If you’ve ever traveled I-95 within 150 or so miles north or south of the North & South Carolina border you’ve seen the billboards…but have you ever experienced it? Experienced the enigmatic South of the Border? Well, after having daydreamed past Pedroland several times over the past several years I had to finally put curiosity to rest and answer the burning question.

Can I go to the top of the towering Sombrero? The answer is a resounding yes. For one US dollar you can ride the urine smelling elevator a little closer to heaven and take in a wonderful view of…highway I-95.

From the all-knowing Wikipedia…

South of the Border was developed by Al Schafer (1914-2001), who founded a beer stand at the location in 1950 and steadily expanded it with Mexican trinkets and numerous kitsch items. He had a great deal of success because of his location, which was immediately across the border from a dry North Carolina county, and grew his small business into what was, by local standards, an economic empire. South of the Border grew to over a square mile, required its own infrastructure, and had its own fire and police departments. Schafer became reclusive, building a large compound of interconnected houses outside the Dillon city limits. At South of the Border, he kept secret apartments hidden in the backs of restaurants and shops.

The entire motif of South of the Border can be described as intentionally camp.

The brim of the Sombrero provides a view of the vastness of Pedroland and the huge number of hotel rooms, the church and the convention center that make up this playground. If anything Pedroland is nice a distraction from the monotonous I-95 and a cheap source of gasoline.

Someday I shall return to South of the Border and shoot this park of wonder in the beautiful morning light (aka, the golden hour), but for now you can view the midday sun blasted photos in this Flickr set.

I’ve never been very successful photographing fireworks. Over exposed, under exposed, blurry, whatever the reason, all my firework photos ended up on the digital cutting-room floor. This summer’s 4th of July fireworks in Pentwater Michigan offered a chance at redemption. With a tripod and a remote trigger, I managed to create a couple keepers mixed in with a few of outtakes.

Pentwater is a small Lake Michigan community and their 4th of July fireworks show is equally as small. At any one time there were no more than two or three mortars bursting in the sky except for the finale. A longer exposure was needed to capture the lower light and also had the benefit of picking up the quickly diminishing sunset. Pentwater is far enough north that a completely pitch black sky would have meant a fireworks show not starting until well after 11:00pm.

Starting with a 5 second exposure, I worked my way up to a more optimal 30 seconds. With a Nikon D70s, a 30 second exposure took sixty to ninety seconds for in-camera processing of the RAW image file, so there wasn’t much time to analyze and adjust. The entire fireworks show was only twenty minutes long.

The only thing I wish I would have tried was zooming all the way out and capturing a broader portrait image.

Click on any image for a larger view and go to Flickr the entire series.

Word around the hanger today is that the Eclipse 500 was certified for Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI), something Eclipse Aviation has been promising for several years. (Read the Aero-News Network article here). The entire production cycle of the Eclipse 500 hasn’t been an easy one, from a slow delivery schedule to a recent price increase.

However, Eclipse Aviation has just recently started taking orders on their new, and smaller, Eclipse 400. The 400 made a surprise appearance at Oshkosh last summer as a concept jet. You have to think that all the lessons learned with 500 will improve production of the 400.

Pretty dang cool looking, if you ask me. (More photos here).