the Charleston Tea Plantation. It uses a combination of hedge clippers and high-speed blowers to collect the tea leaves.

This tractor left perfectly trimmed tea plants that reminded me of hedge rows in a garden.

Skywheel

Another faux-HDR, this one is the new Skywheel on the boardwalk in Myrtle Beach. It's a 200ft high ferris wheel thingy with enclosed gondolas.

The ride was rather anti-climactic, the view is great but it's so climate controlled that there's no noise, no vibrations, no squeaks, no rocking ... just kinda okay.

The Angel Oak

A faux-HDR of the Angel Oak on Johns Island.

The tree is a Southern Live oak and is supposedly the oldest tree east of the Mississippi - some estimates have it at nearly 1500 years old.

The tree is massive, it stands 65 ft tall, measures 28 ft in circumference, its longest limb is 105 feet in length. and shades an area of 17,000 square feet . Its widest crown spread point-to-point is 180 ft, which is longer than any other live oak in the country.

Kickin it with the Pig

This picture of a guy's purpose-built fishing buggy was taken on the Folly beach pier. I true southern fashion it was adorned with decals that express his personal tastes ... most excellent.

The one that caught my eye was the Piggly Wiggly sticker. I spent a few years working at 'the Pig' in Glade Spring back in my high school & college days, it was my first real job.

Target

I captured this seagull perched on the rail of the pier at folly beach, scoping out a new target for a dive-bombing run ... at least that's what I assumed it was doing.

The River at Riverside Campground

This was the view of the sunset we had from our campsite (#169 at riverside RV Park) looking over the little pigeon river. Pink and orange and red and green and yellow and ...

No Way Jose

These two pipes are part of the water garden at No Way Jose's Cantina in Gatlinburg ... the colors totally rocked.

Dam Turbine

Here's another picture I took several weeks ago but never uploaded. It was taken at the TVA building at Boone Dam, it's an old turbine from the powerhouse.

Archers

Here are a couple of pictures taken at Archer's Garage & Wrecker along Tn-81. they are a bit over-hdr'd, but they were taken under some really bright sun and needed some help to get the colors right.

This one is a 'clutch' of old corvairs parked along the road.

This one is a home-built generator made from the front end of a truck mated to a generator.

Mock's Mill on Cedar Creek Rd

Anybody know the name of this old Mill? It's at the end of Cedar Creek Road, not far from where it intersects with Rivermont Rd.

It looks like there was some tornado damage through this area as well, several trees down, and notice that several pieces of the roof tin and metal siding are loose or missing on the mill house.

Glade Spring Baptist Church Steeple

A year or so back some folk removed the steeple from the old Glade Spring Baptist Church and it's been sitting at the edge of the parking lot ever since.

It appears they are bringing the old church building down and only got this far. I'm not sure if there's plans to reuse the steeple, but it makes a cool picture.

My dad was baptized in this church.

Earnhardt Train

EARNHARDT !!!

Woooo

... raises three fingers ...


Here's an HDR'd picture of the shuttle train in Glade Spring, Va.

April 28, 2011 - what a day

Whenever the phone rings at 2:45 AM you always expect the worst, especially when it's family calling. Caller ID showed my sister's number.

I got that first shot of adrenaline that comes with fearing bad news.

When I answered the line went dead. I immediately called back and got through, but it was a sketchy cell connection. She said "a tornado had come through her back yard" ...static... "sent mike to check on mom & dad" ...more static... "can't get them out" the line went dead.

I got the second shot of adrenaline the comes when your fears are realized.

I handed the phone to Linda so she could try to get them back on the phone while I quickly dressed. I grabbed a handful of flashlights from the nightstand and jumped in the truck and started driving north. Not knowing what I was going to do when I got there, but I was going.

A bit while later I got a text that said they were all ok, that it was pretty bad, and they couldn't get out.

I got as far a exit 26 before I ran into traffic that was stopped on the interstate. I sat there for the next hour watching what seemed like every vehicle in southwest Virginia that had a flashing light pass me heading to Glade Spring. Traffic finally moved about 5:30 and I drove past exit 29, it was still dark so I couldn't see the extent of the damage so I drove on to exit 32 to get to mom's. the farther I got past 29 the better it looked so I was hoping that it had passed them by. There were service trucks blocking Fleet road so I turned up the service road driving toward Glade. My intention was to get to stagecoach road and get into town that way, little did I know that I was driving toward ground zero. I turned around, headed back to exit 32, then drove back to exit 26 and came into Glade up Hillman Highway to my sister's house.

We left her house and went toward mom & dad's, we got as far as the barn at the intersection of Fleet Road and Plum Creek --- the barn had been mostly flattened. It was still a bit to dark to see very far so we parked at the barn and walked in. We literally had to crawl through the downed trees to get up the road to their house. This cellphone picture is from the neighbor's yard early on Thursday. We found mom and my brother out in the yard, talking to the neighbors.

The next picture is the back of the house. Once the initial shock was over and I confirmed everyone was ok, we went inside to assess the damage. The living room was a mess, there was a hole in the bathroom ceiling, but the rest of the house was in surprisingly good shape. There was no way that mom and dad could crawl out through the trees the way the we had come in, but there was already a VDOT tree clearing crew working to clear a path up the road, it would take several hours to get to moms.

My sister and I went back to her house to check on her damage, I patched up a few things, we grabbed some tarps and headed back to moms. This next picture was taken Friday morning as I was coming back to get mom and dad's packed up, it was taken from the crossroad near the flattened barn, you can already see that a lot of work had been done at the house.

The picture at the top is an odd looking panorama taken Saturday morning, even more work clearing trees and securing the house has been done.

Shady Valley Ford

As I was driving back home from mom's I detoured through Damascus and Shady Valley and spied this old blue ford truck sticking out from under a old red barn near the intersection with 421.

It was the contrast in the red and blue and green colors that caught my eye from the road. So I skidded to a stop, parked in a driveway, and quickly shot a couple of brackets.

Here's the result after some HDR'n and some cropping.

Rural Retreat Train Depot

My plans for a photo trip on Good Friday didn't go as planned. I tried in vain to outrun the rain as I motored up I-81 to Rural Retreat Va., looking for this train depot that need it's picture taken.

I had read a newspaper article about this depot a couple of weeks earlier. The article says that, like the train depot in Chuckey TN, the train depot in Rural Retreat is privately owned but currently sits on land owned by the Norfolk & Southern railroad. The owner wants to upgrade the building but is reticent to do so in its current location, and the railroad won't sell him the land on which it sits. So he plans to move the train station to property he already owns at Mount Airy, a long-lost stagecoach stop along U.S. Highway 11 in Wythe county.

I was about a week late getting there as most of the platform and the roof over it have already been removed. I assume the article in the paper must be drawing lots of attention because of the number of 'No Trespassing' signs tacked on the building - and yes, I was careful to stay on railroad property and the sidewalk, not on his property.

Regardless, when I arrived it was breezy, about 41 degrees, and sprinkling rain, a really bad combination for picture-taking. But I was determined to get some brackets so I grabbed a towel to cover my camera and set off. Between gusts of wind I snapped off several brackets, I could only take pictures from the upwind side because the rain was blowing too much to allow shooting into the wind without getting water spots on the lens.

Anyway, here's the HDR'd result, with some judicious photoshop'n to remove the 'No Trespassing' signs and power lines.

Barn Along I-26

Another HDR shot of a barn with clouds. This barn is along I-26 just north of the Gray exit.

I stopped along the interstate - while observing all safety rules of course - and snapped the three photos of the bracket between cars on the road.

Pretty sweet clouds, eh? I'm always amazed at how cool the clouds look after being HDR'd.

Pine Tree at Host

Here's another picture of the pine tree that sits on the ridge above the pond at Host. I ran the single exposure through the HDR processing software and it did some really cool work on the clouds.

Bridge to a Really Nice Place

Here's a strongly-HDR'd pic of a stone-covered bridge near our house. I've been scoping this scene out for a while now, but never stopped because there was no place to park my truck that was out of the road --- so I got my girls to drop me off then come back later to pick me up.

Once again it was not a cool a shot as I expected, but now I know, right? What I think the scene needs is a nice orangy, glowy, cloudy, morning sky for a background, and maybe a better angle shooting from the other side of the creek.

The Long Way Home

The weather was so nice on the way home from mom's on Sunday I decided to come back to J'boro through Damascus to Backbone Rock to Elizabethton. It's a great ride through country with some great old barns and other stuff that should make some great pictures.

What I hadn't anticipated was how many motorcycles would be out riding that route. Oh my gosh, literally hundreds of bikes, loud bikes, fast bikes, slow bikes, old folks on bikes, geez. The numbers of bikes on the road really mucked up my picture taking trip cause every wide spot along the 50+ miles of road that I wanted to stop at was occupied, oh bother.

I was able to get stopped at and snag the above faux-HDR picture of this neat old barn with baskets and whatnot nailed to the outside. I wish there was a better angle to get a better shot, but, the no trespassing signs and herd of bikes precluded working around to a better angle. All that stuff on the outside of the barn made some really great texture.

The next faux-HDR picture is a church that looks like only the roof was built, no walls, just dormers on a roof .... weird. The rock front of the church also has some excellent texture and color.