charleston

All posts tagged charleston

Water

Posted by Paul on February 25, 2013
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

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This photo of the Ashley River, near Summerville, SC, was taken in October of 2008. I had just arrived in Charleston 2 months prior. This was a time of exploration and, as this river was only a couple of blocks from my apartment, an easy walk, I was there quite frequently. I’m seriously drawn to water. :) Sometimes I like to go back through my photos of that time, August 2008 – February 2010, and look at all of the photos that have. The vast majority of them include the rivers or the ocean, with a few people and buildings thrown in for good measure.

I’d never considered myself to be a fan of the beach, but during that time, I developed a great affection for it. Being near water, whether it was the ocean, a lake, or a river, has a calming effect on my mind and my spirit. Even now, I live right down the street from a large lake. There’s nothing quite like a walk near a body of water.

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Great day for flying a kite!

Posted by Paul on November 12, 2012
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .


This weekend, I took a quick trip down to Charleston with my friend James. Sometimes, I miss Charleston, especially the beach. Though I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not a beach fan, I do miss the beach in the winter and late fall when the population has fallen drastically and the breeze is cool, rather than warm and humid.

James and I spent most of the day Saturday in downtown, walking, looking around, and finally stopping for dinner at Hyman’s, a well known eating establishment with some fantastic food. The restaurant’s walls are adorned with the photos and autographs of the numerous stars who have graced the establishment. Each table has a label or two, what famous person sat there. James and I sat at the table where Aretha Franklin, as well as Steve Guttenburg sat. This was James’ first time, but my second. I had the famous Crispy Flounder, again. I love it!

On Sunday, before departing, we spent a little time at the Isle Of Palms beach. It was my favorite place to go after work, while waiting for traffic to subside. As soon as we walked onto the beach, we saw a guy flying a kite with 12 seconds. He would make it do some serious climbs, have it swoop back down towards the ground, perform several loops, as well as various other tricks. Also, he would make it hover above some parents and children, much to the children’s delight. Though we only stayed at the beach for about 30 minutes, I spent most of my time watching him. Certainly, I could have stayed much longer, but we were meeting my friend, Dennis for lunch and had to keep it short.

It was great to return to Charleston and catch up and have a chance to visit IOP again. It was difficult to believe that it had been more than a year since I had been down there! In the end, I got to do my little photo walk. It was a great time. And once again, the Nikon P-510 proved to be an excellent walking around camera. The reach of that zoom is just unparalleled!

One more trip to Chucktown

Posted by Paul on March 26, 2010
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: .

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Today, I head south again, this time to pick up my few remaining items. I’ll rent a truck, drive back up, unload, and that will be that.

This week has flown by. I’m sure that a lot of this has to do with the fact that I landed in a job that I can see is going to be fast paced and demanding. When I walked in the door, I had already had 3 tasks assigned to me. They joked and said that they had wanted me to start on the 15th, so I was already a week behind. Further, I could only use the moniker “The New Guy” for one week, because after that, I should know what I’m doing! I’m happy to say that I have completed two of them. The third, well that’s going to take some time and some thought.

Not much else to say about that. I’m still getting used to my new scenery. The trees are blossoming and spring is evident everywhere. It was nice not to have to drive 210 miles on Sunday …

The final week

Posted by Paul on March 13, 2010
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , .

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It’s Friday night, March 12, 2010. I’m sitting in our F.R.O.G room, or Finished Room Over Garage, or as we call it, the bonus room. Outside, to my left is a window; there’s a thunderstorm asserting itself out there with deep bass rumbles and an occasional light show causing shadows to drop around the room crazily. Even as a kid, I enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of a thunderstorm. I most certainly still do.

To my right, Hobbs is lying on the couch next to me, sleeping. I can barely resist rubbing that special place behind the ears. I give in to the impulse. He doesn’t mind at all for some reason. He simply moves a little closer to make it more convenient for “me”.

Next week will be my last week in Charleston. I’ve been thinking of how to say goodbye, after all, it has been home for 19 months or so. During that time I’ve established a number of friendships, found a great guitar teacher, and had a good time overall. I’d thought of going around to many different places and taking photos for the last time and then assembling a small PDF book, but honestly, I’m not in the mood for it. Should I decide to make a book, a slideshow, or some body of work, I have plenty of photos. Thousands. A few more won’t make a difference.

All of next week Vera will be in Dallas, Texas, Tony will be spending those nights at a friend’s house, Pedro is in Ohio, he’s moved there now, and I’ll be in Charleston, of course. So, what about Hobbs? I had two choices for my furry little friend:

1) Send him to the kennel for the week.

2) Take him with me for my final week.

Can you guess which option I chose? Yep, number 2. My furry little poop factory is coming to Charleston for my final week.

The only reason that I’ve not taken him often is because he has to wait so long between bathroom breaks that it wasn’t fair. I think that we might be able to make it to the beach again and chase some of those pesky seagulls now that I’m not so busy!

I need only to work, er, be present, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Those of us on “death row” have been working/attending very short days, so bathroom breaks won’t be an issue. We’ve been tasked with busy work: Looking up prices for computers, calling golf courses to see who could do a charity event, etc.

More than likely I’ll haul all of my clothes, my printer, laptop, guitar, etc on Friday or Saturday. I’ll leave the rest of the stuff, furniture, bed, dishes, etc, and come pick them up the next weekend. I plan to fly to Charleston, get a ride from one of my buds, get the rental truck, load it, then head on back up the road. That will be that, I think. Even though I’ll be coming back home, it still feels strange pulling up roots again.

I will be returning, for round 3, to Bank of America on Monday, March 22nd. On Thursday, yesterday, I received an e-mail telling me that I had internal interview on Friday at 10:00 AM. I had to turn it down. Too little, too late.

The dominoes continue to fall. Since the original 4 ended up on “death row” another 3 have joined. Of the 7, two have gotten jobs, myself and another, the others are still interviewing. I wish them the best of luck and am doing my best to help them find something in Charlotte. There’s precious little work in Charleston.

Exploring something new

Posted by Paul on January 23, 2010
Posted in: Photography. Tagged: , , , .

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Leica M6 – Ilford HP5 – Rodinal 1:50

Within a few days of arriving in Charleston, I remember thinking: OMG! What is that smell? There must be a paper mill nearby. Sure enough, there was, right in the same neighborhood where I worked. Great! People who had worked in the area for some time assured me that I’d get used to. They assured me that I wouldn’t even notice after a while. Well, they didn’t say exactly how long that would be. I imagine, now, that it is on the order of years, as 18 months have passed and I can still smell it.

Perhaps, though, I only smell it now on the stronger days. I don’t seem to remember smelling it everyday, though, in the winter time the smell is less pungent because of the lower humidity and temperature, I suppose.

I’ve been looking for other, non beach, venues to shoot. Charleston has a few parks, but mostly tourist spots where you have to pay $25 or more to get in. I was looking for a spot a little less quaffed, tony, and more everyday folksy. I wanted a spot that would be a challenge to photograph or that I could take some time to explore and have to work at it a bit.

Since we moved to a different building this past summer, instead of being about 2 blocks away from the paper mill, I have to drive by it every day. It never ceases to capture my attention. It seems to have so many different looks depending on weather condition. I have a feeling that I’m going to find some good locations from which to photograph it, but not at the moment.

Right next to the plant there is a very small park. The park is just big enough to have a playground, small restroom facilities, a place to launch your boat, and, of course, a few trees. It is bounded on the western side by a busy street, a chain link fence and some oil processing company to the south, and a river occupies its north and eastern edges.

On the way home from work, I decided to stop by. What I noticed was that, for sure, the smell of the mill was strong. Also, no matter where you went in the park, you saw the mill. You can see it from the playground; it’s reflected in the water of the river. It’s everywhere.

At first, I tried to find some framing that didn’t include the plant, but was unsuccessful, save for shooting macros. So, decided to try to incorporate the plant into the shots. Add to this that highway I-526, a major Charleston highway, runs right above the park and it’s support structures can be seen in most any framing attempt.

Over the next few posts, I’ll be using photos from this park. As a matter of fact, the photo from yesterday’s post was taken in this same park. Also, strangely, I’m eager to return, despite the smell. It appears to be an interesting place to photograph.