The last photos I took of them all (when they were reasonably cleaned up) was over a year ago, and they grow so fast, that on Mother’s Day we determined that updates were the order of the day.  Anyone who has tried to take photos of more than a couple of kids at one time knows that your keeper rate drops significantly due to at least one of them doing random things and pulling weird faces in the shot.  We gave it our best effort and bribed the heck out of them, finally being rewarded by a very few winners.

Beautiful morning on Folly Island.  Nice to be there when most beach-goers are still sleeping.  Watched a crescent moon climb in the sky, followed shortly by the sun.  Happy Mothers’ Day weekend!

Hunting Island State Park’s boneyard beach is one of our state’s more vulnerable barrier islands, and I’m always amazed at how much it changes every time I visit it.  I know it was devastated by Hurricane Irma in September of last year, and has sustained hits that have completed changed it over the course of previous years.  It remains however one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, one of my perennial “happy places”.  Here are a couple of images from my visit yesterday afternoon.

This sailor was waiting on a rising tide the other evening, trying to re-float his sailboat which had broken loose from its anchor and washed up on Folly Beach at the lighthouse end of the island.  It was cold and blowing a gale so we left soon afterwards, but I hope he made it back to sea.

 

Awhile back I licensed the Fox24 Charleston studio to use two of my Charleston images in their studio for interview and discussion backdrops. Since I watch the 10pm news on Fox24 every night, I see them all the time (I can’t stay awake for the 11pm news on other channels), and have been meaning to go and see what it looks like “in real life”.  I called them and they were so nice and welcoming.  I got to meet the production crew and generally had a great visit.  This is what the studio looks like from behind their cameras.  Thanks Fox24 Charleston!

Magnolia Plantation is looking magnificent this weekend.  The Azaleas and Dogwoods are all at their peak, purple Wisteria and many other flowering shrubs abound everywhere you look.  Of course everywhere you look there are photographers falling over each other to capture the scenes, and people come from all over the country, maybe all over the world to admire the horticultural spectacle. Here are a couple of examples of riotous color everywhere you look.

I hadn’t visited some of my old favorite haunts for awhile so yesterday we took a drive on Highway 17S and detoured down all kinds of remote dirt roads.  Finished it off with a visit to the famous Harold’s Country Club in Yemassee where we ate an enormous steak for dinner.  Here are some of the images.

Another road trip this weekend to the Ridge Spring area in upstate South Carolina.  Every time of year has its own particular beauty, and right now all the fruit trees are blossoming.  Right now all the farmers are also keeping their fingers crossed that we don’t have another hard freeze.  Here are some images of the peach orchards, as well as the railway line reflecting the sun’s last rays in the quaint town of Ridge Spring, SC.

Just a couple more moon images since this eclipse was a very big deal and since I expended a lot of time, energy and dollars to witness and photograph it.  This is a fully eclipsed moon suspended over the soaring boulders in Joshua Tree. and a waning moon setting over similar boulders the following morning.  OK, enough of the moon for the moment; I will move on in the next post.