My last Saturday before heading back to work after Winter Break, and I decided to do some geocaching and photography in Fairfield County. I had new GPS units to test drive, I had specific locations I wanted to photograph, and I wanted to take some time to swing by my parent’s house. I had ambitious goals for what I wanted to see and do, perhaps too ambitious. It turned out to be a day of mixed results – delight and frustration, discovery and missed opportunities.
Category: Photography
Today the plan was to head up toward the Sebastian area, have lunch, and visit the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. We headed north on US 1, stopped at Hale’s Groves for some citrus, then stopped at Rock City Gardens to look at the plants. Lunch was at the Sand Bar at Captain Hiram’s. It … Read More “More Florida Wildlife Encounters” »
The number of libraries, museums, and other organizations that are putting their historic photos on Flickr is growing. Add to that number the New York Public Library. As it turns out, these organizations are part of a larger Flickr endeavor called The Commons. This includes the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museum, and Eastman House, … Read More “The Commons” »
First a caveat – I try not to review or discuss specific gadgets here at RandomConnections unless I actually have the device in hand and have played with it, either having purchased it for myself, for work, or having swiped it from a friend for a test run. I don’t like to speculate on a device’s capabilities unless I’ve seen them myself. Also, especially this close to Christmas a favorable review might be taken as a “wish list”, and that’s not necessarily the case. So, I tend to stick with what I’ve actually seen.
Today I’m going to break with that policy somewhat. My intent was to discuss a capability rather than a specific device or brand, but it turns out that only one brand has this feature (so far.) I’m talking about photo navigation, the ability to navigate to a geotagged photo via GPS as an inherent capability of the device.
Google has partnered with Time/LIFE to make a massive collection of images available online through the Google Image Search funtcion. The announcement was made on the Official Google Blog today. This collection includes film, negatives, and even glass plates dating back as far as 1750, which have been digitized and are now hosted by Google. … Read More “That’s LIFE” »
On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye
to Caanan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie.I am bound for the promised land, I’m bound for the promised land.
Oh, who will come and go with me, I am bound for the promised land.
The trip was going to be a ghost-hunting expedition for Eric Rogers and me. Eric and I had finally met offline, and were planning a joint expedition to the haunted Rock House just south of Greenwood. Since we would be down in that area, we had also plotted out some other interesting locations. I had flagged one little town, Promised Land, SC, with the comment, “With a name like that, how could we NOT go there?”
Eric was not able to make the trip, but my brother Houston and sister Glynda were able to go. Houston took on the role of Aaron, the spokesperson, with Glynda as Miriam, and me as Moses, leading and documenting our trip. So early Sunday morning we found a suitable radio evangelist and headed for the Promised Land. We hoped we would make it all the way, further than our biblical counterparts.
I felt like a criminal. Certainly what I was planning to do was probably illegal, if only in a minor way. However, I knew what I wanted, and knew I only had a small window of opportunity to get it. While the end result wasn’t as perfect as I might have hoped the adventure was certainly worth it.
My route to work takes me down I-358 to I-85. These crisp autumn mornings I’ve been noticing how much the sky looks like the new South Carolina license plates. I think the silhouetted crescent and palm were probably meant to show the evening sky, but it was my morning commute that really brought out the similarity. I decided to combine this scene with another subject that had caught my eye, and try to capture the perfect photo.
This week fall colors were at peak on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Laura is in Washington State this weekend, and I didn’t want to miss the colors, so I finished up my chores early this morning and headed north. Our normal path is to drive up 276 to Brevard, drive through Pisgah Forest, then take … Read More “BRP at Peak” »
Laura had a quick business trip to Chicago, so Glynda and I decided to get out and see the countryside. I had spotted an advertisement for the Oconee Bale Trail, a series of decorated hay bales through that county, and it looked like as good an excuse as anything to get out and about.
Glynda hadn’t been with my on one of my photo rambles before. As with most of my family, she loves photography, too. She has also inherited our parents love of exploring backroads. While growing up, instead of calling her by her name Glynda Jo, my father called her “Glynda Go.” She had just finished her last day at the Boys Home of the South on Friday, so this was going to be a celebratory get-away.
One of the perks of my job is that I get to try to try out lots of new tech toys. One of our curriculum coordinators had requested one of the little Flip Mino video cameras. She graciously let me give it a whirl before giving it back to her.
Even though this device (or some version of it) has been out for about a year now, I hadn’t gotten very excited about it. High-quality video cameras are now very reasonably priced, and now even point-n-shoot cameras come with a video mode. The question was – Is the Flip redundant? Would you be better off applying the cost of the Flip toward a better point-n-shoot? I really needed to find out because I’ve got several others requesting these, and needed to know how best to spend our equipment funds.