Yella Fella

As part of this year's art scene, a bunch of these dogs can be found scattered around downtown Winston-Salem. Once the event ends they all get sold to benefit pet adoption agencies or other agencies looking to assist with neglected animals.

Dog and Cat Daze of Summer

Kernersville "Moto" Moments

My Motorola i870 camera phone has been a great companion while I attempt to discover and figure out what size this town is. From some of this pictures in this post, you'll quickly see that there is a lot of "small town" still lingering. I took the above picture of the "Kernersville Transmission Shop" while driving through the heart of "Downtown Kernersville." Just across the street is "Bill & Leah's" greasy spoon restaurant.


I have not really released any photos of the house we are having built just yet because I figure I'll save a thread just for the progression photos. In the meantime, enjoy this little camera phone snag. The sky was great and the plywood roof set it off nicely.




A Dodge Viper in "Smalltown USA?" Yes sir. I was at the local Best Buy pricing out a replacement computer when I saw this ride parked out front. I think I was more amazed to see such an exotic car in this part of town. All it needed was some black lettering on the side that reads "BEST BUY."



Just down the street from where we are staying there is a small abandoned house. Could this be a house or a woodshed of some sort? I don't know. It's got vines growing all over it. I definitely need to hit this spot with a Holga.




Not too long ago I had to drive about 1.5 hours out of town to take photos of a farmer and some of his organic crops. Along the way I saw this ranch style house out in the middle of a field. They might have a neighbor or two, but I can't imagine this place ever getting too busy.




Lastly, above is a water tower I pass everyday on the way to work. I think there is an attached warehouse with loading docks, but I have no idea what kind of business is run here. On the backside of the warehouse are some railroad tracks. I think I'd like to revisit this site and cover it in detail.

All photos taken with the Motorola i870 phone. Histogram, curves, and b/w conversion are done post production. I hope you enjoyed. - EC

Biltmore Estate - Asheville, NC

This past weekend was about moms and visiting new places. There is nothing better than spending some quality time with family and enjoying a new experience together. Our destination was the famed Biltmore Estate built by George Vanderbilt just over 100 years ago. This house has everything a rich person could afford and poor man dream of having. The price of admission alone almost made me dream I could go for a one day visit. If you have been to Disney World then you can certainly afford to go to see this mansion. Like I said before, it was Mother's Day weekend so we were not going to hold back. The visit was worth every penny as evident by the beautiful sunny and cool weather we had to accompany our first experience at the Biltmore.

I have never been a huge fan of history. Unfortunately, I cannot accurately recall any of the details of what I had learned about, but here's a summary. Basically, there was a rich guy with a lot of money. He wanted a big house and a lot of land. The land Mr. Vanderbilt decided on happened to be somewhat crappy barren land with no features. I'm sure he got it for next to nothing. Talk about a great real estate purchase. Apparently, the weather had its way with the land and eroded the landscape. Mr. Vanderbilt, with all of his money, decided he would revitalize the land, build a large house much bigger than anything else in America, and hire a bunch of servants to keep it clean. Later on he sold a bunch of it back to the government. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me if you have a lot of money and not much else to spend it on.

In all seriousness, Mr. Vanderbilt and family did a great job of building a National icon. The legacy of his family lives on through his only daughter. Somehow the house and property got passed along through the family which now pretty much runs the estate as a theme park of sorts. If you ask our group, the best part of the day trip was visiting the winery for "tasting." Along with the sampling of wines bottled on the estate, there was an assortment of complimentary snacks to keep the wine tasters happy.




From a photographer's point of view, there were many elements to capture. At times I was exhausted just trying to compose shots. The landscape varied greatly. Between the forests, gardens, house, and other elements of the estate, I was actually fairly happy the day had ended. The most frustrating part of the day was not being able to photograph inside the house. I suppose the only logical explanation there is that the flash bulbs of thousands of tourists could eventually fade the interior paints and fabrics that decorate the house. Bummer.

If you ever visit N. Carolina I highly recommend you visit Asheville and the Biltmore Estate. With pictures and good memories in my mind, I look forward to my continual exploration of this state and the many historical sites ready to be photographed. Enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year I was fortunate to spend some time with mom. In the picture above you can see she was enjoying being queen for a weekend. She and my brother's mother-in-law Brenda flew up from their homes in Tampa for the weekend to visit and to spend some quality time up here in N. Carolina.


The weekend's events included a visit to the neighborhood where my new house is being built, some quality time between lunches and dinners, and a visit to Asheville and the Biltmore Estate. Today's blog entry is put together with images taken at the Biltmore Estate's gardens and conservatory. I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate moms than with a nice picture of her being silly and some flowers.

The Biltmore, which is the largest house in the U.S., is loaded with elegance and all of the luxuries money could by back in the very late 1800s. My mother absolutely loves history. Every summer she was in charge of planning our road trips. You could pretty much count that we would end up learning about the history of some small town in the U.S. As a kid, we all wanted Disney World and theme parks. Mom always wanted to go see some historic battle site or some small town in the middle of nowhere. As with growing older, I can finally appreciate all of those "boring" places we visited. Now I can't wait to revisit a lot of those places and gain a finer appreciation the second time around. It's strange what "getting older and wiser" will do to a person.

I can recall my mother forcing the family sometime around dinner time to watch that show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with Robin Leach back when we were kids. I remember how boring it was to learn about what rich people did with their money. This house and its grounds were truly amazing. Mom loved every minute of the day, especially the wine tasting, the audio history tour, and the gardens. At the turn of every corner I was just waiting for Robin Leach to greet us.


As you can well imagine, I enjoyed just walking around taking pictures of the estate with all of its detailing and grandness. Learning about the house and the level of sophistication for its day was also very interesting.


To all the mothers out there, and to my mom especially, Happy Mother's Day. I hope you enjoyed your weekend in N. Carolina with "the kids."

An Evening by the Lake

Content for the blog has been thin lately. For that I apologize. Between work and finalizing my relocation to N. Carolina, I have not had much leisure time to get out and shoot for practice or for blog content so I am sure you understand. However, I know there are a few loyal readers out there so I decided to take a moment and find some new fodder.

A post or two ago I shared some pictures from Salem Lake. I later found out that the lake itself has a permiter of about 7 miles. I also found out that the park has a recreational site complete with boat launch, bait shop, and playgrounds for the young ones.

With camera in car, I took a moment after work to take advantage of the late spring sunset and photograph an emptying Salem Lake Park. Accompanying me was Shanti, the local park ranger (passing by), and all the geese and ducks standing by for a handout.

I look forward to many weekends of visiting local parks and enjoying the amenities of my new town. Enjoy the photos.