This is my preferred photography. The animal, a detailed environment, and some contrasting colors.
If you look close you can even find Moor Hens.
I think it tells a nice story of what these areas really look like. That’s important since not many people will ever see this, and that’s too bad.
I find scenes like this a contradiction. It’s peaceful and beautiful, but hard for me to capture. Some photographers just take a glance and know just how to shoot it.
I need to work at it and experiment.
Diffusing the colors and details is probably cheating, but it worked for me.
This year we were lucky with the Spoonbills favorite spots. This was one and almost too convenient. The only entrance to a large Wildlife Management Area.
Getting to the marshes requires going down a dirt road, on a dike, separating 2 waterways. They picked a spot here that even had room to pull a car over.
It’s not like they were there all the time, but at some point this entire group would come in and dig around for awhile.
And ignore us since we always give them their space.
If the feeding was good they would approach fairly close to us as they had become comfortable with the other 2 legged critters.
The first brownstone cathedral was built in 1854 and named the Cathedral of Saint John and Saint Finbar. It burned in a great fire in December 1861. The rebuilt cathedral was named for St. John the Baptist and was constructed on the foundations of the earlier structure. Architect Patrick Keely designed both the original cathedral and its replacement.
The building was of special interest to us being built out of brownstone. We could almost see the quarries for the stone from our home in Connecticut. Portland CT stone was used in most of the NYC buildings as well.
All the images in this article were taken with a Tamron 18-400 lens, certainly not made for interior photography. I do think it worked out but on another visit I will be sure to have a few short prime lens in my pocket.
For me the images in a church is all about the lines. That worked for Notre Dame in Paris and Strasbourg, as well as the outdoors tabernacles. I follow lines and the composition takes care of itself… I might take a bad shot, but that’s my fault.
Charleston, South Carolina has incredible churches everywhere, the trick is to find them empty and available for a shoot.
This may have been one of the best years in a long time for the Spoonbill population. Being a tropical bird it’s expected they are on the South Carolina coast. And there have been plenty.
They have been seen recently in locations here, inland, where none have been for years.
However, the young this year are looking for new food sources. They have been seen in Iowa (no ocean anywhere there!), and even up in Maine.
These travelers need to start back to the warm weather now but it does mean a larger geographic area for future generations may be happening.
And really, the world needs to see these beautiful birds.
I stepped outside my comfort zone here. Way out. On a public beach, with people.
People from out of town rent their comfort and watch the shrimpers work. An occasional Pelican or Dolphin will send ‘ohhhs and ahhhs’ from the audience.
Above, and below, getting their vacation sun so they can look good back home.
For people who have never seen Rockaway Beach or Jones Beach in NYC this place is empty.
I know some photographers who are great at this type of work and make a point of shooting the Charleston events. Me, this is the first time I have tried and really just for fun and practice.
I picked a good time since the tide was going out, waves were getting smaller I noticed. Which was fine, I had to figure out what a good wave looked like coming in from my spot.
I was shooting from above which helped me get these angles and be almost parallel at times.
Click, or double tap, and image to view the gallery.
Oh, I was leaning over a long pier to get this perspective. No helicopters or hover boards were harmed in this shoot.
When the sky turns and the winds pickup it’s time to leave.
Except we usually slow down to see what we can photograph. It’s a balancing act, since the car or shelter is not on the next corner here.
