Aaaaaarrrgghh - Pirates prey on children at waterfront

This weekend has been HOT. I have spent most of it down at the Charleston Maritime Center and the Passenger Terminal where there has been much activity both on land and on the water. Lots to do for everyone, but there were many who succombed to the heat and needed reviving, especially if they had partaken of too much rum punch. Talking of rum, I captured this pirate making off with a child on the wharf this afternoon. Wonder if he'll eat his shoes as well!

Yo ho ho - I found me a pirate!

Last night's Harborfest soiree down at the Charleston passenger terminal was a lot of fun and some folks really took it pretty seriously, like my pirate friend pictured here. There are more photos of the event on my photo website here http://vanessak.smugmug.com/gallery/8670971_Zbp2E/15/574975945_cYfRJ#P-10-21

The USCGC Eagle arrives in Charleston, SC

This morning I took a couple of hours off work and boarded the M/V Frolic, a classic 1939 Elco 44' Cruiser belonging to the SC Maritime Foundation. We headed out into the harbor to photograph the arrival of the US Coastguard's Eagle - a 295ft. barque, originally built in Germany in 1936, commissioned for service by Adolf Hitler, and secured by the US after the second World War as part of the war reparations. She is here for the Charleston Harborfest 2009. Hopefully when she leaves, she will be under sail.

Charleston - the home of tallships (for a few days)

You're going to see a lot of tallship pics on this site over the next few days. Charleston Harborfest is about to begin, and already there are some tallships in marinas here. I don't know if this one is part of the official festival, but I photographed it moored near the City Marina at daybreak this morning.

Another great lowcountry evening

I was scheduled to attend a financial seminar after work this evening where experts were lecturing on interpreting new tax laws, estate planning, and investing in "troubled times", and after the first 20 minute go-around I skipped out and headed for the Folly Islands, and one of my favorite spots, Backman Seafoods. There I found Thomas and Elliot, eating icecream and watching the flooding tide. They could care less about the new tax laws, and somehow they do just fine.

Very high tide in Charleston, SC

Or as my more technically inclined friend Marty, said "There is an extreme high tide this evening. It supposed to peak at 8:31 in Charleston harbor with predictions of the tide being from 2 1/2' to 3' above normal high tide. As you know "normal" high tide is + 5.0' MSL, or about the elevation of the usual marsh line where the marsh becomes "high ground"."

He kindly keeps me up to speed with this sort of thing because he knows I'm always looking for new photo opps. Actually I had already been to the James Island County Park to walk Logan, and this image was taken from their fishing dock.

We've got the wedding dress!

Today was set aside for a trip to Savannah to visit the famed "Bridal Mart" in search of the dress. We really didn't get going until about 11am and then by the time we got to Savannah everyone was starving, so after lunch at the Crackerbarrel at exit 94 it was about 3pm before we even found the store. It is totally overwhelming to walk into the prospect of hundreds of white dresses hanging on racks - where does one start... Leigh walked over to a dress on a mannequin, fell in love with it, tried it on (fit like a glove) and so we bought it. We spent less time in the store than in Crackerbarrel and everyone was ecstatic because it was definitely made for her. Mercifully so, because by the time we hauled back up the I-95, crawled a few miles because of an accident, and finally made it home, everyone was exhausted. But .... we've got the dress!!

Now this was a harbor cruise

What better way to wind down the work week than to take a sunset cruise of the Charleston harbor. This week has been busy at work, and evenings have been full of one thing and another, but the weekend is here and we were having fun doing the Titanic thing on the front of the boat, which is what this image is all about. Thanks Rick and Shirley!

Photo-a-Day is Difficult

Theoretically it sounds easy, but sometimes there's just nothing to photograph through the course of a day. Feeling compelled to find SOMETHING within a close radius of home, I shot this piece of marsh at high tide and vignetted it just for a different look. My camera tells me I actually took over 1200 photographs over the weekend. After that, you don't really feel like picking it up for at least a couple of days. I would love to get some dramatic lightning shots and we have had plenty of lightning lately, but I need a lookout point to shoot from - protected of course. Working on that.

Photogenic Weekend

It's been a very eventful weekend in the true sense of the word. Friday night was "the" engagement party (and hopefully by tomorrow all the pics will be uploaded to Facebook for all the revelers) and yesterday was Chelsea and Tom's wedding. From the time we started documenting the proceedings - makeup, hair, etc. - to the time they finally left in a very trashed vehicle, there were almost 900 images to process! These are two of my favorites, the three flowergirls and a view of the garden. What a great setting and such a wonderful example of neighbors, friends and community all pitching in to provide food, decorations, and everything needed to orchestrate a memorable event.

Playing catch-up

I know I've been slack about keeping up my "daily" blog, but really we have been on the go. A lot of the week was taken up with plannning and organizing Leigh & Josh's engagement party which took place last night. Thanks to everyone who helped with the food, decorations and other logistical chores. It was a great evening. Here are two pics - one of Leigh and all the bridesmaids, and othe other of the four cousins who drove down from Annapolis for the event.

Leigh is home

Leigh and Rob arrived back stateside this evening from Greece and the UK. Caught up and looked at all the photos while eating dinner outside on a beautiful evening. Matt had even baked his sister a birthday cake - captured here for the record.

Saturday buzz

Wow the photo for this day sure contrasts starkly with the previous one. Weather still crazy in the South - brilliant sunshine one minute and downpours the next. Met a friend for breakfast at 8am so I got an early jump on the day. I have been meaning to throw out some pitiful looking spring pansies and other things for ages and today was the day. I bought some new plants and got busy re-potting. Logan joined in the fun and ate lots of dirt in the process. Good fiber!

More rain over Charleston, SC

Go figure how these climatic cycles work. It seems we have had rainfall shortages for a few years, and over the past few weeks we have been inundated with volatile weather, storms, rain and wind. Watching the storm front bear down on us this morning was eerie - it came so fast. I was out running errands and ended up trying to get back to the office before all hell broke loose. The image captures the storm minus about 5 minutes. Later it cleared a little and I managed to get some pool time in before Diane came over for dinner.

Tuesday was worse ...

Yesterday, Tuesday was kind of surreal. Work was awful. We had inexplicable computer / server issues that pretty much paralyzed everyone. Couple of other things happened during the day that I could have done without, and then someone came through a stop sign at an intersection after work and re-designed the front of my car. The good thing about that is that no one was hurt and it's just more paperwork for the insurance companies. I did enjoy dinner at Charleston Place later with Mitzi who is always entertaining. The food was great too. Thanks Mitzi.

My least favorite day of the week

Actually it wasn't too bad as Mondays go. Work is fine - nice pace of busy which helps the day click along just fine. Evenings have been spent working through folders and folders of images that need to be processed. Chelsea's bridal portraits will have to wait until after the wedding before posting to the web, but this was one from a wedding I shot over the weekend.