Florida to NC aerials

aerialphotoaerialphoto Registered Users Posts: 299 Major grins
edited July 30, 2010 in Journeys
Did a quick trip from Florida to Hickory NC and back this weekend, about 930 miles round-trip non-stop. Conditions weren't the best in NC for photos but I made the best of it with some snapshots.

GPS track in red, photo-points at the yellow "X"s
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First, Florida's coast around sunrise. I don't get a chance to do much pre-sunrise aerials and it's a challenge (for me).

Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
Bunnell Florida in Flagler County, before sunrise
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St Augustine with some sunrise light
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Sunrise over the Atlantic, Flagler County coast
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Too high for much else until we went into the money-making phase of the trip and dropped down up north-

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On our photo missions (the making-money portion, not the fun-picture-taking portion) I look for unusual, interesting, historical, or popular landmarks - and visually interesting subjects. The school buses falls is the latter, if not a little weird.

Nikon D300 w/Nikkor Qc 135mm f/2.8 (1974)

Unmarked school buses - Newton, NC
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Conover, NC
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Up north-east of Hickory we got a glimpse of some foothills. The pictures make it look a lot better than it was. The haze was so heavy that visibility looking into the sun was terrible.

Taylorsville, NC
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Between Hickory and Newton is the Hickory Motor Speedway "birthplace of the NASCAR stars". Junior Johnson won his first race there in 1955.

Hickory Motor Speedway
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Heading south-west through Catawba County and the Catawba River...
Henry Fork of the Catawba River - Startown, NC
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Down in Cleveland County near Shelby along Rt226 (the Polkville Rd) is the "Hometown Market"

Hometown Market - Polkville, NC
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NC is farm country. Big and small, this family house has some farmland too.

Shelby/Rehobeth, NC
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Comments

  • aerialphotoaerialphoto Registered Users Posts: 299 Major grins
    edited July 27, 2010
    ...but it's also an industrial state. I happened to see this clock tower along a road. Not something you see every day, and there wasn't much around that seemed connected to it.

    Cliffside, NC
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    ...a little investigation revealed the town of "Cliffside" was once a bustling town built around a cotton mill. It was started by R.R.Haynes in the late 1800s. The area around the mill was a village with several churches, stores, a large school, and more. The business employed 900 and at one point the village was home to 2500.

    R.R.Haynes died in 1917. The employees and company built a community building in his memory. In 1922 it opened with a gym, bath house, a theater, and over the front stood that clock tower and clock. When the building was demolished in the 70s former employees and residents lobbied the new owners to relocate the clock. Today it sits where R.R.Haynes' house was, still a memorial to him.

    Funny what you find.

    Just a block away are the remains of the mill. Like many mills of it's period, the machinery in the plant was driven by water-power. The river was dammed and harnessed using drive-shafts and pulleys (similar to steam-powered mills). Eventually the hydro-mechanical design gave way to hydro-electric. The small building next to the dam houses water-driven turbines that not long ago still generated power.

    Much of the building has been demolished by the new owners. Nobody knows what the plan is for the building, but indications are they'd like to start the hydro-electric plant up again.

    Cliffside, NC
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    The school? It's still there. Cliffside Public School. It's now on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Cliffside Public School - Cliffside, NC
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  • Sexy6ChickSexy6Chick Registered Users Posts: 948 Major grins
    edited July 28, 2010
    Wow..I never thought I'd see anything from Hickory on this forum. That is where I was born and raised for 20+ years. To see aerial shots of all those NC towns is really awesome as I know where most of them are :)
    ~*Natalie*~

    A lover of all things photography.

    Olympus E-500

    My Smugmug Gallery
  • aerialphotoaerialphoto Registered Users Posts: 299 Major grins
    edited July 29, 2010
    Sexy6Chick wrote: »
    Wow..I never thought I'd see anything from Hickory on this forum. That is where I was born and raised for 20+ years. To see aerial shots of all those NC towns is really awesome as I know where most of them are :)

    Kinda wish we'd get more work up there so I can site-see. I'm from VA and did a lot of work and exploring around NC but haven't done much aerial work.
  • aerialphotoaerialphoto Registered Users Posts: 299 Major grins
    edited July 29, 2010
    jasonp1991 wrote: »
    Incredible shots - I dont think Ive ever seen a group of school buses look so interesting.
    MOD EDIT: Banned user.

    Stuff like that can be cool.

    I shot this one in Florida on Wednesday:
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  • ChrisJChrisJ Registered Users Posts: 2,164 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2010
    I always enjoy your photos. I really like the St. Augustine one with the fort. We had a nice visit there many years ago.
    Chris
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