2010- 500 Most Interesting Photos

There's a local saying- "Kudzu is King." From these pictures, I'm sure you can see why locals have adopted that phrase. Fighting kudzu (and its close cousins) is a continual process, and were it not for temperatures eventually dropping below freezing each year, it would be a battle we'd eventually lose. I recently met someone who said something about our "footnight" here. I asked them what "footnight" was, and they pointed to the kudzu and said where they came from everyone called it "foot-a-night" because it seemed to grow up to a foot a night. I concur. --- After taking Kristin shopping for a dress for a friend's wedding, Kristin, Kolton and I spent part of a Saturday driving around taking pictures of abandoned places. It seems we've always found abandoned things in smaller towns and rural areas, but now we're seeing abandoned buildings in heavily trafficked areas of larger cities in the area. (Some of these pictures were taken just down from busy mall areas on 4-6 lane highways and other heavily traveled roads.) Since traffic was quite heavy at times, we worked out a system where I would stop the car, Kristin would jump out, snap a few quick shots before any cars came up behind us, and then we'd take back off. Because of the position of the sun and because of our rush to snap the pictures, not all of the pictures came out as well as we had wished. Still, the main thing was to be able to get a few shots while still keeping ourselves safe, so I guess we did manage to take care of the most important thing- ourselves. :)

There's a local saying- "Kudzu is King." From these pictures, I'm sure you can see why locals have adopted that phrase. Fighting kudzu is a continual process, and were it not for temperatures eventually dropping below freezing each year, it would be a battle we'd eventually lose. I recently met someone who said something about our "footnight" here. I asked them what "footnight" was, and they pointed to the kudzu and said where they came from everyone called it "foot-a-night" because it seemed to grow up to a foot a night. I concur. --- After taking Kristin shopping for a dress for a friend's wedding, Kristin, Kolton and I spent part of a Saturday driving around taking pictures of abandoned places. It seems we've always found abandoned things in smaller towns and rural areas, but now we're seeing abandoned buildings in heavily trafficked areas of larger cities in the area. (Some of these pictures were taken just down from busy mall areas on 4-6 lane highways and other heavily traveled roads.) Since traffic was quite heavy at times, we worked out a system where I would stop the car, Kristin would jump out, snap a few quick shots before any cars came up behind us, and then we'd take back off. Because of the position of the sun and because of our rush to snap the pictures, not all of the pictures came out as well as we had wished. Still, the main thing was to be able to get a few shots while still keeping ourselves safe, so I guess we did manage to take care of the most important thing- ourselves. :)

The new camcorder we got recently can be set to automatically take pictures while shooting video. The pictures taken while shooting video aren't near the quality of the camcorder's regular still photos, but I liked some of these shots the camera decided to take on its own and decided to include them here.

Kolton gets a pony ride during "Old Fashioned Day and Dinner-on-the-Grounds Homecoming." Taken at the church of which I'm a member, Kings Grove Baptist Church, Central, SC (US). (note: the church will be 100 years old September 25, 2010, and the year has been filled with special events and festivities for the community. On this particular Sunday, members dressed in the attire of 1910, and special tribute was paid to the church's founders (the ancestors of many who attend the church today). Besides lots of free food and music (old fashioned gospel and bluegrass music featuring "Tugaloo Holler"), the pony rides and guided nature hikes seemed to be the biggest attractions to the kids. More carnival/community-style events to come during the month.)

Kolton gets a pony ride during "Old Fashioned Day and Dinner-on-the-Grounds Homecoming." Taken at the church of which I'm a member, Kings Grove Baptist Church, Central, SC (US). (note: the church will be 100 years old September 25, 2010, and the year has been filled with special events and festivities for the community. On this particular Sunday, members dressed in the attire of 1910, and special tribute was paid to the church's founders (the ancestors of many who attend the church today). Besides lots of free food and music (old fashioned gospel and bluegrass music featuring "Tugaloo Holler"), the pony rides and guided nature hikes seemed to be the biggest attractions to the kids. More carnival/community-style events to come during the month.)

My daughter was in an auto accident in April of 2010, which required that she be transported by ambulance to the hospital emergency room. A few days later, still sore, but able to travel, I wanted her to take me to the accident scene so I could try to piece together what had happened. While we initially had trouble finding the accident location, we stumbled across this old railway station near Piedmont, SC. The weather being overcast and windy and not really conducive to taking the best quality pictures, we only took a few shots while we were there, being short on time.

My daughter was in an auto accident in April of 2010, which required that she be transported by ambulance to the hospital emergency room. A few days later, still sore, but able to travel, I wanted her to take me to the accident scene so I could try to piece together what had happened. While we initially had trouble finding the accident location, we stumbled across this old railway station near Piedmont, SC. The weather being overcast and windy and not really conducive to taking the best quality pictures, we only took a few shots while we were there, being short on time.

I never realized how few the number of pictures I'd taken of the outside of my house. I recently had some work done on my home, and the "new look" can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/gregorylggregory/6181920197/