More Lowcountry Life

What an idyllic life for a little boy, growing up in these parts.  Today it's a sunset paddle in a kayak with Dad on the beautiful Stono River.

  

The Lowcountry Life

In my mind, nothing represents the lowcountry way of life more than seeing a cast net fly over a creek.  I had been wanting to capture this on camera for awhile and yesterday evening everything came together; the tide, the weather, and my always obliging friend James.  Here are a few of the images.

The beautiful towns and fields of South Carolina

There was nowhere I had to be today so I decided to take a mini road trip through the farms and small towns in our beautiful state.  I also took the opportunity to spend some time with friends in Ridge Spring, a hub of peach farming activity.  Being farmers themselves, and having lived in the area for many generations, they were happy to be my guides and show me all kinds of really neat things that I would completely have missed if I hadn't known about the gravel roads that crisscross fields and link farms with neighboring farmsteads in the region.

The really sad thing is that these small towns are slowly dying because the young people have all left to pursue lives in the bigger cities.  Houses have been left to decay with no buyers available to take them at any price.  Churches are closing their doors because they are losing too many parishioners to their adjacent cemeteries, and there is no new generation rising up to replace them.  Stores are boarded up, and there is no longer any demand for accommodation in the local hotels.  The independent farmers can no longer compete with the Corporate farmers, and so they sell their land and move away.  The price of progress.

I didn't take many photos, mainly because it was pouring with rain most of the time.  I will go back as soon as I can because I have much unfinished business, but here are a few that I managed to take of peaches ready for picking (courtesy of Titan Farms) and some cotton plants flowering in fields along the road as I traveled home.  

A Short Diversion from Admin Duties

Last week we scheduled an hour in Holy City Helicopter's R44, expertly piloted by Dylan, for the purpose of photographing our hydro survey vessel working in the Cooper River.  It was a beautiful day with great visibility, even though as a rule I prefer to do aerial photography in the late afternoon.  Since the chopper moves a lot quicker than the boat, we had some time to photograph other stuff while we were waiting for them to get to their next location.  Communication efforts between us and the boat captain were interesting, and after trying radio, texting and cellphones, we finally resorted to good old hand signals out the (non-existent) chopper doors. Here are some of the images we captured as we buzzed around.

GEL Hydro Survey boat in the Charleston port, Cooper River

Midstream Terminal, Cooper River

Phil's hand signals - um ... say again?

Riverside Park, North Charleston

Shipyard Creek, North Charleston

CCPRC's Cooper River Marina

The Citadel Military College Campus

Madeline and Mallory

Kids portraits are always a hoot.  You just never know what to expect so you just have to let it all happen and grab the shots you can when they're not pulling funny faces or picking their noses.  These little munchkins were giving their mother a fit the whole time, and I know she felt completely despondent as she packed them up and left.  When I went through them later though, I found enough gems to make it all worthwhile.  

The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad Experience

Gideon wanted to ride on a train, so we booked a cabin in Bryson City and took the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad train from there to Dillsboro, NC and back again this past July 2014 weekend. These are images taken along the way that document Gideon's big day. I think he will remember it for a long time.

All Aboard!

Tickets please...

Waving goodbye

Our mountain man story teller

Euphrates also enjoyed the ride

All tuckered out on the way back

SPE Extraction in the Lab

It's been a slow week at work because many folks have been out on vacation.  I took some time to photograph some very cool looking tests going on in our HPLC Prep lab.  Don't ask me what all that means - I just photograph the stuff.  The chemist in charge told me it has something to do with explosives analysis so I thought that sounded cool as well :)  I do like my job - wouldn't trade it for anything (most days).