Ralph Hightower

Provided photograph of one of our Beagles, Zeus, that had treed a squirrel.

Renames files in a directory by pre-pending the directory name to the file name. For scanning my film negatives and slides to digital, I create a directory for the film roll in the format YYYY-RR, where YYYY is the year and RR is a sequential number that is reset for each year. The scanned images are the numbers printed on the film by the manufacturer. Without this utility, there could be hundreds of duplicate file names without being able to distinguish the directory when the images are… Show more

Renames files in a directory by pre-pending the directory name to the file name. For scanning my film negatives and slides to digital, I create a directory for the film roll in the format YYYY-RR, where YYYY is the year and RR is a sequential number that is reset for each year. The scanned images are the numbers printed on the film by the manufacturer. Without this utility, there could be hundreds of duplicate file names without being able to distinguish the directory when the images are imported into Adobe Lightroom. With this utility, images in Lightroom can now be sorted and the directory identified. This utility was developed in C#, .Net for Microsoft Windows. Show less

I photographed the Beagles competing in the National Beagle Club Specialty. Greenville Convention Center. Greenville, South Carolina.

I photographed various activities, and performers at the Columbia Greek Festival. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Columbia, South Carolina.

I photographed activities at the National Beagle Club Specialty held in Ocala, Florida.

Photographed Space Shuttle Atlantis and other Space Shuttle related artifacts and mockups (Hubble Space Telescope), Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center, Merritt Island.

I photographed exhibits from NASA's manned exploration of space from Mercury through Apollo. US Space and Rocket Center. Huntsville, Alabama.

I organized and led the 2015 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk in Lexington, South Carolina.

I photographed various activities and performers at the Columbia Greek Festival. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Columbia, South Carolina.

I photographed numerous classic cars at Herndon Chevrolet's Classic Car Show. Lexington, South Carolina.

Practice round at 2015 The Masters, Wednesday. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 100-400mm f4L. Augusta National Golf Club. Augusta, Georgia.

Photographed the 2015 NCAA Women's Basketball Regional Tournament hosted by the University of South Carolina at Colonial Life Area, Columbia SC. Cameras used were the Canon A-1 with the Profoto 80-205mm f4.5 and the Canon 5D III with the Canon EF 24-105mm f4L.

I organized and led the 2014 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk in Columbia, South Carolina.

Developed a C# ASP.Net web application to help South Carolina citizens with their decision of nursing homes and other licensed health facilities. The web application does the following: 1) displays inspection visits for SC DHEC Licensed Health Facilities; 2) displays out of compliance items from inspections; 3) displays scanned copies of SC DHEC Bureau of Certification inspections of Medicare Nursing Homes. Developed a C# Windows application to log scanned Medicare inspections of Nursing Homes… Show more

Developed a C# ASP.Net web application to help South Carolina citizens with their decision of nursing homes and other licensed health facilities. The web application does the following: 1) displays inspection visits for SC DHEC Licensed Health Facilities; 2) displays out of compliance items from inspections; 3) displays scanned copies of SC DHEC Bureau of Certification inspections of Medicare Nursing Homes. Developed a C# Windows application to log scanned Medicare inspections of Nursing Homes to SQL Server database. Show less

I organized and led a photo walk in Lexington, South Carolina, as part of Scott Kelby's annual worldwide photo walk that featured the downtown area of Lexington, South Carolina.

I photographed all, except for game 4, of the 2013 NCAA Baseball Regional hosted by the University of South Carolina.
Photographed the 2013 NCAA Men's Baseball Regional at Carolina Stadium hosted by the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Camera used was my Canon A-1 with the Profoto 80-205mm f4.5. Although the lens measures out of the venue's limitation of 6 inches at 80mm, it measures in at 205mm. Various films were used depending upon whether it was a day game or night game or my… Show more

I photographed all, except for game 4, of the 2013 NCAA Baseball Regional hosted by the University of South Carolina.
Photographed the 2013 NCAA Men's Baseball Regional at Carolina Stadium hosted by the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Camera used was my Canon A-1 with the Profoto 80-205mm f4.5. Although the lens measures out of the venue's limitation of 6 inches at 80mm, it measures in at 205mm. Various films were used depending upon whether it was a day game or night game or my aversion to the color of the Gamecock's arch-rival, Clemson orange. Carolina Stadium. Columbia, South Carolina. Show less

I photographed and stitched together, using Corel Paint Shop Pro, using three photographs. I used a Canon A-1 loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 film with a Canon FD 28mm f2.8 lens. I did not have to worry about the ISO changing during each of the three photographs since the ISO was set by the film. But I didn't want any of the other exposure values changing, so I metered for the darkest part of the scene, and put my camera in full manual, setting my f-stop and shutter speed.

I rediscovered the classic, timeless look of Black and White film after I used it to photograph the final Space Shuttle landing; since it was a pre-dawn landing, color would have been wasted, but I used a high ISO that is not available with color. It was a year of discovery and learning for me, using black and white contrast contrast filters, yellow, orange, red, and green. I was able to visualize how a photograph would be after approximately three months.

I had two concurrent projects… Show more

I rediscovered the classic, timeless look of Black and White film after I used it to photograph the final Space Shuttle landing; since it was a pre-dawn landing, color would have been wasted, but I used a high ISO that is not available with color. It was a year of discovery and learning for me, using black and white contrast contrast filters, yellow, orange, red, and green. I was able to visualize how a photograph would be after approximately three months.

I had two concurrent projects during the year.
1) Photograph the rising and setting of the full moon.
2) Photograph the sun rising over Columbia, South Carolina from the Lake Murray Dam (official name: Dreher Shoals Dam). Show less

I photographed Space Shuttle Discovery and other aerospace historic displays at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy, Chantilly, Virginia.

I organized and led a photo walk in Columbia, South Carolina, as part of Scott Kelby's annual worldwide photo walk that featured the Vista and the downtown of Columbia, South Carolina.

This was my first participation in the Annual Worldwide Photo Walk and my first as a photo walk leader. We started at the plaza next to the Columbia Museum of Art since that provided a central open area to meet and then head down Main Street towards the State Capitol and turn right on Gervais Street to… Show more

I organized and led a photo walk in Columbia, South Carolina, as part of Scott Kelby's annual worldwide photo walk that featured the Vista and the downtown of Columbia, South Carolina.

This was my first participation in the Annual Worldwide Photo Walk and my first as a photo walk leader. We started at the plaza next to the Columbia Museum of Art since that provided a central open area to meet and then head down Main Street towards the State Capitol and turn right on Gervais Street to have lunch in the Vista. This path featured places listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as well as newer, modern architecture.

Titles that have (NRHP) indicates that the building is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The consensus that I got from the photo walk participants was that they had a blast and are anxious for the next one!

There was also a Japanese Anime Festival happening that weekend, so those characters provided additional photo opportunities. Show less

Photographed various activities at the annual Columbia Greek Festival.

Camera: Canon A-1. Film: Kodak BW400CN.

Photographed activities at the 2012 National Beagle Club Specialty which included a fun hunt for Beagles, obedience trial, and conformation of Beagles.

Showcase performances by the Air Force Thunderbirds, Army Golden Knights parachute team, other air performances, and aircraft static displays. Six rolls of 36 exposure B&W film was my budget for the day. Prior to the start of the Air Force Thunderbirds, I loaded a new roll of film prior to the start of their performance. I had finished 36 frames; fortunately, it was during a lull in their performance and I was ready when they came blasting over our heads.

Photographed Trans Siberian Orchestra non-Christmas performance, Beethoven's Last Night. I photographed the performance with my Canon A-1 using Kodak TM3200 B&W film pushed two stops to ISO 12800 and the film grain could not be avoided.

Photographed various activities and exhibits at the annual Columbia Greek Festival.

Camera: Canon A-1. Film: Kodak BW400CN.

After the successful launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, I visited the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex and photographed numerous space exploration exhibits.

Photographed the final Space Shuttle launch from NASA Causeway. Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135, with the Final Four: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. Used Canon A-1 loaded with Kodak Ektar 100 film.

Photographed the final Space Shuttle landing from Shuttle Landing Facility (200 yards from runway). Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-135, with the Final Four: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. Used Canon A-1 loaded with Kodak BW400CN film pushed two stops to ISO 1600; it was a pre-dawn landing, so color film would have been wasted.

The NASA Space Shuttle TV Schedule Transfer to Outlook Calendar provides an easy method for you to transfer NASA's Space Shuttle mission schedules, published in Excel, to your Outlook Calendar. This was developed in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office to read Excel files and create/deletes events in Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft closed CodePlex in October 2017 and decommissioned CodePlex in October 2021, which is a shame because the project had a home page that I used with links to… Show more

The NASA Space Shuttle TV Schedule Transfer to Outlook Calendar provides an easy method for you to transfer NASA's Space Shuttle mission schedules, published in Excel, to your Outlook Calendar. This was developed in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office to read Excel files and create/deletes events in Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft closed CodePlex in October 2017 and decommissioned CodePlex in October 2021, which is a shame because the project had a home page that I used with links to NASA's photography and I also provided reasons that it was updated. Show less

Lead Programmer/Analyst designed, developed and implemented a C# ASP.Net web application to register, credential and deploy healthcare professionals as volunteers to serve in disasters and emergencies [ESAR-VHP (Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals)]. Developed a web service for another state agency that verifies licensing.

• Developed a Windows service that monitors the health of the web application, expiration of the SSL certificate, database, and… Show more

Lead Programmer/Analyst designed, developed and implemented a C# ASP.Net web application to register, credential and deploy healthcare professionals as volunteers to serve in disasters and emergencies [ESAR-VHP (Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals)]. Developed a web service for another state agency that verifies licensing.

• Developed a Windows service that monitors the health of the web application, expiration of the SSL certificate, database, and network connectivity and notifies the appropriate team based on the problem detected. For certificate expiration, it provides notifications at the following intervals, 90, 75, 60, 45, 30, and 15 days before expiration and daily notifications 7 days before expiration. Show less

Designed and implemented an intranet C# ASP.Net web application to catalog SC DHEC employees' skills and certifications for managers and supervisors to use and deploy employees with the correct skill sets to disaster recovery and emergency sites.

Developed a Windows 3.1 application that accepted files from File Explorer to Polaris Packrat, a Personal Information Manager, for 4.1 and 5.0 versions, to catalog the files. It was developed using Borland C++ and their Object Windows Library (OWL). The version for Packrat 4.1 was uploaded to the Polaris Packrat forum on CompuServe. Packrat 5.0 was too buggy to release a stable application.

Photographed Space Shuttle launch pad 39B, Space Shuttle Discovery on launch pad ready for STS-51G mission.

I photographed the confirmation and obedience competition, and beagles hunting rabbits.