Category: News

Students Perform for Charleston Jazz Festival 2022

On Sunday, April 24th it was the local area students who showcased their talents at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston. Artists ages ranged from pre-teen through college, but all the performances were professionally and enthusiastically delivered to the delight of the audience. Some of the bands that participated were the Charleston Jazz Academy combo, Wando High School Jazz Band, Charleston County School of the Arts Jazz Band, College of Charleston combo, Berkeley All-County Jazz Band, the Charleston Southern University combo, and others.

The 2022 Charleston Jazz Festival

I was pleased to be hired to photograph several performances from Charleston’s seventh annual Jazz Festival which was held in various locations between April 21st – 24th. These images were captured on Saturday, 23rd April at the Charleston Music Hall where Kandace Springs and her band performed for the early show, and Etienne Charles & Creole Soul took the 8pm slot. Both performances were musically and visually excellent. Kudos to all the Jazz Festival staff and volunteers for putting this event together, showcasing 43 jazz musicians from all over the world, three High School jazz bands, and two student combos from the Charleston Jazz Academy. Another post will follow with images from the students’ performances on Family Jazz Day at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church.

Marineland Beach, Florida

Last week friends and I traveled down the 17 South and I-95 to the St. Augustine area of Florida. I particularly enjoy these beaches because of the unusual rock formations found here. Specifically Coquina rock is a type of sedimentary rock (limestone) formed by deposits of mineral or organic ocean floor particles that merge into wonderful shapes and textures. They also create many tidal pools which are fascinating to explore. These images are from Marineland Beach and also a little further north at Matanzas Inlet.

Quick Roadtrip through the Pee Dee, SC

Someone had advertised for sale a studio light that I had been looking for. The price was attractive, but it meant a 2-1/2 hour drive North of Charleston to Givants Ferry in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Where, you may ask would that be? According to Wikipedia… The Pee Dee is a region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of South Carolina.[1] It lies along the lower watershed of the Pee Dee River, which was named after the Pee Dee Native Tribe, a state-recognized tribe of approximately 200 members.

Again, Wikipedia tells us that … The Pee Dee people, also Pedee and Peedee, are American Indians of the Southeast United States. Historically, their population has been concentrated in the Piedmont of present-day South Carolina. In the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists named the Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina for the tribe.

Well I’m always up for a road trip, especially if they are roads less traveled. I wasn’t disappointed, and these images are of scenes that caught my attention and were taken mostly along the Pee Dee Highway, off the US-701.

Word Pictures

I’m back in the USA after spending a month in the country of my birth, South Africa. So many stories to tell, so much I could say, about the sadness and the hopelessness, the unnecessary suffering. Mainly due to corruption and theft. Theft from the people who have been robbed of an opportunity to create a great new African example of growth and prosperity. Theft by those in positions of authority at every level who have used those positions to enrich themselves at the expense of a naive and trusting people who believe their empty promises and vote them into power. I took these photos to illustrate a theme that is repeated everywhere in this country. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots. There’s plenty of blame to go around and plenty of opinions, but it is what it is.

Monkey Business

I have posted about these guys in the past, but since nothing much else exciting goes on in my Mom’s retirement village, here is another episode, season 2 🙂

People put out food for the birds before they go to bed – big mistake! Problem is that monkeys get up earlier than the birds and so apply the old adage – “ya snooze, ya lose”.

Actually there was some other excitement the other morning, and it wasn’t good excitement. Five of the residents’ homes were broken into and robbed during the night. The little village is surrounded by a wall with an electric fence, and there are gate guards on duty 24/7, but these things still happen. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the old folks were still pretty rattled, especially one lady who sleeps with her phone right next to her bed and who discovered it gone the next morning!

Walking the Ciskei Coastline

I took another short break from the city of Durban and flew approximately 300 miles south to East London, and from there traveled back north a few miles to the quaint coast town of Gonubie where my sister and brother-in-law have a house. The house is on the Gonubie River lagoon, and we decided this morning to swim across the river and hike north along the beach for a few miles to a place called the Kwelera National Botanical Garden, also on the beach. It turned out to be more challenging than we expected, since a lot of the terrain was very rocky and flip flops should not have been my choice of footwear. We expected it to take an hour and it took more like 3 hours to cover the 4 mile stretch of coastline. Fortunately we were picked up by car at our destination so didn’t have to walk back. These are a few of the photos I took along the way.