Where to start? I love barbecue. I love butcher shops. I love cities with tall buildings and great people watching. I also love air conditioning.
My 4th of July week was spent in South Carolina, right by the border of North Carolina. Even though I spent a lot of time in each state I really only dug the cameras out in NC. SC was more for relaxation time, TV watchin’ and board game playin’ (in that AC I was talking about, of course).
In South Carolina we were just rackin’ up on some good hours spending time with awesome family, taking a load off and forgetting about work and the stresses of life. Per usual we ate like Kings and Queens. Had great appetizers and conversations.
We always have game time when we visit our family. New one this time. If you are unfamiliar with the game, “Carbles” you are seriously missing out. It’s like Chinese Checkers or the board game Aggravation. But… it’s its own thing.
This was WAY better though because it was custom 3D printed and personalized. We played it a ton- even with my family’s neighbors who also had a blast playing it. And to be fair- they were hilarious people to hang with making the evening perfect!
My mom and I and went home with our very own custom 3D printed Carbles board, marbles and three decks of playing cards. All I needed to finalize the set was a bag to keep the board game set in and an electronic card shufflin’ device. Amazon = Success.
Anyway, back to photography- My first adventure in the Carolina’s took me to a little town called Waxhaw, North Carolina (I’ll be fully transparent- I had no idea we even crossed state boarders from South Carolina to enter into this wonderful geographical location- those invisible boarder lines will get ya sometimes).
Within this town is a bridge, some sidewalks, eateries, tea shops and some trains. After crushing a fantastic Cuban-like sandwich with tater chips at a little spot called Cork and Ale, we set out to wander around ol’ Wexhaw.
CSX locomotive rolling through the town of Wexhaw, NC at approximately 50 miles-per-hour. With full cargo, this train at one point weighed right around 34-35 million pounds total
We started out our journey by crossing over the aforementioned bridge to visit some of the aforementioned shops. In the middle of the bridge, an elderly man engaged us in conversation (get ready for some train nerd talk).
Though I am not a stop and chat type, this guy was able to peak our interest by informing us a big-ol’ freight train was about to roll through. He was super passionate about trains as he used to be an engineer for Amtrak back in the day (which was a long time ago). The train was a CSX operated freight train that would be right around 1.5 miles in length (2.41402KM for you Canadian and European nerds) and would weigh in at roughly 14,000,000lbs empty. EMPTY. Sounded like a great shot so we hung around and learned about trains from our new friend. I learned sometimes they put extra locomotives in the middle of the train for extra braking power because God knows these things don’t stop “on a dime” as they say.
A couple days went by and I finally got myself into Charlotte, North Carolina. We hit up a spot called NoDa first. It’s a very vibrantly entertaining, somewhat mysterious, artsy and unique place to hang out with some vintage RV trailers converted into stores and food trucks, a cantina and a ton of murals to lay your eyes upon. The photography opportunities were endless and stunning. This was a great first stop! It has a lot more to explore, so I will save that exploration for my next visit.
From there, it was off to Uptown Charlotte. Here is where I got the Nikon D810 IR converted camera out and FINALLY got to explore using it as an architectural camera (my main reason for the conversion). Exploring the color grading and different artistic approaches in Light Room was a treat as well. This IR thing has really added a remarkable tool to the photography tool kit for various subject matter.
Down below are the images I decided to bring to life from shooting with my Fuji GFX 50SII and Infrared converted Nikon D810. Click the images to enlarge.
- Mike
PS: New images added to Arch/Design, City Life and Transportation portfolio sections…Browse away friends…