Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb

Saturday my wife and I drove down to spectate at the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb event near Robbinsville, NC.  If you are not familiar with what a hill climb is, then head over to the Dragon Hill Climb site and check it out.  The course is near the Tail of the Dragon, an 11 mile road that is world-famous for its 318 turns.  It truly is an amazing road to drive if you are a car or motorcycle enthusiast.  However, maybe not so great if your wife is six months pregnant haha.

It was a great event, and great to see some old friends as well.  I grabbed myself a media pass which allowed me to be anywhere on course, as long as I was behind a guard rail, and headed on course.  I only made it up to corner worker #3 because of the limited time I had, but I was able to get some pretty decent shots.

I haven’t processed these photos (too many), but if you are interested in getting a certain photo edited and printed, just email me and let me know the file name of the photo you would like (I only need the last 3 digits) and we can discuss pricing. Keep in mind that these shots have had their quality reduced to optimize them for the internet.

Be sure to check out my other site too! 413 Racing

Please Check Out My Other Blog – 413 Racing

Hey everyone, please check out my other blog, 413 Racing. It’s all about building our racecar to compete in endurance racing. Check it out and follow the blog and like our facebook page please!

413 Racing

413 Racing facebook Page

Thanks!

Super Moon

Yesterday was the super moon; it is called the super moon because it is the brightest and biggest it will be all year.  It was extremely bright and beautiful!  I took a couple of pictures, then just played around a bit with a few others.  Let me know what you think!

Super Moon

Super Moon

Just playing around

Just trying something

Thanks for looking!

Steven

One Among Many

I was going through some older photos and found this one that I really liked. I decided to convert it to black and white and play with it a bit.  I am happy with it.  Anyway, just wanted to share it.

The Biltmore House

My wife and I were given season passes to the lovely Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, and my parents offered to babysit so that we could enjoy a day together at the Biltmore.  It was a beautiful chilly day!  The audio tour is a must!  We learned quite a lot about the construction of the house, the Vanderbilts, and many interesting facts.  We had a wonderful lunch at Cedric’s Tavern in Antler Hill Village, which is on the estate grounds.  After lunch we took some photos and then had a wonder tour of the winery, followed by a wine tasting.  It was a great day!  We cannot wait to go back during the Festival of Flowers, and Christmas time.

Here are a few of the photos from the day; enjoy!

Front lawn and Biltmore House

Knights Stand Guard

American Flag Flies Overhead

Biltmore House

Lion at the Biltmore House

Biltmore Details

Dreamy Bridge at the Biltmore House

Background

Stone Wall

Forrest of light shines through

If you are ever in the Asheville, NC area, I highly recommend spending a day at the Biltmore House.  There’s the house itself, the winery, the gardens, stables, Antler Hill Village, Bass pond, hiking trails, horseback riding, Segway rentals, and so much more that it will easily take at least a day (if not two) to see it all.  Thanks for looking!

Steven

Total Lunar Eclipse

Had a great opportunity tonight to see the total lunar eclipse. Here in South Korea we got to see the eclipse in its entirety. It was pretty amazing! I was outside in the 27 degree weather for about an hour and a half, but got some pretty good pictures.

The Total Lunar Eclipse of 10 December 2011 belongs to Saros 135.  This is the last eclipse of the year and occurs at the Moon’s descending node in eastern Taurus, four days after apogee. (apogee – the Moons furthest point from Earth).  The event is a Total Lunar Eclipse at magnitude 1.1061

Entering Earths Darker Umbra Shadow

Moon almost covered by Earths umbra shadow

Begins to redden on the western hemisphere

Almost totally covered

Deep in Earths shadow

Sunlight strikes Earth’s atmosphere, where fine particles of dust, volcanic ash, and water vapor reflect and bend light inwards toward the moon.

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

The reddish light strikes the lunar surface, which in turn is reflected back to Earth

Total eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

The moon becomes darker as less light is able to reach the lunar surface

Blood Moon

Training Hard

The last couple of days I had the opportunity to shoot some of our Soldiers training. Mostly from an M9 pistol range, and one from some Call For Fire training; which is using a map, various tools, and a radio to call for artillery. I got some decent results. I hope you enjoy!

Working up a call for fire mission

The victims

Fire

Training

Training

Training

Training

Spent

The DMZ!

So we’ve been in S. Korea for almost two years now, always saying something like “we’ll go to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) next month,” and we finally went only 3 months before we’re supposed to leave.   It was a great tour, and we had good weather.  Very glad we finally did it.  The below photos are nothing spectacular, but still neat nonetheless, because less than 1% of Americans will get to see the DMZ.  At the actual DMZ we weren’t allowed to take any bags (women couldn’t even carry purses), and we could only take pictures when the tour guide (US Soldier) said so, and of certain things.  So I only had my kit lens.

At the observatory looking into North Korea

Dueling flags

Propaganda Village

Propaganda Village

The last stop

The North Korean House

Stand Firm

A Table Divided

The guard

Hope

Propaganda Village

Me, with Propaganda Village in the back ground

The Famous Poplar Tree

When you click on the picture it will open a slideshow.  If you click the “permalink” it will take you to a page with more info about each picture.    Thanks for looking!

Dobongsan Mountain

My wife and I went for a hike up Dobongsan Mountain in October, and it was pretty difficult, but beautiful.  Much of the hike would have been deemed “unsafe” by American standards, and probably shut down. It was a lot of fun, and here are just a few of the many shots

 

Photos of Zoe

I added some photos of my daughter Zoe, in the Family gallery.  Recently I’ve been really into black and white images, so I’m trying to learn black and white post processing (PP).  Please take a look and tell me what you think.

Thanks for looking! – Steven