North and South Carolina

Our son has decided to serve his country in the Army National Guard. He was stationed at Fort Jackson in Columbia South Carolina for boot camp. We decided that since we were going out to the boot camp graduation we would spend some extra time and make it a photography expedition as well.

We stayed for a week, rented a car and explored all around that part of the country. We spent time in Columbia for the graduation but most of our time was spent around the coastal cities of Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Cape Fear.

Of course we enjoyed the boot camp ceremonies and the opportunity to see our son graduate. We’re very proud of him.

The landscape and travel photography focused parts of the of the trip were enlightening. The landscapes there are very different from what I am used to in the desert south west. New ways of seeing, composing and capturing images were required. This is one of the coolest things about photography for me. There is tremendous diversity in every place you visit. Each requires learning new skills and techniques to capture meaningful images representative of the location.

Here’s a photo log from our trip…

Note: None of my images use AI generated content.

Our trip started with a flight into Charleston where we stayed for a few days.  The day we arrived we took our rental car and went up the coast to a place called Folley Island.  I didn’t know anything about Folley Island but when exploring on Google Maps it looked interesting and somewhat remote.  I thought it likely we’d find some good photography locations there.

We scouted out the beach and little town area.  I liked the local pier.  The pier is pretty large and butts up against a nice beach with grass covered dunes.  I took this photograph at sunset.

I was pleased with this image. There were delicate pastel colors in the sky that I found over the next several days were a very typical palette for the coastal regions of the Carolinas. I also like the dunes and the dune fence in the foreground. All this gives a layered composition for the image: dunes at the bottom, pier in the middle, sky above. All with nice texture and contrast to give the photograph depth.

Given that sunset was a success I decided to come back early the next morning. I wanted to see how the scene would be different for sunrise.

The next morning we arrived about 5 am and I set up in the dark in the dunes near the pier.  As the sun started rising I took several exposures hoping for a colorful and dramatic sky.  I did get some color but the sky never really popped off as I had hoped. 

Regardless  I’m happy with this end-of-blue-hour image.  There’s enough color in the sky to add interest but the overall effect is cool-blue-early-morning.  I used the gap in the dune fence to make a kind of subtle framing element for the pier that I think adds a lot to the photo. The differences between the sunrise scene and the sunset scene are subtle but significant.

It makes for an image reflective of the serene, peaceful experience of watching the sun come up over the sea and dunes.

Eventually the sun came up completely and the light turned flat.  Just as I was thinking about packing up a police officer started shouting at us from the pier to get off the dunes.  I was surprised but as I was already done shooting I packed up and moved off.

The officer came down from the pier and told us that it was illegal to walk on the dunes and I replied I was sorry but didn’t know.  He pointed out that we were literally standing right in front of a sign saying that there was a $200 fine.  Honestly, I had not seen it.

I told him it was dark when we got there and never turned around to see the sign.  I guess he believed me since we didn’t get a fine.  I felt bad.  I didn’t mean any harm and I would certainly have set up somewhere else if I had known.  I guess walking in dunes is generally frowned upon in the Carolinas since they serve an important purpose in limiting storm damage during hurricanes and tropical storms.

Anyway, I’m glad I got a good shot before we got chased out.  As I said it reflects the peace and serenity we experienced as the sun rose over the beach (until the police showed up, that is).

After shooting the Folly Island Pier at sunrise, we drove up the Soutch Carolina Coast about 5 miles and found ourselves at a preserve on the strait between Folly Island and Morris Island.  This was an empty, deserted place.

I tried to make the most of the mid-day conditions by composing images featuring the expansive landscape and the Morris Island lighthouse.

As we explored we found several dead trees on the shoreline.  It had the making of an interesting photograph, but the lighting conditions were terrible.

It would have been nice to come back at sunrise the next day but we didn’t have the time, so I made the best of what I had.   Sometimes when light is flat and uninteresting you can shoot in black and white to bring out the contrast and drama in a scene so that’s what I did here.

I was able to center the Morris Island lighthouse in the crook of the branches of this dead tree.  It makes for a moody photograph that suggests a dark, somber mood.  Perhaps it may inspire you to imagine a horror story or dismal historical drama.

That’s not really fair, though.  It’s a place that has a stark beauty of it’s own but in this case, with the harsh lighting conditions and dead tree the location leant itself to capturing something more menacing.

By the way, Fort Sumpter, where the South fired the first shots of the Civil War, is just past the north end of Morris Island which is to the left of frame for this photograph.  You can’t quite see it from this location. 

We didn’t visit Fort Sumpter since we didn’t have time for the ferry boat excursion but we did stop in at Fort Moultrie which is where the shots were fired from in the attack on Fort Sumpter.

As mentioned previously, the main purpose for our recent trip to the Carolinas was to attend my son Ian's graduation from U.S. Army boot camp at Fort Jackson in Columbia SC.

There were two events during graduation. The first day was family day when we could visit the base and hang out with Ian. The second day was graduation day where there was the actual graduation ceremony. After that the new soldiers were allowed to leave the base for a few hours so we were able to go have a nice dinner with Ian and family.

I actually didn't take all that many photos during graduation. I'm not sure why -- I was carrying the camera around. I guess I was just distracted enjoying the visit. In any event, here's a selection of some photos from Family day and Graduation.

After our stay in Columbia SC for Ian's boot camp graduation we drove a couple hours to Myrtle Beach NC where we stayed for a few days. Myrtle beach is great for a tourist destination. The beach is nice and the water is really nice (and warm!) On the other hand it's very developed and crowded.

We took the opportunity after getting into our hotel to drive an hour or so north to Oak Island. This is a pretty deserted area with a mostly deserted beach and a lighthouse. It seemed like a good location for sunset photography.

From what I saw, the coasts of North and South Carolina are dominated by wide flat beaches backed by grass covered dunes. It's very pretty but challenging from a landscape photography perspective.

I wasn't really sure how to find compositions for that kind of landscape. I think it worked well for this image because I had the lighthouse to provide a concrete (pun intended) subject.

One thing I really love about the Carolina coasts is the color palette. It's very different than the colors we see in the desert where we live and I really enjoyed when conditions made it come out in the images.

In this case you can see it really clearly. The skies have a cyan-blue tinge that makes them almost a teal color. Then you have a slight mauve tinge of the fading sunset. These colors are contrast with the buff colored beach sand and and the green and gold of the dune grasses. Beautiful.

The following day we visited Huntington Beach State Park just north from Myrtle Beach. The park is an area of marshland and beach. It is also a wildlife sanctuary. The park was once owned by a philanthropist who donated to the state.

As mentioned previously, I was enjoying capturing the pastel color palette of the coast. It really comes out in this image. I especially love how the teal and mauve colors in the sky reflect off the beach sand.

This was my first trip to the southern US proper (not counting trips to Texas or a couple short layovers in Miami airports for connecting flights). When I think of the South, I have an image in my mind of Spanish moss hanging from huge live oaks on old plantations.

On our way back from Myrtle Beach to Charleston I was determined to find such a place. Some googling yielded up Boone Hall Plantation.

Boone Hall is an authentic working southern plantation with a history going back 320 years. Along with the plantation house, interpretive sites depicting the dark history of enslaved individuals, active farming fields and beautiful formal gardens the plantation has a large and very old grove of live oaks.

I believe I found what I was looking for.

BTW: this grove is famous and has appeared in several movies including, most recently, The Notebook.

On the antepenultimate day of our trip we returned to Charleston to find ourselves directly in the path of Hurricane Debbie.  At that point the edge of the storm was still 24 hours away. Clouds and scattered rain showers were building up.  Since the edge of the main storm hadn’t reached us yet, we set out to take some last minute photographs of the picturesque Ravenel Bridge at sunset.

I didn’t expect success.  I expected a flat, completely overcast sky.  When we arrived at the location I wanted, the conditions were as bad as I had feared but at that point the sky started rapidly changing.  The cloud cover started breaking up.

Conditions are most promising for sunset photos when the sky is cloudy above but there is a break at or just below the horizon.  The break provides a place for the sun to shine through just as it goes down, lighting up the overhead clouds with glorious color.  That’s what happened this evening.  The sky just popped off with the most incredible colors just as the sun hit the horizon.  I even got a starburst of the sun as icing on the cake.

That was the last opportunity for photography on the trip.  That night we didn’t sleep much because our phones kept blasting out tornado warnings every fifteen minutes until 2AM.  The warnings were for our exact location and we were told to “move to shelter immediately”.  Where do you shelter from a tornado when you’re in a motel?  Well, we never saw a tornado.

The next two days were constant driving rain.  Fortunately, we had brought rain gear with us so we got out to walk around the harbor district as the storm moved in.  It was interesting seeing all the hurricane preparations.  Sandbag dikes, boarded windows, newscasters broadcasting from the sea walls telling people not to come down there.  Oops.

 We had a terrible time finding food with everything closed.  We ended up at a Waffle House next to our motel.  I guess Waffle House doesn’t close even when the world is ending.  It’s good to know that when the apocalypse arrives, Waffle House will still be open.

Our flight out was early the next day before the bulk of the storm would hit us so to be as prepared as possible we got to the airport several hours before our boarding time.  We had to make a connection in Charlotte but every flight through there was cancelled.  Fortunately, we found a friendly ticket agent who graciously changed our tickets to go through Dallas instead.  We may have gotten on one of the very last flights to depart Charleston that morning.  We even got home earlier than we would have if we’d made our cancelled flight through Charlotte. 

Hah!  Even a hurricane couldn’t stop us!