Another Stunning Folly Beach Sunrise

I hate it when the alarm wakes me at 5.45 a.m. on a Saturday morning, but once I'm up and about with a few sips of coffee inside me, I'm always glad I made the effort, regardless of the outcome.  There's something special about being out really early when few others are around, especially when most of the time life seems so crowded.  Here are a few images from that special sunrise hour or so at the extreme west end of Folly Beach County Park.

Joe Engel Portraits

I had the honor and privilege yesterday of photographing holocaust survivor, Joe Engel for a new documentary being made about him by my friend Ron Small of Anchor Media Group, Inc.  Born in Poland, Joe is a survivor of Birkenau and Auschwitz, having managed to escape from an open cattle car in 1945 while being transported to Czechoslovakia.  He buried himself under a pile of snow until the German SS guards gave up looking for him and started moving the train onward again.  Very few of his family members and friends survived the ghettos and concentration camps and more of his both fascinating and appalling story can be read here: http://holocaustarchives.cofc.edu/panels/engel/fulltext.html

Joe celebrates his 90th birthday this year and lives in Charleston.  He is still an active community member, and speaks regularly to school and civic groups.

  

The Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017

I can't let this day go by without posting a few images of this amazing event.  I don't have the fanciest equipment for this specialized type of photography, and there was significant cloud cover which made the task even more challenging, but I'm so grateful that we got to see it.  What a wonderful universe!

Pearson's Falls and Glen, Saluda NC

I detoured on my way home from Brevard to re-visit another of my favorite places.  With great foresight, the Tryon Garden Club purchased this property in 1931 to protect it from development, and have maintained and managed it ever since.  This North Carolina Heritage Area supports an amazing variety of biological and scenic diversity.  The trails and forests are renowned for their rare and prolific wildflowers, and the cascades and primary falls are really impressive. Kudos to the non-profit Tryon Garden Club for an excellent job of preserving this gem.  The admission fee of $5 is used to maintain the property and donations are tax deductible.  Put it on your "must visit" list.

Summer Weekend in Brevard

Western North Carolina, and especially the Brevard area, is one of my all time favorite places to be.  It is lush and vibrant in the Summer, with the streams and rivers full and turbulent from the frequent showers and storms.  This was a spontaneous last minute get-away and I visited many of my favorite haunts.  I also found some new gems thanks to my GPS that took me on routes I had never traveled before.  Here are a couple of images from today.

Unsettled Summer Skies

This summer we in Charleston have had our fair share of summer storms and unsettled weather, particularly in the evenings.  Last night was supposed to be a full moonrise, and of course the moon obliged, except that it was completely obscured by clouds on the horizon.  The western skies were also cloud-filled, but the setting sun blazed through them creating drama over the Charleston skyline. Here are a couple of the pics, not what I'd planned, but that is very often the case.  Just gotta go with the flow.