During my morning walk, I walk past this house and if the sun is out, it shines right on the face of what I call, The Guardian, for it seems to me that he is guarding the entrance to this house. For whatever reason, it reminds me of part of Monte Python and The Holy Grail – The Knights who Say Nee! I’m not quite sure why, though. 
“We want … a shrubbery!!!”
Best seat in the house
As planned, I drove down to Congaree National Park this morning. Door to gate, about 100 miles even. I arrived around 10:45 AM, or so. Fortunately, the weather was very cooperative. The sun stayed behind a thin layer of clouds during the time that I was there, casting interesting, yet not-so-harsh shadows.
Initially, when I hit the boardwalk that runs through the swamp, I was moving like I was on my morning walk! I was moving! Then, I had to remind myself to reduce speed to 1/4 impulse! I got it under control and took my good old time walking the 2.4 mile loop. It took me about 2:10 to walk the loop … that’s what you call a “mosey“! I was enjoying the sights and sounds, or lack thereof, and having a good time walking and snapping a photo here or there. The park is located 12 miles east of I-77, so there was no highway sound to be heard. The only sounds were those of birds and the occasional screech of a child in the distance as they ran along the boardwalk.
About halfway through the walk, I came upon this gentleman, who quite honestly reminded me of my friend, Monte, although Monte has a much shorter beard! He was perched upon the railing, gazing into Weston Lake. As I walked up, I took a couple of photos. When I got near him I said: Looks like you have the best seat in the house, my friend. He replied, simply: I believe so. After that no more words were exchanged. I sat on a nearby bench, enjoyed the sun, enjoyed the quiet. After about 10 minutes, he said: Have a good day. I said: Thank you. You, too. And off he went.
I still have a number of photos to look at. I think that I got some that were keepers, but the top photo has already been tagged with “favorites”.
Sifu takes George for a ride!
In early December, my Sifu, or teacher, and owner Eric Sbarge asked me to take some photos for an upcoming article in a local magazine, Natural Awakenings. Naturally, I was pleased to do it. So, on December 3rd, I went to The Peaceful Dragon, took some photos, and provided them to him for selection. He made his choices; I provided the images for the magazine, and went on my vacation to The Grand Canyon.
Today, the magazine came out and featured my photos. You can read the article here; it begins on page 24. Sure, it’s a local magazine that not many people will probably see, but it’s still nice to be published.
It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve been there nearly 3 years – I’m still such a rookie, too. LOL – As for this photo, I’m glad that I was taking the picture, not the guy with his feet in the air!
I stumbled upon a list of the 10 least visited national parks in the country and one of them is within an easy drive of me. No, not Great Smokey Mountains National Park, but one that you may not have heard of: Congaree National Park. It’s just outside of Columbia, SC, about 90 minutes from my house – the closest national park to me. Another one is within driving distance, but is all the way up in Michigan, Isle Royale National Park – the others, Alaska, America Samoa, and Washington. Way out of range!
Mind you, I have been to Congaree once before, some number of years ago, July 18, 2006 to be exact. That day was a pretty hot day and the skeeters were out, so I don’t have any photos to show for it, or at least none that I kept. Skeeters love the swamp! The photo included here is actually from the Francis Beidler swamp in South Carolina.
I think that I’ll make trip back to Congaree, perhaps this weekend since it is so close. I’m not exactly sure what one will find in a swamp in the dead of winter, but at least I’ll have a look and see if I can make something out of it. Besides, the D700 has been clamoring to get out and shoot a bit, so I’ll honor her wishes.
For this year, I hope to get in at least 2 or 3 national parks that I’ve not been to. Monte and I are planning Arches, neither of us have been and I really want to see Redwood National Park. Also, I want to return to Great Smokey Mountains NP – it’s only 3 hours from here!
Josh Miller
The above photo is of a former coworker of mine, Josh Miller. I met Josh when I worked for SAIC in South Carolina (August 2008 – Feb 2010). Sometimes Josh, Kevin, and I would go over to eat lunch in Riverfront Park and watch the cargo ships move up and down the river. We worked together on the same project. Josh was a web designer, Kevin and I, developers. However, he was just there temporarily. His dream, and what he talked about a lot, was to open his own business, a small cafe serving wine and coffee, displaying his own art as well as the art of others. He even had a name for it, How Art Thou, blending both his art as well as his firm Christian beliefs, cleverly, into the title.
Eventually, Josh turned in his notice and set about making his dream come true, and it did. They even turned a profit after about 6 months. The dream was a reality! Then, in March of 2012, tragedy struck. He was driving home one Sunday and had a head-on collision with another truck and died at the scene. It was quite shocking. He was only 33.
In a small world moment, when I was in Charleston this past weekend with Combat Chuck, we got to talking about things and I mentioned something about Josh. He knew Josh as well and told me about the business and wanted to take me over there to see it. We went in, I took my camera, but for some reason, just couldn’t seem to take it out of the bag. I was quiet. How Art Thou is a small, comfortable business, just like what he talked about. I had the opportunity to meet his father-in-law and chat with him about Josh for a bit. He told me that Josh had done the paint on the walls, built the wine rack, as well as other finishing touches around the place. There were ample paintings and photography on the wall by local artists, just like he wanted. It was quite amazing and uplifting to see what he had accomplished, that he didn’t give up on his dreams just to earn a paycheck.
After about 10 minutes, Chuck and left. I was feeling quite good and it was very nice to have met his father-in-law/business parter, and to step into the space that had been transformed from a dream into reality … the dream lives on!
Well, the count says 8,503 photos, though in truth, I have no idea how many I shots I took this year. After my massive clean up, there’s no way to tell. It doesn’t matter. I had a great year this year. I traveled a lot. I met Anita, Bill, and Ibarionex in California – that was a nice threefer!. Went to Joshua Tree National Park. Visited my friend Richard in Texas. Went to The Grand Canyon, Mexico, and The Bahamas with Deb. Hung out with Monte for part of a day. Got my son all settled in Nebraska. Finally framed some pictures, 20 of them to be exact. Decorated my office. Reconnected with Combat Chuck to close the year off. Completed 2/5 books that I had intended (well, not everything got done!) Good stuff!
I don’t make resolutions, so I won’t make one here. However, I do make plans. I plan to travel more in the coming year, meet more bloggers, visit more national parks, and return to doing my Tai Chi 3x/week. I had fallen off recently to just once or twice per week. Time to get back on it.
So, there you have it. 50 loops around the sun for me, heading for 51! I wish you all an exciting (in a good way) and prosperous new year full of fun, laughter, and of course, lots of picture taking and who knows, even a new camera (Cedric!)!!!
Damn! Had to add this in because I forgot: Bought a house! LOL
Combat Chuck!
Regarding some people, I guess that you can just tell by their steely eyed glare what adjective you should put in front of their name! More of how he got that name, shortly.
I spent a fantastic Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning with Combat Chuck, or CC for short. Chuck, of Chuckography, lives in Charleston, SC, my old stomping grounds. I first met Chuck back September of 2008 when I attended his meet-up group called: 21st Century Photography (Digital & Film) Meetup Group – He admits that it’s a bit of a mouthful. Since that meeting, I’ve followed his blog and kept up with him. We’ve kept up, off an on via email, too. Later, we hooked up again in July of 2009 for the Charleston Photowalk, my first walk – a walk, incidentally, that I did with film.
He invited me down this weekend to do a group shoot of the sunset with his meet up group. We had a good time and spent lots of time talking, getting to know each other better. The shoot was pretty good. I met a number of people in his group, but it was seriously cold and windy. Most of us had hats/hoods on and were looking for a bit of shelter from the wind. It was a nice sunset with lots of contrails to photograph and add interest.
We decided to skip this restaurant, which is where we met to do the shoot, and eat somewhere else less crowded. We stopped at a little sports bar off the beaten path, had a couple of ocean burgers (hamburger with shrimp on it). We were saving the good meal for today, Hyman’s!
This morning, after we ate a light breakfast, we headed down to Hyman’s. Seems, as of late, each time that I go down there I want to eat at Hyman’s. Each time that I eat there, I have the Crispy Flounder, their special. This time, I promised myself to try something different … I usually fail, though. However, this time, I emerged triumphantly! I got the broiled haddock and it was, as expected, wonderful. Hyman’s never disappoints. Never! Add to that some spicy Buffalo shrimp and a crab cake and you have a meal fit for a king!
As for his name, Combat Chuck – Well, he was in the Marines, but that’s not where he got his name. He got it in Starbucks this morning. When the barista handed me my tea, he simply said: “Tall Chai Latte for Paul”; however, when he handed Chuck his coffee, he said: (I forget the name of the coffee) “for Combat Chuck”. Well, I suppose the name just stuck. 
Thanks, Chuck for all of the great Southern Hospitality! Oh! One final word. Chuck has a great shower in his home. It has 6 shower heads!!! Only one word suffices to describe the experience: Decadent! I’m usually in and out of the shower quickly, but not this morning. No, not at all.
