Tomorrow will be the 152nd anniversary of the Battle of Fort Wagner on Morris Island.  It was commemorated today, and a wreath was laid in a ceremony held annually by the descendants and supporters of the original 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a black regiment that fought with the Union forces against the Confederates.  The unit’s colonel, Robert Gould Shaw was killed in this battle (immortalized in the movie “Glory”), and after suffering heavy casualties in brutal hand to hand combat, they were driven back.  In a solemn ceremony today, the bravery of those men was remembered.

My sister and her family live in Wales, and Catherine, my niece came to visit her US family for a couple of weeks recently.  Of course she was a prime target for my lens.  Here are a couple of portraits of Catherine – sweet sixteen and very lovely.

This was another plantation on my table of properties with extant slave dwellings that needed to be photographed for the Slave Dwelling Project (http://slavedwellingproject.org/).  As I was in the upstate South Carolina area, it was a perfect opportunity to cross this one off my list.  This property is owned by the Pendleton Historic Foundation, and they are doing a fabulous job of maintaining and restoring these historic grounds.  Here are some photographs of a restored log cabin, carriage house, slave cabin, and the main house.

This is taken from the Pendleton Historic Foundation’s website:
“The Pendleton Historic Foundation today announced that it has been recognized by the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, the SC Department of Archives ad History, and the Office of the Governor for their exceptional efforts in preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage in South Carolina.  The 2015 Stewardship award was presented by the Lt. Governor Henry McMaster to Timothy Drake and Jacqueline Reynolds, Pendleton Historic Foundation board members.  The award citation recognizes the Foundation’s reconstruction of an original slave cabin at the Woodburn Plantation to share the story of the African-American slaves and tenant farmers who helped maintain the farm during the 1800’s and 1900’s.”

I have family visiting from Wales and so we rented a house on Lake Jocassee for a week to re-connect and just hang out.  It is almost time to go home, but many memories will live on ….

I have nothing to add to all that has already been said about the recent massacre of nine innocent Christians inside the Mother Emmanuel AME Church last Wednesday evening. God sees and God cares.  Psalm 56:8 says “You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.” God also says in Revelation 21:4 that there will be a day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  We believe that.  We believe that this time on earth is very temporary, but what we have to look forward to is eternal and sure.  

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.

Beech Island is an unlikely name for a town in upstate South Carolina far removed from the coast.  It is close to Aiken, and I had occasion to visit over the weekend in order to photograph Redcliffe Plantation.  I am helping the Slave Dwelling Project (http://slavedwellingproject.org/) (SDP) with their goal to document all existing slave dwellings in South Carolina and eventually beyond.  Redcliffe, a state park, has two intact slave cabins which will be structurally examined and photographed. The SDP has a grant from the SC state to facilitate this project, but much (like the photography) is being done on a pro bono basis.  It is a beautiful place in the middle of nowhere, and last weekend it was extremely HOT.  Here are a few images that give an idea of the scope of the property.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Kelly and Eric as they are getting ready to welcome a baby.  Kelly was a trooper since it was about 100 degrees at the time.  So was Eric, but he wasn’t 8 months pregnant 🙂  After a quick look through, these are a couple of my favorites so far.

The other day I watched my 2 year old granddaughter for awhile while her mom did some shopping.  Knowing that she was on the way, and knowing that she has about a 2 minute attention span, I set up my studio ahead of time and checked the lights and positioning of the chair etc.  I also knew I needed “bait” – something to keep her occupied for those 2 minutes so I found some jellybeans in the pantry – just the ticket!  We had a fun morning exploring all kinds of things and playing with water outside, but this was the result of literally 1-1/2 minutes in the studio 🙂  She is just too cute.

The shrimp trawler Backman Enterprise hasn’t seen much action in the last couple of years but Mr. Thomas has been very busy getting her ready to get back to work.  I stopped by there this afternoon to see how they were doing and took these shots.  

A few years ago I developed an interested in America’s largest swallow, the Purple Martin.  They arrive in North America from South America in the Spring, stake out their nesting areas (usually natural or fabricated gourds provided by people for the purpose) where they raise their young. Traditionally they have then gathered mostly on Bomb Island in Lake Murray before all flying South again for the winter, but for some unknown reason they changed their rendezvous area and went to Lake Monticello last year instead. Disappointed Lake Murray tour operators who profit from the birds’ presence were at a loss to explain this departure from past behavior and hopefully they hadn’t already spent their season’s anticipated income.  We will have to wait and see where they go this year.  In the meantime, the young birds have not yet fledged.  Here are some images of feeding time – the most popular item on the menu seems to have been dragonfly 🙂