Local – Page 26 – Random Connections

South Carolina Nature Preserves

April 10, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Peachtree Rock: The Rock (photo by Matt Richardson) I committed a major faux pas. I stole harvested an excellent Google Earth resource, but I forgot where I got it. I want to give credit to the proper people for this gem, but I can’t for the life of me remember where the file came from. … Read More “South Carolina Nature Preserves” »

London’s Restaurant

April 8, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Local, Restaurants

NOTE: This restaurant is now closed. I was in the mood for good New Orleans food. Unfortunately, that seems to be in short supply in Greenville since the demise of Betty Pearle’s on Main. There’s Chop’s, which has excellent Cajun cuisine, but is a bit cramped and out of the way. A quick scan of … Read More “London’s Restaurant” »

Middle Tyger Connected

April 7, 2009 Tom 3 Comments

Local

Yesterday we got word that Groce Rd, next to our office, would be closed while a new pedestrian bridge was being moved into place across the Middle Tyger River. Later in the afternoon things had slowed down enough that I decided to wander down and see what was going on. I got there just as the bridge was being lifted into place, and decided to stay and watch it happen.

The new pedestrian bridge is part of a grant-funded project called “Middle Tyger Connected.” Funding has been provided by the Mary Black Foundation, with additional funding from the Middle Tyger Chamber of Commerce and District Five Schools of Spartanburg. The project will connect the town of Lyman with the district’s S.C.A.L.E outdoor classroom and the new Stoneledge Park in Duncan.

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Western SC Tower Tour

April 5, 2009 Tom 7 Comments

Entertainment, Geocaching and Maps, Local, Photography, Rants, Travel

It seems like spring break got away from me without my being about to get out and visit the lookout towers like I wanted. This Friday was one of the best days, as far as weather was concerned, so I was able to visit some of the locations. My target would be those towers located in Northwestern South Carolina, along with any other interested tidbits I might discover along the way. It was a push, but I managed to visit eight tower locations in one day.

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South Carolina Heritage Corridor

March 29, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Geocaching and Maps, Local, Travel

While out driving the rural highways of South Carolina you may have come across a road sign with this symbol… Seeing a road sign like this lets you know that you are on either the South Carolina Discovery Route, or the South Carolina Nature Route, both parts of the South Carolina Heritage Corridor. On the … Read More “South Carolina Heritage Corridor” »

Very Superstitious

March 28, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

History and Genealogy, Local, Weirdness

I was reading my friend Duckhunter’s blog about his discovery of a house with “Haint Blue” paint on the porch. Duck does a great job of describing this practice, but it got me thinking about other, similar superstitions. In particular, I wondered if there were other superstitions like this, perhaps some even specific to the … Read More “Very Superstitious” »

Initialed Chimneys

March 23, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Local, Weirdness

The above photo is of a house near my office. It’s a bit blurry because I shot quickly as I was driving past. What caught my attention was the prominent initial “F” worked into the chimney masonry. In a post-mortgage fallout, post-“Flip this House” era, the idea of marking one’s house so indelibly seems quaint, almost laughable.

This is a very permanent mark. In many cases tan colored bricks are built into the chimney structure. Just about the only way to remove the initial is to tear down and rebuilt the chimney. Painting over it only partially obscures the letter, as the bricks that make up the initial are often of a different shape or orientation, so you can still see the outline.

Problematic Panorama

March 15, 2009 Tom 3 Comments

Local, Photography

View the above image large

The photo above is a panorama of the Liberty Bridge, Falls Park, and Reedy Falls area in downtown Greenville. It consists of five images taken at a wide angle 18mm focal length, then stitched together in Photoshop. It turned out to be quite a learning process and experiment in adaptation.

The first thing I tried was to load up all five shots and try to use the automatic panorama tool in Photoshop. Some of the buildings were completely obliterated, and it simply rejected one image that it couldn’t get to fit. I’m still using version CS2 of Photoshop, so there may have been improvements in the automated tool, but the results with my version were disappointing. It was time to go to manual mode.

The problem with using wide-angle shots is that you get some unusual perspective distortion at the edges. If you look at each photo individually, each looks OK.

Falls Park and Downtown Photo Walk

March 14, 2009 Tom No Comments

Local, Photography

Thursday evening I met up with several of my Flickr photographer friends for a photo walk. Tracy (Wilhemina Lump Lump), Eric (RestedTraveler), and James (James Wellman) and I gathered at the entrance to Falls Park for a downtown expedition. It turned out to be a great gathering, and we really learned quite a bit from each other about various photographic techniques.

When we first planned this outing we had scheduled it for a couple of weeks ago, right as the snow storm hit. The intent was to go out and try to do some long exposure photography. When we reschedule, we failed to take into account the time change, so we still had more daylight than we had planned. Oops.

Traffic Trails Around Town

February 26, 2009 Tom 1 Comment

Local, Photography

Driving around town the past week or so I had been scouting for locations where I could get good shots of traffic trails. I wanted to avoid the Overbrook Overpass, where it seems everyone takes a photo, so something different was needed. Since I’d had dinner at The Clock, I decided to look for some … Read More “Traffic Trails Around Town” »

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