Author: admin

Last night I met Lindsey and Robbie downtown. They wanted engagement portraits in historic Charleston settings and we found some wonderful backdrops. This was one of them.

During the summer I avoid Folly Beach on weekends, but there are few people on the beach at sunrise, and the rest have no idea what they’re missing. This morning was gorgeous and the long sweep of shore at low tide was deserted. Perfect!

I have recently got to know some really neat, interesting folks who live on Sol Legare. James and Ernest have recently spearheaded the restoration of the historic Seashore Farmers Lodge #767 which was built more than 80 years ago on a site where the 54th Massachusetts Regiment engaged in combat with Confederate forces in 1863.The community organization, which predates the building by about 15 years, served farmers and fishermen, and the building hosted holiday celebrations, picnics, rallies, educational sessions, dances and even wakes. It was the hub of African-American culture at a time when blacks could not get loans from banks. The lodge provided everything from burials to getting seeds farmers needed to plant their crops and also once served as a movie theater. The restored building has become a museum for Civil War relics found in the Sol Legare area and for antique farm and fishing implements once used in the community and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its African-American post-Civil War historical significance.James and Ernest are also very actively involved in keeping the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infanty Regiment alive. Yesterday, Monday July 18th, black reenactors from as far away as Florida and Washington, D.C., gathered to commemorate the heroic charge of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infanty Regiment on Confederate Battery Wagner as well as an earlier Civil War skirmish that gave the famed regiment an early taste of battle. About a dozen reenactors portraying the 54th came to the site of the Battle of Sol Legare Island on the anniversary of the 1863 battle, a skirmish two days before the futile Battery Wagner attack commemorated in the movie “Glory.”The regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War. The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, recruited from freed slaves, was the first Union Army regiment organized with African American soldiers in the Civil War, though many had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 on both sides.

I took these images for them and the brief was to make them look very old so they would blend well with the other memorabilia in the lodge museum.

I was down at Sunrise Park early this morning before the wind got up and it clouded over. I had my new Sigma 120-400mm lens with me and I wanted to test the sharpness and the optic stabilization mechanism. This shot was taken hand held with OS at F8 and I think it did a pretty good job. I have an assignment this afternoon near Folly Beach but I fear the weather may not cooperate …

One of my favorite photo subjects are families. I just finished uploading images from a shoot out at Hope Plantation this evening. Fortunately the rain held off long enough to capture all the different groups. This was one from the grand finales which included everyone; grandparents, parents, and kids.

There’s nothing like enjoying a cold beer on the porch at the end of a long, hot day. Rob acquainting his grandson with the things that matter most in life 🙂

The view across the harbor from Sunrise Park was surprisingly clear this morning, so I took this panorama of The Battery with the Charleston church steeples providing familiar landmarks.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend and taking time to appreciate the things that are really important, like family and freedom. Here are two of my “importants” – Leigh and Gideon.

I haven’t posted much recently because there hasn’t been much worth posting – meaning newsworthy stuff. Life is great, God is good, and I’m grateful for all my ho hum activities, but photographs of my desk at work and my dog being walked etc. would not be very interesting to most, not even to my devoted family in different parts of the world. Here’s an image that I’ve been playing with though. I love the area and feel like it has potential for a great landscape shot, but somehow the light has not shown it to its full potential – yet. I will go back ..