Washed Out

Botany Bay Plantation. Edisto Island, South Carolina, USA

"Botany Bay Plantation, a 4,630-acre tract located on Edisto Island, is now open for public access.  The ecologically and historically significant property was privately maintained until recently by former owner, Margaret Pepper. The late Mrs. Pepper preserved the natural integrity of the land and fostered a diverse array of habitats including maritime forests, salt marsh, tidal creeks, freshwater ponds and hammock islands." -SC DNR

palmed

4.6mm f4.0 1/100s ISO100

Sometimes...  like in this one. ha ha. I apparently had the timer set active when I tried to fire the shutter.  When I realized that I started laughing because the subject I was looking at was fading away.  At the same time I saw the hood collar was loose, so I went it to tighten it down.  Now the aforementioned timer was winding down...  and voila!  I got a shot of my palm.  This is an interesting set of angles and lines and shadows and highlights.  Mr. Baldwin, my HS photo teacher, called these "happy accidents."  I suppose it all depends on the eyes of the viewer.  For me... it works.

Battery Park

Battery Park. Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

This park hangs on the edge of historic downtown Charleston lined by houses hundreds of years old.  It fronts onto the Ashley and Cooper Rivers facing toward Fort Sumter in the middle of the harbor.  Speckled on the few acres are mortar and canon placements showcasing the strategic importance on this point.  Long growing live oaks are lined deep providing immense shade patches and wonderful atmosphere.  These birds, unknown to me, have nested in the tree tops here.  It is so nice of them to share the park.  I'll have to thank them next time I am there.

better than rose colored glasses

Rainy Day Reds

I had a photo shoot scheduled tonight that just couldn't find way to happen.  This is what you get.  My friend and I had been granted permission to go topside onto the helo deck at a large hospital.  This would afford us excellent views of the city from aloft.  Bright Lights, Big City.  We were to discuss differing techniques and cross train on some new ones.  Unfortunately the rains came in early and have set in for the haul.  Low cloud cover, steady downpour and cold temperatures persuaded us to reschedule our rendezvous.  Instead I found my itchy trigger finger firing frames inside the house.  RED...  I dialed in on red and this is what you get haha.  An assortment of red items scattered and smattered within. Cheers.

Spider Nine

Heading Out

Little River, South Carolina, USA.

230mm f5.6 1/15s ISO1600

This image was a hand held capture.  I was working on location at sunset on Bird Island standing nearly on the state line between North and South Carolina.  My tripod was set up and my subject stationary.  I was killing time while the light changed a bit more.  Several recreation boaters were heading from the Atlantic Ocean into the mouth of the Little River and further into the Inter-Coastal Waterway.  Their destination unknown.  Conversely there were commercial fishing boats heading out.  Carolina shrimp boats making way to their fishing grounds.  I've included here the sunset original and a basic B&W conversion of it.  You can see that I worked over the image pretty good for my final.  I can see it hanging on the wall in a local seafood house telling the salty story of this evenings menu.

flowercage

DRAGONSKIN

This is sand. Sea water had eased from a tidal pool back into the vast ocean. The crosshatch silica is all that remains of that flow. Sand grains all over the World are different in size, shape and color.  Patterns found in some places cannot be recreated any where else in the World because of these characteristics. Large black volcanic grains of Hawaii are immensely different that the soft white powder sands of Pensacola Beach, FL. This is coastal Carolina sands from a favorite: Sullivan's Island.

Liquid Limbs

80mm f5.6 1/100s ISO200

It rained all day today, dismal.  The complete overcast gray skies leaked on everything.  We are soaked.  On my patio I noticed this fine reflection atop the small round glass top table.  You know the kind with smooth top and a mottle bottom on the glass, giving it that "shower door" look.  The lens was tricked just enough by that...  I was able to focus on the tree that was reflecting on the water's surface.  But the DOF captured some of the texture hidden under the water.  This image is fluid... in layers.  The depth of the image is unique because all of it is literally in 1/3in. of water and glass.

Can you feel the movement and flow?

windbown and warm.

Sunset Beach, North Carolina, USA

80mm f5.6 1/500s ISO100

This was an assignment of sorts I gave to myself.  You've learned I like to do that.  I picked up a new old sigma lens that has macro 1:2 at 80mm function.  So what can I do with that?  While I was at the beach last weekend I worked it out a bit.  As you can see the DOF is very shallow.  There is a distinct focus range that falls off quickly.  Almost too quickly in some cases.  The detail is nice and the optics do a decent job.  The limit to f5.6 will really limit low light capture considerably for close-ups. The AF is slower than I'd prefer, but it's fine for still life work.  Anyway... knowing about the focus line can be used to advantages in the future for dialing in images.  This lens is not designed as a single purpose macro.  It is a 28-80 short zoom walk around lens and overall performance is adequate. Outside of that tech talk...

I just like the photo. :)

Cotton Was King

Dillon, South Carolina, USA.

As I was driving through Dillon County a few days ago I came across several cotton fields that had not been harvested yet.  The combines were chewing elsewhere on soybean crops.  This pasture of snowballs was huge and provided for some memories.  This is a mixed memory of sorts... I may be taking two memories and blending them together.  Somewhere is my closets I have a shoe box of raw cotton balls.  My recollection is that they were collected during some sort of field trip in the 2nd or 3rd grade while I schooled in SC.  Cotton was vital to agriculture and economy all throughout South Carolina's history.

The other memory I have is my grandfather, Papa, stopping on the side of the road.  He walked my brother and me into the edge of the field and told us a bit about cotton.  We picked a few raw pods of white fluff. It's that memory that really prompted me to stop for these photographs.  I must have been six or seven at the time.  He surely smiled down at me on Sunday afternoon as I stood there and remembered with me.

Secret Lives of Ladybugs

Sand Surfing.

Jack Links Messin'

this is for reference clarification. some people have been asking about "jacklinks" used in my last post. hopefully this video series will clarify things for you and my post may then make sense. of course... you can always just look at the pretty photos. ;)

Sunset Beach Reveals...

Bird Island. Sunset Beach, North Carolina, USA.

Last night as the sun was setting I captured the short waves in long rolls into shore.  I was mostly impressed that I caught a Sasquatch family out on the jetty.  It's a good thing I didn't have any JackLinks... or I might have done something KRAZY YO!