Photos by Dick
Photographs and commentary by Dick Snoke
South Carolina Beaches, March 2019
We went to Murrells Inlet, on the South Carolina coast south of Myrtle Beach, with three other couples from the North Georgia Photography Club to photograph the birds at Huntington Beach State Park and the statuary at Brookgreen Gardens. The pictures follow, and then I’ve written a more extensive description of the trip. The first set is at the state park, the second at the Huntington’s house, and the third at Brookgreen Gardens. Between picture-taking episodes, we enjoyed good food and drink at local restaurants.
My main objective was to have a good long tryout for a150-600 mm lens. I rented one for this trip. That objective was achieved, and I know I won’t buy such a lens since it is too heavy and would not be used often. However, I will rent one if I go to a place where there is a good chance I’ll use it. Places like Yellowstone or Bosque del Apache for example.
The first morning I arrived at the park when it opened, and hour or so before sunrise. That gave me time to park, get to where I wanted to shoot, and get set up. I set up in/on one of the cupola’s along the causeway between the marshes. Turns out I was there before any birds. The birds only arrived after the sun got up over the trees. But when the birds came, they came in some numbers and variety. Cormorants, a couple varieties of egrets, herons and a couple kinds of sandpipers. More than enough to keep busy.
I started out with the big lens using a tripod, and that turned out to be the wrong thing to do. I was better off handholding and being able to move around much more quickly as the birds moved. So lesson learned. But that big lens is quite heavy, and I could have used a monopod, which is what most of the other folks with camera were doing.
But the lens was wonderful. Very crisp all the way out, reasonably quick to focus and easily zoomed. I did not have many exposure problems. I was using auto-ISO, with +0.7 exposure compensation, an aperture of f/8 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 or faster most of the time. That is my standard setup for birds in flight. We had an overcast sky so the shadows were no problem.
Mid-morning we all left to eat and do other things. I returned to the park late morning to see the house and explore the other parts of the park. After a short trip through the house (not a lot there really), I walked out the path between two pieces of the freshwater marsh. There I found alligators, turtles, gallinules (marsh hens) and ibises. A bunch of egrets were in the trees on the far side of the marsh, and I attempted pictures of them. However, that was too far for even a 600 mm lens. And I left my cap somewhere so I got my first sunburn of the season. 🙂 In addition, I did not have a polarizing filter for the big lens and the sun did make for some tough reflections, particularly off the wet turtle shells.
And then mid-afternoon the rains came. I did gear up and take a few shots of the sandpipers before returning to the hotel to wait out the weather.
The next day we visited Brookgreen Gardens, arriving soon after it opened, and it was a great time. There is so much to see and enjoy. I tried to avoid just pictures of all the sculptures, trying instead to include the rest of the environment. But the sculptures demand attention. You just have to include them.
I knew I wanted pictures of the Live Oak Allees, but the light was a problem initially. The sky was overcast so there was no light beneath the trees. Later in the afternoon the sun did come out and I got much better shots with light coming through the trees.
One issue with a place like this is that many of the sculptures have vegetation around them, and that makes very pretty settings. However, in many cases you end up with a dark sculpture in front of dark green leaves, and that makes it hard to get any contrast between the sculpture and the background. You must move around some to find good angles.
Caney Creek , Feb 24
A foggy morning, but the sun finally broke through for the first time in over a week. By the time I got to the trail, the fog had begun to lift, and so I could not get the really foggy shots I hoped for. But there were some good opportunities anyway.
late Jan – early feb 2019
A variety of pictures taken on the few days we did not have rain and the temperature was warm enough. These are in reverse order of when they were taken, oldest to newest.
The first few are the first daffodil blooms of this year. Then comes a few from the rocks bordering my back porch. I don’t know what they are, but I like them just the same. Next are a few shot along the Iron Hill Trail in Redtop Mountain state park. Last is a very nice sunrise, one of the very few we’ve had this year.
Little Mulberry Park, 1/24
The few that worked out on a hike with the Hearthstone Hikers. We did about 6 miles on the Fence Road side of the park, avoiding Miller Lake.
Lunar Eclipse, 1-20-2019
A full lunar eclipse on a clear night. The past few eclipses have been clouded out.
Little Mulberry Park, 1/16
First hike of the year with the Sonny Day Hikers. Not a long or difficult hike, but we all enjoyed getting outdoors for a change. It was a bright, sunny day so the photo ops were limited.
First visit of 2019 to West Bank Park
First time I could go when it was not raining hard. The lake is close to 4 feet above full pool.
Hiking at Yonah Preserver Trails, December 2018
First hike in a good long time, and the first pictures with the new camera (Nikon D7500). The old software does not recognize the files from the new camera, so I am spending time learning new software (Affinity Photo.) I reasonably happy with these results, but I do expect to improve as time passes.
Black Rock Mountain State Park, Nov 2018
This was the “fall fling” overnight outing for the Sonny Day Hikers. The weather was rain or fog on the mountain the whole time, but Black Rock Lake was below the clouds. So I spent the first afternoon at the lake. The view from the overlooks varied but were generally socked in. Still I did get a couple breaks in the clouds. Other than that, it was all trees in the fog. Even with the bad weather messing up the trails, we did do some walking up and down the park road.
Waterfalls and fall color, November 2018
An outing with the North Georgia Photography Club to some waterfalls and in search of fall color. We visited the falls on Dick’s Creek near Turner Crossroad, then on to Helton Creek Falls and ended up at Vogel State Park. The color was excellent, and we encountered more and more leaf peepers as the day went on. For whatever reason, I was not inspired by the waterfalls as I often am, but it was still a great day.