Category: News

This is another image from yesterday evening’s walk on Folly Beach.  I researched what I had seen, and am happy to enlighten y’all.  They are Anticrepuscular Rays, like sun rays, most frequently spotted at sunrise or sunset, but on the opposite horizon to the sun.  A little more subtle than your classic sun rays, but really pretty. 

Most of the summer crowd has left and the town of Folly Beach is settling back into a quieter season, not that Folly is ever really quiet. It’s a little cooler too, although still humid, and the “no-see-ums” are swarming in the marshes, eager to devour unprotected beach walkers. We have enjoyed some wonderful cloud formations over the past few days, maybe the residual effects of Tropical Storm Julia.

Appropriate subject matter to commemorate the 15th anniversary of 9/11, a day that will go down in infamy. This magnificent vessel made a weekend call in Charleston, and the Coast Guard invited all and sundry to tour the ship at no charge. What a great opportunity for families looking for something different to do with their kids.  Thank you Coast Guard for your hospitality and friendly welcome.  Thank you also for protecting the shores of the USA. 

It’s hard these days to find places that are quiet, and that don’t hum with night life and constant activity.  Rockville is still such a place, and I spent a peaceful evening here recent with a photo buddy, capturing a low country evening of marsh, creeks, shrimp trawlers, and sky.

Sometimes you just trip over stuff, like we did last night.  We had decided to take the boat across the harbor to Shem Creek, and on the way back we ran into a Charleston Fire Department boat and a Coastguard helicopter conducting a training exercise.  I’m not sure the extent of it or all the details, but we did watch them lower equipment from the helicopter and put a swimmer in the water as well.  Really neat to watch.  I was glad I had my camera with me – you just never know ….

Peak viewing of the Perseids was supposed to be the night of August 12th but I wasn’t able to make it out to a dark place at 3am until last night, the 13th.  There were still a lot of meteors streaking across the sky, but not very easy to capture.   Out of hundreds of exposures, one meteor found it’s way into my camera frame. Still there was something magical about sitting in the pre-dawn dark, feeling the soft ocean breeze and watching all the night sky activity; satellites, meteors, constellations – all wheeling through our vast universe.  Then, of course there was the dawn.  All well worth the lack of sleep 🙂

I think I will shoot a series of images on this subject because they are all picturesque and very representative of the Charleston way of life.  Here are a couple to start off with, Bristol Marina and Ripley Light Marina.

For a change of pace here is a tender moment between mother and her week old baby.

This evening I took a Coastal Expeditions cruise from Shem Creek and spent an hour or so observing all the bird activity on Crab Bank.  It is highly recommended, not only because this sliver of sand with its teeming plethora of bird life is a treasure, but also because our boat captain was an extremely knowledgeable naturalist so I learnt a lot. Here are some of the images.

I hadn’t ventured out in the evening to shoot recently due to the stifling heat, but this evening I made a trip downtown with the intention of spending time in the Church Street area.  However, downtown was so full of people that I didn’t even bother to try and find a parking space.  Cruising down Broad Street I made a stop at Colonial Lake and admired the new landscaping and other renovations and then spent awhile down at the City Marina before thankfully returning to my air conditioned car.