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An update has been a long time coming. I’ve been traveling to South Carolina and Korea recently and saw some interesting things. I took a few pictures so see the pictures below. I’ve also read a few books. I finished the final book in The Millennium Trilogy, “The Girls Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” and I’m sad that it’s all done. See my book reviews.

Aiken, SC – I have been staying in Aiken, South Carolina for a few weeks. It’s a charming southern town and I have been taking a few pictures in the evening hours. See pictures here.

Asheville and the Biltmore Estate – We traveled to the Asheville area on a day off and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway and visited the Biltmore Estate. I have also included pictures of some scenes along the way including Saluda, South Carolina’s salute to the war effort, some peaches ripe on the tree in South Carolina and an old abandoned factory in Prosperity, South Carolina. Normally the Asheville area is quite temperate being at high elevation, but it was boiling hot for our visit!

The Blue Ridge Parkway was started in 1935 and took 52 years to complete. We drove a small 40 mile section near Asheville, hiked up the Great Craggy Mountain and drove up to the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. There were incredible groves of Catawba rhododendrons on the Great Craggy Mountain hike. You can see the pictures here.

The Biltmore Estate, built in 1895 by George Washington Vanderbilt, is the largest private residence in the world at 175,000 ft². It takes a staff of over 1000 people to maintain it and manage the tours that bring one million visitors a year. I took many pictures on the outside of the building, but unfortunately you were not allowed to take any pictures inside.

There is a lot of activity outside the building with shuttle busses and people walking around. I thought it would look better just on its own, so I took several pictures with the busses and people in different positions so I could sandwich them together into one photo with only the building showing. To do this, take a several pictures on a tripod, then open them into layers in Photoshop. The layers are not exactly aligned so select all the layers and use the “Auto Align” feature. Put the layer with the people and cars on the top and use the erase feature to remove them. As you erase you can see the unpopulated version come through. I have blown up one portion of the photograph below and you can see the before and after versions. See the full-sized version in the photo sets here. Maybe I’ll try the same technique at other places.