I have photographed the onset of Spring at this location many times over the years, so this year I tried something a little different. There is a genre of photography called ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), which I have been playing with. It involves using longer shutter speeds and moving the camera intentionally while the shutter is open. It’s kinda hit and miss at the moment for me, but I’m enjoying the new challenge. Here are a few examples.
One of my favorite genres of photography is family portraits. There are specific lenses that are designed for portraiture, with the main purpose of separating the subject from the busyness of some backgrounds. This 135mm F1.8 Sony lens does a wonderful job of achieving just that. Here area few of my favorites from this session.
The Sol Legare and Kings Flats area has an incredible history. “During the Civil War, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was one of the first sanctioned African American regiments in the Union Army. The 54th fought on this narrow strip of land in 1863 during the Battle of Sol Legare. While fighting to free enslaved Americans during this battle, the 54th lost 14 men, with an additional 17 wounded and 12 missing. A mere two days later they went on to fight in the Battery Wagner battle (which you can see in the movie Glory starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman). In the late 1800s, newly freed enslaved Americans settled on Sol Legare to farm and fish. Many of its current residents are direct descendants of these original settlers.For more than 100 years, the Seashore Farmers’ Lodge on Sol Legare served as a community building for meetings, school, church and funerals.” (quoted from Rheosgear’s blog).
I have frequented this area over many years now. Back in the day, I would visit Thomas Backman at his seafood dock. He would usually be found working on his boat, Backman Enterprise, getting it ready to put back to sea. Sadly that never happened, since he passed away suddenly a few years back, and now the old shrimp trawler sits in mud most of the time, dreaming of better days. Here is a photo of him, taken back in 2011.
I went back down that way today, and took the following photo. Sadly his dock is now a jumbled mess of planks in the marsh, thanks to the battering of many storms and high tides. I guess some day this property will be sold and reimagined as a cluster of condos. Time marches on.
Summer is almost over and most vacationers have returned to their homes. I don’t enjoy Folly when it is crowded but love to spend time there out of season. Yesterday was a beautiful warm evening and it felt good to walk the beach again. I have so many images of this shoreline, as do many of us locals, but it never tires, and they are never the same.
One has to time one’s visit to this location carefully, otherwise you run the risk of driving an hour South from Charleston, walking the trail to the ocean, only to find that a high tide has rendered it completely impossible to access the beach. I saw a low-tide opportunity during the late afternoon yesterday and decided to pay a visit. The weather had been unsettled and was overcast in Charleston, but at this time of year it is so changeable that it was worth a try. The beach is always wonderful, and I so enjoy just being there, but the air was hazy with smoke from the Canadian wildfires, and the colors were pretty dull, so I decided to convert the images to black and white. Here are a couple.
As quickly as spring burst upon the scene a week ago, so we watch it fade again. A few days ago, my calendar was clear for the afternoon, so I decided to take one more foray into the country for the season until next time. A friend and I drove from Charleston to visit the Cypress Wetlands in Port Royal, but were unimpressed. We were looking for spring landscapes and although there were many birds and alligators to admire, it was otherwise ho-hum. With a little help from Google, we found the Old House Plantation near Ridgeland (also known as the Daniel Heyward Plantation), birthplace and burial site of Thomas Heyward, Jr., one of SC’s four signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Nothing much is left of the original buildings except the family cemetery and surrounding brick wall. The house was destroyed by fire in 1865. The driveway and Avenue of Oaks are really beautiful although the azaleas had peaked already.
After we had wandered around for awhile, we headed for home via Tomotley Plantation and the Old Sheldon Ruins. The Sheldon Ruins have been further “ruined” (at least for photographers) by the addition of an ugly black fence that surrounds the remaining structure. One can understand why however, since some people just can’t seem to resist defacing these historic relics that we should be actively protecting.
We don’t get fog that often down here, so it’s always tempting to re-arrange my schedule to accommodate fog when it happens. This morning I hurriedly threw some equipment in the car and headed out to Wadmalaw Island, where it was still drifting thickly over the marshes and creeks. Here are a couple of the images I took on Bohicket Creek.
It was a beautiful day and I didn’t have much that I had to do so I decided to do it at Middleton Place, one of my favorite low country plantation properties. I bought a very expensive lens (Sigma 135mm F1.8) that I was not sure that I wanted to keep. Running out of my return window time, I ran it through its paces in an effort to make a decision. I think I am going to keep it.
I have wanted to visit Brookgreen Gardens during the Christmas season to view these lights for many years, and I finally made it last evening. Magical doesn’t even adequately describe the experience. Of course I took my camera, but tripods were not allowed, so it wasn’t possible to use it. Sometimes, you are better off taking in the experience with your senses fully engaged, instead of fussing with the technical aspects of photography, so I switched to my trusty Samsung S10 and documented some of the displays. This event sells out well ahead of time, and by now it is pretty much over. Put it on your holiday list of things to do for 2023!
This phenomenon occurs most frequently in the fall when the mullet are plentiful in the Kiawah River, and within two hours of low tide either way. It is a practice that has become fairly well known among the locals, and is exciting, fascinating and awe-inspiring to watch. To quote from Kiawah.com’s webpage:
“During low tide, the dolphins will herd a school fish, gradually pushing them closer and closer to the shore of the Kiawah River. As they chase the fish up the bank, they create a wave that then throws them out of the water. The dolphins then push themselves up onto the sand and eat as many fish as they can before sliding back into the water.
Keep in mind that not all Kiawah Island dolphins know how to strand, however. It seems that this behavior is passed from mother to calf. For reasons unknown to scientists, adult dolphins are not able to learn the feeding technique once they reach a certain age. Because of this, a little less than half of the Island’s dolphin population can perform strand feeding.”
Here are a few pictures of these amazing mammals in action.
