If you had come up river from Charleston to the earliest plantations this is the scene that would have greeted you. The old Coming’s entrance. Stone and clay gates.
There is no river entrance now, we came through the back roads which were never around in the early 1700’s.
The original land owner was named Coming, and land grant he was given was at the ‘T’ of the Cooper River. Hence the name.
We are talking of a land / rice plantation from a few hundred years ago meaning there have been multiple generations, and owners here. Currently the state of South Carolina owns this as a wildlife management area. Unlike others here this area is primarily for hunting.
The plantation is ruins now. It has been repaired and even new bricks added in the past. However, this is a remote location last owned by a paper company for logging. The old story of hurricanes, earthquakes, and fire have had it’s way here.
From a photography point of view monochrome shooting is hard here. Everything is very ‘busy’ and emphasizing details difficult.
A color version of the above has appeared / published in various places, I prefer this black and white myself. The overgrowth and hand made bricks work well together.
For a few shots I fell back to the composition basics of framing. A hole in a wall, and sunlight on ruins is a text book example. It actually worked here well. Anything ‘text book’ is sure to go badly with me.
Overall these images came together better than I had thought. A few I relied on heavy contrasts, others almost flat monochrome.
The photographs here were processed in Lightroom, then DxO Silver Efex.
This plantation is also known as ComingTee.
