South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame Website

South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame Website

By J= ean Edwards

Recently Jim Hamilton sent me a request for pictures from the new SC Aviation Hall of Fame which is located in the new terminal at Columbia Owens Downtown Airport. If y= ou haven't taken the time to see the Hall, you can now take a virtual tour online! The website for the Hall is http://scaahof.o= rg. Enter the = Hall at http://scaahof.org/Insid= e.htm. At the tim= e you read this article, the website may be completed, but if not, you can view t= he Hall at http://scaahof.org/Walk%20Down%= 20Hall.htm.

This website contains the work of four people:

The first two are Scott and Lori Huffer from Hartsville, who created the wonderful plaques that honor the Hall of F= ame members. If you haven't seen them, they contain photos of the members as yo= ung persons as well as photos taken later in life. The two photos are mor= phed together on the plaque to give a hologram appearance, the view changing with the angle at which you are looking at the plaque. You will see both photos on the website. (Scott and Lori's website is http://www.magicplate.com/default.html.) Credit also goe= s to Jim Hamilton who spearheaded the effort to locate all those individual pictures= of the members of the Hall. It was quite a task - I assisted in that eff= ort.

The second is Hugh Oldham from Anderson who has done a fantastic job of putting together the website itself. Hugh is a former 242 member ""from the dark ages of pig pickings and renegade flying (especia= lly dawn patrols at Manning)." The emails have been flying back and forth between Hugh and me as we discussed what we wanted to do with the pho= tos on the website. I took one batch of photos that were posted on an int= erim basis, but now a new set has been posted. Hugh has been very clever w= ith the programming and you should enjoy the "virtual tour" he has created for you.

As I mentioned above, Jim Hamilton forwarded= me the request for photographs. Jim knows that I always have my camera w= ith me, and I was honored to give this project a try. Although the first batch of photos I took were okay, Hugh and I had more ideas as to= how to present them on the website, so back I went to the Hall to try again.&nb= sp; My problem had to do with all the reflection of the overhead fluorescent and the track lighting that spotlighted the plaques. I experimented with the lighting, turning off the overhead lighting, but that still didn't work as = well as I wanted. So, I asked one of the lineboys how to turn off the track lighting. I discovered that he had to get a key and turn off those li= ghts from inside a locked room! With only the light filtering in from the outside door at the end of the building allowing me to focus on the shots I wanted, I took photos of the plaques using only the flash from my camera.&n= bsp; I think you will be amazed at the results.

I've said it before, when I first walked into the Hall of Fame, but I'll say it again. The people of South Carolina have a first class faci= lity to honor the outstanding aviators of our state. If you haven't seen it yet, please make it a point to do so. You will be glad you did!<= /o:p>