chuckography

Life without French fries.....

This diet thing is going quite well!

Am learning some basic, simple rules for success as the pounds are dropping off.

FRIED is not good and BEER is not my friend.

Hmmm. I grew up in the South so those two were staples.

Time for adjustments.

No fries and had the shrimp and scallops grilled.  One side was sliced tomatoes and the other was zucchini.
Oh yes, the two tiny hush puppies were NOT put aside.

I was on a photo shoot starting in Awendaw at the Sewee Lowcountry Environmental Education Center.

Saw some female red wolves who had just been fed, as they prowled their vast natural penned-up enclosure.

Driving up to McClellanville, it was time for lunch and I knew these were local - and very fresh - shrimp!

The shrimp fleet - basically at anchor on this Saturday, cloudy day - looked much larger than what we have at Shem Creek. The dockside store had a variety of large, medium and small  "heads on" shrimp.

Photographers really  do respect people's property.

We decided this sign was placed there to stop cars from parking in that space.

It was not fenced.

Just two posts and a chain.

Despite a brief sprinkle, the docks attracted several out-of-town families who were sight-seeing.

They had the added treat of watching two dolphin swimming back and forth looking for food.

Good photo opp.

We left  this scenic area, driving back up Oak Street to Pinckney and back to highway 17 north.

Our late afternoon goal was to attend an open house in Pawley's Island/Litchfield Beach.

Seeing a fleet of shrimp trawlers is a fairly common sight around here.

Sometimes my eye focuses on a particular detail in the scene and I explore it further.

This shot of boat lines was also adjusted with a plug-in filter from Topaz.

It's called "lens effect" and I used it to keep the center sharp while making the surrounding area soft focus.

I like the end result.

Before we drove away from the docks, I switched my small digital camera to a black & white setting.

The arching canopy oaks gave the name to the street.

I also shot this view in color but think I like this version more.

The forecast for rain kept many members away from venturing out but I know a cloudy day sometimes produces soft lighting without harsh shadows.

I also keep a large golf umbrella and rain poncho in the trunk of my car. LOL.
The paper mill in Georgetown showed there was a pretty stiff breeze blowing left to right.

Its output blended and mingled with the low scudding clouds.

Again, a few scattered sprinkles, but nothing to warrant opening my umbrella.

Still set for black and white, it was a good scene to capture with my Canon sx260 HS camera.

While my diet discourages me from drinking beers, it does suggest maybe a glass of red wine instead.

In Georgetown, we found spaces near the park where fire ravaged the area a year ago.

The Big Tuna is a quirky waterside bar and restaurant, just a few buildings away from the damaged area.

Had the feeling it had been here a long time.

I noticed a mural and angled to include it in my picture of my glass of wine. This is a 4-second exposure in a dark bar so my tiny attached tripod enabled me to avoid camera movement.

The wait staffers at Big Tuna are pretty sharp.

They saw us with cameras and taking a break.

They made sure we got our beers quickly - and poured me a red wine.

They were curious about the pictures we took of their bar.

Oh, and gave me a sticker with their logo. Just in case.

We continued driving up 17 North, through Pawley's Island, to the edge of Litchfield Beach.

Geoffrey Sean Thompson (seated on the right) has an excellent gallery there, filled with his professional nature photos and the enlarged prints he makes on site.

"Sean" also teaches photography and formed a Meetup.com group of about 80-90 outdoors nature photographers and wannabes.

A member of my group also belonged to the nature photographers group so we came to attend Thompson's 4:30 to 6:30 open house and, later, a nature walk with his members at Huntington Beach State Park.
Unfortunately, I had to get back to Charleston so I missed the stroll on the beach.

It looked like he had a sizable number of members with cameras so I'm sure it was a delightful evening.

Quite a few cameras, bags and accessories were placed on the swap-and-sell table in the gallery.

Both film and digital items were up for grabs.

(Click on the photos for more details.)

A group like this knows NOT to stare at the camera.

I enjoyed their cooperation and sipped another glass of wine.

Nice day.

Labels: " Litchfield Beach, "Sean, Awendaw, Big Tuna, Coastal Carolina Nature Photographers, Geoffrey Sean Thompson, Georgetown, hush puppies, McClellanville, paper mill, Pawley's Island, T.W.Graham seafood restaurant

posted by chuckography @ 2:43 PM