Adventures in South Carolina

(Please note that you can click on any image and see a larger image of it)

This trip to South Carolina was decided as I was going to be in North Carolina for a wedding, and since I was close why not visit South Carolina too?

I had a few pictures in my head on what I wanted to get, and I had a full week to do it. The first photo I was going for was a sunrise photo, second photo was a shoreline of Myrtle Beach, and a bunch of wildlife shots.

Upon arrival, I look up the weather and it turns out it was scheduled to rain all week with possibility of storms each day (the whole week I'm there). I looked up sunrise/sunset times and set my alarm on my phone for each day of the week (I was only 10 minutes from the beach), with plenty of time to get ready and get to a spot.

So I started out with some wildlife photos as I walked on the beach. Majority of the life are a few types of gulls, sandpipers, and if you look closely you can see the the sand comes to life with moving shells. The first bird reminded me of a typewriter; it would start at the water's edge and race on foot to the land to not get hit by an incoming wave, it would then follow the wave back out. I believe it was an Western Sandpiper.



Looking up, the shoreline continued all the way to the horizon. On one side is the blue ocean with white capping waves, and on the other side are the hotels, people lounging on the beach, and houses. This was actually one of my disappointing moments as I took a picture of this and the picture did not turn out so well. To my eye, I couldn't see it but this is one of the things the camera could. The salty haze in the air washed out my image.

I couldn't get much color from the photo, everything was washed out, and I couldn't save the image no mater what I tried. This is when I realized, I should have done my homework on ocean photography. I haven't look on how to correct this issue, but I did learn that you can't just set-up and shoot near the ocean like I do near fresh water. I did manage to pick up, either a black headed gull or a laughing gull (don't know which one), flying over head. 

1/640 sec at f /11, ISO 100

This shot was able to capture the blue sky and a few clouds in the sky (10 minutes before this shot it was pouring rain). I was able to capture him as he was gliding so I don't have any up and down wing motion, so I was able to get a very crisp shot at a lower shutter speed and didn't need to pump my ISO up.

A bit further up the beach I saw a different type of gull and a pair of sandpipers. The gulls seemed very use to humans walking near them as I was about 35 yards away when I took the following picture.

1/400 sec at f / 9.0, ISO 100

My second day, my mom wanted to show me the Boardwalk and some of the stores around the area and then after swim at the beach. Because of the swimming part I didn't want to bring my camera and leave it in the jeep to overheat and ruin the sensor, so I left it behind. Of course, this day was one of the sunny days with large fluffy clouds. I was able to get this picture with my phone.

Foxglove
1/250 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 320

Fast forwarding a few days, there was still no sunrise photo to be had as solid grey clouds littered the sky each morning. So I used this day to visit some of the parks in the area and use the clouds as a large diffuser. I was able to capture two great flower shots

1/320 sec at f / 14, ISO 1600

One thing I forgot to do was take note on the types of flowers these were, and I can't seem to locate anything on the internet. These two shots were taken at the Brookgreen Botanical Garden. I was listening to a couple talk about how in the back of the area is a large trail that takes you beyond "the wall" of the garden and has a small trail you can see some of the wild animals. I was very excited when I heard this, so I headed straight there. Upon coming to this trail there was a sign that was a bit discerning as I had shorts and sandals on; "Please Stay On Trail. There Are Stinging Insects, Snakes, and Alligators".  One of my favorite moments came up, as I walked onto one of the docks on the trails I happened to look down into the water. I had to do a double take as I saw two alligators swim by, I almost dropped my camera into the water. I raised my camera up but the swirls of mud clouded the water shortly after. But something amazing happened, one decided to come on shore and what seemed to go right to sleep.

1/2000 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 1600

1/1600 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 1600

Leaving the garden, I walked around a park right down the road from the garden. I was able to snag some close-ups of some birds (sadly, I do not know the names of the birds).

1/1000 sec at f / 5.6, ISO 1600

My longest lens I shoot with is a 70-300mm Tamron Lens. I sat in one spot a little over 45 minutes until these guys got close enough for me to take shots of. The one with the blue crown, landed about 10 yards away from where I was sitting. It was almost as if he wanted me to take a picture of him as he hardly moved as I slowly raised my camera. On my way back in, I saw something that amazed me. As I was walking back I happened to have looked up, and as I did I saw some fur in the tree. I slowly stepped forward and saw a fox in the tree! I quickly snapped a shot:

1/250 sec at f / 4.5, ISO 1600

 I looked quickly at the shot and realized there was a branch in the way, and when I went to take another one he had already jumped down and was running off.

My father also took me out to some spots in the marsh where I saw a lot of fiddler crabs, and some of the local guys fishing for crabs. This is when I got to witness low tide turning into high tide, and you can actually see the current change before your eyes. He also took me to a few docks, and I was able to get one of my favorite landscape shots and few boat shots.

1/2000 sec at f / 4.0, ISO 320 

1/2000 sec at f / 4.0, ISO 320

These two photos I was very excited about and put them on my gallery right away, and made them available to print (http://santamour.smugmug.com/). So overall, the problem I ran into was no sun when I wanted it. It was very frustrating not getting a chance to take a photo I had in my head, and not realizing the effects of the ocean has on your photos. I also had to end my picture taking early the first day because as I was walking through the water a wave crashed on my legs and a few drops got onto my lens. Luckily, this was towards the end of the walk as when I attempted to clean the lens it actually left behind a layer of film on the lens. Even with my lens cloth, it still wouldn't come off. I had to use my cleaning pen (which was back at the house) to get the film off of the lens.

Hopefully, you enjoyed the stories behind each of the photos. And if you know what some of the birds and plants are please leave me a comment so I can update the photo caption! Thanks for reading.