Edisto Island and Botany Bay Plantation Trip

A few weeks ago I was able to check a bucket list item off my list. It’s hard to believe but after living in Charleston for almost 20 years I finally made the trip to Edisto Island which is only about an hour drive from where I live. The trip was to shoot and stay at an architect friend of mines river house in trade for a few days of using his property while photographing Botany Bay Planation. The forecast was looking bleak a day before the trip with a tropical depression coming through but I had moved things around to make it happen so I decided to press my luck and stay on course. The first few days were as forecasted, nothing but rain, which included a cloudy and rainy first trip to Edisto followed buy a cloud with some sunlight sunrise the next morning which was just enough to give me what I need to come away with some photos I really like. I’ll share a few of the photos below and list a few items that would have been good for me to have known as a photographer before visiting the area.

1) Visit Botany Bay Beach for the first time during a low to mid tide. At high tide there is very little room to walk around and explore the “Boneyard” beach.’'

2) They say you are allowed to enter the plantation 30 minutes prior to sunrise but depending on the time of year you will not have that much time. I was there the last week of May with sunrise around 6:13 a.m. and the gate did not open until right at 6. It was a mad dash to drive the rest of the distance to the parking lot for the beach and then the somewhat lengthy boardwalk out to the beach.

3) This ties in with exploring the beach at low to mid tide, but scout out locations a day or two before shooting so you have compositions in mind for sunrise. If you haven’t visited the area and just show up for sunrise you will be overwhelmed and very strapped for time in finding that perfect composition in time.

4) Photograph the Live Oak Tunnel on a cloudy or foggy day if possible or in the morning with the light is soft. Photographing the beautiful tree canopy on a bright sunny day will create harsh contrast and make the beautiful green leaves growing on the trees harder to see.

Taking advantage of a little time off from the main gig......

For many people including myself COVID-19 has slowed things down at the day job. For me this means less commercial photography jobs and more time to get out and shoot for myself. And yes, when I have down time from taking photos I like to take photos. However, it’s a little different because instead of shooting what someone else wants it means I get to do my own thing which usually means sunrise landscape photography. Over the week I set the alarm for 5 a.m. and went Mon-Wed from Downtown Charleston > Isle of Palms > Folly Beach. Over the three days I shot a bunch and managed to grab a few keepers. Enjoy.

It only takes a minute

I couldn’t sleep and looked at the forecast for the morning and it said dense fog. For most that isn’t anything to get excited about but for a landscape photographer it can create great drama and mood. I had a spot in mind below the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge at the Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Park I thought could be a good setting for an image but in a quick change of plans decided to walk up to the top of the bridge instead. Most of the walk up was in the dark and my first thought was to shoot car light trails using the diamonds of the bridge as my backdrop. I stopped and snapped some long exposure images but I could tell they just weren’t looking as I had hoped. I put the camera back in my bag and continued up the bridge until I got to about the midway point. The fog was so think I could barely see the diamond above or anything else for that matter but I thought perhaps if I waited things out may there would be a break in the clouds above or below that cool make for a cool image. Although admittedly my patience began to grow thin and I almost called it, after about 30 minutes of waiting I got a break below that was just enough to see bridge and water. The image I came away with is below.

Cypress Gardens South Carolina

On this day and what was my first trip to Cypress Gardens I had the place to myself. After living in Charleston for 16 years it was hard to believe I had never been. At first the landscape was a bit overwhelming but after getting the first shot out of the way I and exploring around I started to get comfortable and capture some images I really liked. For this post I decided to share my favorite image from the trip.

This image was captured as a landscape and shot as a long exposure. I wanted to make the water look glassy but because it was a windy day I had to shoot two images. One image was the long exposure and the other was at a faster shutter speed. The fall foliage and glassy water, plus it being a foggy day, made the image in my opinion.

North Carolina Mountains Trip 2019 - Getting Creative

Every year for the past 15 years I have spent my Thanksgiving in the NC Mountains. For me it’s hard to be exploring in the wilderness with my camera but as most landscape photographers know when you have been a place many times the same spots can become boring. This trip I challenged myself to find different compositions in some of those spots and to find one you area to explore I had never been.

My first image is from Looking Glass Falls. Looking Glass is an amazing waterfall in Pisgah National Forest but it has been photographed many times. The popular composition as I have shot (see portfolio page) several times is to shoot from a distance, possibly as a long exposure, taking in the entire falls and flowing creek. For this image I thought it would be cool to shoot with a long lens and focus entirely on the bottom portion of the falls at a 30-second exposure to create the cascade look as you seen in the image. At the time of day I shot it the lower portion of the falls was completely shadow creating a blue tone versus the yellowish orange tone you might see if you were to shoot wide showing the entire scene. My final result is below.

May next image comes from Dupont State Forest at the lower end of Triple Falls along a short hike to Hooker Falls. Again an area I have shot many times but always at Hooker Falls and never along the Little River. After doing a little bush wacking and venturing off the trail I found this set of curved trees in front of the swift flowing water of the Little River. My original decision was to do a quick exposure to try and show how fast the water was moving but after also doing a longer exposure I decided I liked the image more as a LE. I was quite happy with the result.

Last, I ventured to the upper part of Triple Falls, down a road and trail to Lake Dense. Of all the times I have visited the area I have never been to Lake Dense. I shot several different images which I like but particularly like this one of the dock house with me standing at the end. It decided to go with black and white for this one.