Bones of the Beach
This photo was captured with a DJI Mavic pro drone and a PolarPro Cinema Series filter.
Villages Balcony
This photo was captured with a Sony a6300.
Plotagraph: Sun Setting on Fort Moultrie
Sullivans Island and Charleston harbor are so peaceful it's hard to imagine the first shot of the Civil War was fired here when a shell fired from a 10-inch mortar burst just 100 feet above Fort Sumter, seen on the left of the horizon in this photograph.
The fort in the foreground is Fort Moultrie and the bridge in the background is the beautiful Ravenal Bridge.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Phantom 2 drone with a GoPro Hero3+ Black and then converted to a Plotagraph.
Building Sandcastles
This summer, the sand bar in front of the infamous Breach Inlet stretched for hundreds of yards out into the ocean during low tide, nearly connecting Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island. We spent a couple of hours walking out on the bar and exploring the hundreds of tidal pools left behind by the receding water. We celebrated our successful expedition with a little sandcastle building when we got back to the Isle of Palms beach.
This photograph was captured with a DJI Mavic pro drone.
Save the Turtles
The South Carolina Aquarium has added a Sea Turtle Care Center, which is a working exhibit designed to aid sick and injured sea turtles, ultimately returning them to the ocean once they're healthy. They even have sea turtle ambulances that are dispatched to recover injured turtles quickly for the help they require at the Care Center.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
The Fort Sumter House
In President Kennedy's own words: "They shipped my ass out of town to break us up."
I've always been fascinated by this building that just doesn't quite fit in South of Broad.
I did a little research on it and learned that President John F. Kennedy was stationed in Charleston for a brief period and spent three nights in this hotel turned condominium building with a former Miss Denmark who had connections to the Nazis. The FBI monitored the entire thing and reassigned him to a PT boat in the Pacific after sharing the information with his influential father.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
South Carolina Riverbanks
There's a bridge that separates the SC Riverbanks Zoo from the Botanical Gardens. It feels like you are going on an adventure over the river and into the forest as you traverse the two connected parks.
As we walked over the bridge, we watched a cormorant diving for fish. He would swim underwater for 30 seconds to a minute with each dive. It seemed like he was part bird, part river otter.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Aquarium Excitement
Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo & Garden is a perfectly-sized zoo. Everything has been modernized and they have a really diverse array of animals. They even have an aquarium, stocked with sharks, moray eels and other saltwater favorites.
When you're armed with a camera, it's sometimes hard to take a step back and see the action through others' eyes. But if you do, and the heavens align, something special happens. The little girl pressed up against the glass is my daughter and I managed to capture her excitement just as all of the other kids stepped back into the shadows.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Hudson's Market
We always have a great time when we visit Wild Dunes. I've been going there at least once a year since I was five years old and it's great to be able to take my kids now. It's amazing how it has changed since the early days. Back in those days, we never would have believed there would be a full-fledged hotel and village, complete with market, spa and restaurant where the old beach pavilion once stood.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.
Chalmers Street
One block north of Broad Street and sandwiched between the South Carolina Historical Society and the Historic Charleston Foundation Shops is Chalmers Street. The idyllic cobblestone street — which runs for only two blocks — is made of tumbled stone that almost seems too beautiful to drive on when the light hits it just right. Many of the old roads in the historic district are crafted of cobblestone, lest you forget you are in one of America's oldest and most beautiful cities.
This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.