Back in the last week of March, I spent nearly a week doing photography in the Charleston, South Carolina area.  There is a variety of subjects to take pictures of along the South Carolina coast. These range anywhere from historical plantations, cemeteries and old style street photography to landscapes of the swamps and beaches.  I joined with a couple of photography workshops hosted by Richard Bernabe and Tony Sweet.  

Below is an image close to sunrise from Edisto Beach.  

Edisto Beach Folly Beach Pier

This picture is from below the pier at Folly Beach.  

The Charleston area was affected by Hurricane Matthew back in October. Even though it weakened to a category 1 hurricane, it still had enough high surf and storm surge to wipe out the "boneyard" trees that were located on Edisto Island.   Therefore, we had to take a ferry to Bull Island, which still contains some of these boneyard trees.  What is a Boneyard Beach?  Simply put, a Boneyard beach is a maritime forest the is being eroded into the ocean.  Over time, the Atlantic ocean eats into the forest, stripping away its soil and killing the trees.  This creates a unique environment that is part forest, part swamp and part ocean.  It creates some eerily beautiful scenes. 

Bull Island Boneyard Bonyard Tree Sunstar

Away from the shores are many stately Live Oak trees.  One particularly large live oak tree is called Angel Oak.  It is believed to be the largest oak tree that exists.  It stands over 66 feet tall, measures 28 feet in circumference, and produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet. Its longest branch distance is 187 feet in length.  Here, I was lying on the ground and pointing an infrared camera up toward the many branches of Angel Oak.  

Angel Oak Infrared

One of the highlights of visiting the Charleston area are the beautiful plantations.  One of the most photogenic is the Tomotley Planation between Charleston and Hilton Head.  The earliest known date of existence goes all the way back to 1698!   The avenue of Oaks are believed to be planted around 1820.  

Tomotley Plantation

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Charleston is a visit to Magnolia Gardens.  It is a scenic place of live oak trees, former plantations, swamps and wildlife.  

Here I was able experiment with some "swipe photography" to make some impressionistic photographs that look like paintings.  Some will think that Photoshop was involved, but all it takes a camera, a tripod and the right technique on how you move the camera while it is exposing the picture. After that, you just have to start out experimenting.  Some will look good, many will not.  In this image of the trees in the swamp, first I placed the camera on a tripod.  Then I tilt the camera down as I am taking the picture. In this example, it was a 1 second exposure.  The pink and blue colors on the trees is a unique form of lichen.  

Swamp Swipe  

Magnolia Gardens also has numerous wildlife opportunities, including birds and alligators.  I was particularly enjoying taking pictures of the gators...at least from a safe distance.   

The above image was using a 400mm zoom lens, while the image below of the baby gator was at 340mm.