One of the projects I have been working on lately is to gather images for a South Carolina Tourism organization for their 2014 marketing publication.  There were many images on their list that I already had, and a few that I didn’t have but that I could take without too much effort.  This weekend had me grabbing those last few to finish up my submissions.  Here are a couple of them.

I had been wanting to get up in the air and get some new aerial images for the longest time, but the weather in summer is challenging for flying.  It’s either too hazy or too cloudy or too stormy.  Winter is better from that perspective, but in winter everything is brown, so the colors are not so interesting, especially the marsh. Finally I decided to just go the other evening even though it was hazy, because I had a couple of clients waiting for specific shots.  Here are a couple I grabbed along the way.

I love to photograph kids.  They are not always cooperative, but one can always resort to shameless bribery, which works most of the time.  These children belong to a family vacationing at Dunes West for a few days.  The grandparents, children, and grandchildren were all enjoying some catch-up time and it was a perfect opportunity to get some family photos taken.  Here are a couple of the images converted into black and white.

These are a few images from some family portraits we took yesterday evening.  Wow, when babies learn to move around, they like to practice – all the time 🙂  It was quite a challenge keeping up with Jenna to get these.

I had been wanting to capture meteor showers with my camera, and the Perseids shower of 2013 presented the perfect opportunity.  No moon, clear skies, etc.  Last night we set up on the end of Folly Island at about midnight and expectantly anticipated the kinds of images we had all seen in National Geographic magazines and NASA web pages.  Unfortunately, the skies were hazy and there was quite a bit of cloud and lightning about, making meteor viewing a little more challenging.  We did see a few, but the cameras missed them for the most part.  I’m not sorry we went, it was a beautiful evening, if a little windy and sandy (normal for a beach).  I will try again another time because the more times you try, the luckier you get 🙂

Next to Charleston, Beaufort must be my favorite town.  Yes, the downtown area is quaint but the real attraction is the natural beauty, the creeks, the sounds, the farms, and the general lowcountry feel that is Beaufort.  This morning we watched the sunrise over St. Helena Sound and enjoyed the abundance of bird life on its sandbars and in the creeks.

Couldn’t resist stopping at the bridge and recording this scene this morning.  We sure live in a beautiful part of the world.

A new interest of mine is garden birds, ever since I decided to buy a bird feeder.  The first thing I learned was that this would have to be a squirrel-proof design, since we had far more squirrels in our garden than birds.  I must say this seems to do the job because the squirrels found it first and you could see them trying every which way to figure out how to access the seed, but now they have given up for the most part and have to be content with gathering the spilled seed on the ground.  The birds took about a week to find the feeder, but gradually the word is spreading among the community.  I also put a bird bath near the feeder so now I set up my camera nearby, sit a distance away and use a remote trigger to activate the camera.  What fun.  Stay tuned for more and hopefully varied bird pics in the future.

I had set aside this weekend to visit Matt in Greenville.  He’s been living there since January and I hadn’t been there yet, so I left work early on Friday, picked up the dog and hit the I-26, hoping to avoid Columbia traffic as I went through.  It was an easy drive.  Matt made me comfortable and welcome in his best bachelor way and I enjoyed being shown his town.  It is really a very nice place to live.  We went downtown and he treated me to a great dinner at the Lazy Goat Restaurant overlooking Falls Park.  Next day we spent time at the Farmers Market in the town center and later walked with the dogs through Cleveland Park. I was impressed by how much has been invested in making Greenville so “people friendly” and the residents are all out and about, taking full advantage of all the great facilities it has to offer.  Later we drove to Campbell’s Covered Bridge (through a violent thunderstorm) so I could photograph it. Thanks Matt and Ace for a great weekend!