What Is It, Mom?

On our way home from the Fourth of July, Shane started telling us about this freaky "thing" that he saw that had "big bulging eyes on the top of his head." He said that he could see through it.

He didn't know what it was but it sounded like a crab. It really creeped him out and he was afraid to go to sleep because it may come and find him.

Nine miles away. In an condo.

We had to assure him that it would not. Of course, that was difficult when Owen kept saying things like "owww...the "creepy" fish is going to find you and get you."

Sheesh...brothers!

Anyway, I think that this is what he saw.



Just don't bring it up to him, okay? Because he will be in my bedroom tonight about 10 if you do. :)

Pawleys Island...A Few More Shots

Here are a few more shots of Pawleys Island. These are some of my favorite landscape shots.

And, yes, I'm perfectly aware that I have a sickness.

Enjoy!

Sun Kissed

But, in order to get sun kissed, you first have to get sun burnt.



After that, Shane made sure to put on sunscreen as I instructed him to do. :)

My Preference

People who like to shoot pictures tend to gravitate towards taking pictures of certain types of things.

I'm not really particularly good at taking portraits or posed shots. I'll do it. But I don't necessary like to.

I much prefer taking candid shots and capturing people and things in their natural element. When they're not looking and don't have on their "camera face."

I hate the "camera face."

Take these two pictures for example. They were taken at Pawleys Island about 7 am and I just love them. I wish that I had positioned the second picture a little differently with less sand but oh well. Sometimes you get what you get. :)




I love how the fishermen are silhouetted by the sunrise in the first picture. And how the sunrise makes sparkles on the water.

And, yes. It was worth it to get up at the a*$crack of dawn to go shoot pictures. I've got a sickness, as you already know. :)

A Few More Favorites

A few more of my favorites from Pawleys Island...

I'm sorry. I've already told you that I have a sickness. I can not put the camera down.

Especially whene there is so many awesome things to photograph. So, you'll just have to suffer through them.

These aren't the last of the pictures but I figured I shouldn't overwhelm you with too much.

Early morning is the best time to find bees and other insects feasting on plants and flowers. It takes patience and quietness to photograph them. Especially the butterflies and dragonflies. But, it's worth it.

You don't really have to worry about the bees because they are too busy and focused on their job to be concerned with you.

Ken likes this one.



I like this one because the beach house is blurred in the background.



From Huntington State Park. I think that it's an Egert. This is when I wish I would have had a more powerful telephoto lens than a 28-135.



Thanks for looking! :)

What You Say...What They Hear

At the pool, the same thing always happens.

If you have (or had kids), you know exactly what I'm talking about.

You're already dried off and are sitting outside the pool watching them swim.

(From the pool at Pawleys 2008. And befpre you email me that the picture is blurry, I meant to have the kids jumping be blurry. It was done intentionally.)




They've been swimming so long that their skin looks like a wrinkled raisins and you are hot as hades and the color of a crab.

You're ready to go.

They're not.

What I say: Shane, Owen...five more minutes then we're leaving.

They see you collecting things and they know that they're on borrowed time.

What they hear: Sh..Ow...five....utes..we...

And, they hear this because they continue going under water so they don't have to listen to you.

They only come up when they're lungs are about to explode.

And even then, it's usually just their lips and nose above water.

Their ears never make it above water.

And, you're helpless to stop it unless you jump in and get completely wet again.

So, they win this round.

But, you are on to them and you started the process 20 minutes before you actually wanted to leave.

By the way, I distinctly remember doing this to my parents and I'm sorry. So, now you can lift that curse too, m'kay?

Pawleys Island: Elegantly Shabby

Like most coastal areas, Pawleys Island has a Yacht Club.

It's called "Pawleys Island Marina Yacht Club."

One would think that was hoyty-toyty by the name, right?

But, no. I found this little gem one day when I was cruising around the island looking for interesting things to photograph. One could easily drive by it and never notice it.




I went out shooting one morning early and it was really foggy. I think that it looks pretty cool with the fog buffering out all that is in the background.



You can see from this sunset picture everything that is in the background.



But, this is my favorite picture by far. I love the vivid colors of the roof and the window. I took it after a hard rain and I tihnk that it really brought out the colors.



I'm sure that there is a "real" Yacht Club in Pawleys.

But, I like this one much better. I wonder what the story is with this building. I wanted to try and go in but never got a chance.

I think that this little building really represents Pawleys' Island's trademark phrase. "Pawleys Island...elegantly shabby."

The Beauty of The Sequence Shot

Having the ability to take rapid pictures in succession is one benefit to having an SLR camera.

While we were in Pawleys Island, we were able to go and see a friend play baseball.

The kids had a great time playing with the other kids at the ballpark and watching Trey play.

I took a sequence of shots of one of Trey's at bats which turned out pretty well. You can see every move and how he sets up and follows through. Every shot there is something different going on. He has a slight turn with his body or toe, his shoulder and the bat is positioned differently and the pitcher's sequence is very apparent. In the third shot, you can see the ball coming towards Trey but it's blended in with the second baseman. How rude of him. LOL.







You can see some more pictures of Trey's playing at his family's blog. His step-mom took some great pictures. Go, Josie!

Thanks to Trey's family for inviting us to the game. It was awesome!

A Fabulous Botanical Garden

While we were in Pawleys Island, SC, Joan kept telling me that I should go to Brookgreen Gardens, which is right near her house. Try as we did, we weren't able to get there until right before we left.

And, wow. I'm glad that we did.

This is one place where I'm glad that I have a SLR camera instead of just a point and shoot. You just can't get the type of pictures with a p-n-s that you can with the Rebel. Here's some of my favorite pics.

Note that these are all of my images and not BGG's.

A pink Hibiscus.
For Shackup...

Butterflies aren't that easy to capture. Trust me. I have twenty other crappy shots to prove it. ;)

Sawgrass in the background.

Jiminy. My voice of conscieous that told me to put down my camera. As you can see, I didn't listen to him. :)

This owl was enclosed but I was able to get a shot through the netting and blur it so you can't see the front netting. SLR cameras rock.




Live Oak Alley. If you look closely at the center towards the left, you'll see a person gardening. That should give you a scale of the trees.

This is one of my favorite shots.

Yes, ick. A spider. But it was cool. I had to put my focus on manual because the camera auto focus couldn't see the spider or it's web.


The SC Palmettos. What's a trip to the gardens without seeing some palmettos?

Yes. Obviously I need therapy but I just couldn't stop taking pictures. Not with all of this beautiful scenery around.

So I hope that you too enjoyed my trip to Brookgreen Gardens. :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July, America! Again.

Yeah, yeah. I'm a little late with the pictures.

But, I haven't had access to upload any pics.

On the Fourth, we went to Litchfield for some fireworks. Nothing better than a bunch of drunk guys shooting fireworks along the beach. Definitely not the controlled scene that we're use to in DC. When the wind shifted and sent the fireworks about 10feet over our head, I knew that wasn't good.

The clincher was when two of the fireworks shot off to the side and caught the dune on fire about five feet from us. We were done and packed it in. If the sand ants didn't get ya, those fireworks sure almost did.

Here's a few pics. :)

Of course, there were fireworks too but it was too hard getting the actual fireworks but I kind of dig these.