I love how when visiting a good ol' southern coastal location, I almost always come away in a patriotic mood. This Saturday I sure felt that way after I took a day trip to Savannah with a couple of friends.

Our original plans were to just walk around the beautiful historic city of Savannah and enjoy a delicious southern cooked meal at Paula Deen's restaurant with my friend's parents we met up with. The site seeing and mouthwatering fried chicken and collard greens certainly didn't disappoint us. However on the drive down to Savannah, I did a little research on my phone to find at least one good photo shoot opportunity that I'd like to check out while we were down there. Thankfully my friends agreed after our fulfilling meal to drive a couple more miles down to the Wormsloe Plantation site to check out one of my favorite southern lowcountry camera subjects - old live oaks with moss.

I hadn't heard of this plantation before, but just based on some of the pictures I saw, I knew it was a place I'd like to see. It turned out to be a very interesting and unique visit. As you approach the entrance of the historic site, you're dramatically welcomed by gorgeous live oaks with Spanish moss as a canopy to drive under on a dirt road. We arrived with only an hour left before closing, so I knew my photo period would be limited. As soon as I saw this road, I couldn't help to want to get out the car and start shooting...but unfortunately we noticed there were many cars down the road toward the plantation. I didn't want the cars to be in my shot, so we decided to drive down the road to scope out the plantation first.

As we drove up and got closer, we noticed many people leaving as it looked like an event had just finished. We continued to drive past the parked cars and drove up as far as we could go on the road. Then all of a sudden it felt as if we had gone back in time as we saw several red coat soldiers walking toward us. Come to find out, the plantation had just finished a Colonial Fair and Muster (basically a reenactment festival). We anxiously parked the car and got out to walk down the trail and check out what was left of the set up. From the parking area, there's a trail that leads several yards down to the oldest remaining structure in the Savannah area - the tabby ruins of Wormsloe, the colonial estate of Noble Jones (1736). As we walked down the path, we passed many colonial period soldiers and settlers as it felt like we were walking through history. It was neat imagining and actually seeing what life was like back in the 18th century. It was interesting seeing the old plantation home ruins on the banks of the marsh and picturing the settlers coming in on their ships off of the marsh to get to their plantation home. I took several pictures of some of the colonial folks but mainly just enjoyed soaking in the history during the moment.

We quickly realized we were running out of time for me to get some shots of the mossy oak road, so we walked back to the car. Thankfully by then, many of the cars were leaving so I was able to get some great shots! I even was blessed with capturing a deer crossing the road! As I was setting up my tripod and my camera in the road, my friends were in the car watching me do my thing. Since we by then had the patriotic mood in us (by the way, my roommate and I had watched part of The Patriot the night before), my friend started playing some old colonial period patriotic songs on his iPad in the car to make me laugh. But it really gave me some great background music as I was taking pictures of the beautiful oak tree road while thinking..."This land is my land, this land is your land...this land was made for you and me!" As much as I love taking pictures of beautiful scenes, I appreciate and enjoy the history and first founders of our home we love!

I hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures of the Wormsloe Plantation oak tree road, and several pictures from downtown Savannah. Always remember, my pictures are available for purchasing prints in my gallery section of my website!
Click here to see some of the shots I got of the colonial people.

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As I've said before, one of the main reasons why I enjoy photography is for the adventure and chance to get away and free my mind. Sometimes people ask me how do I know of so many of these places that I go and photograph. And most times I have to thank my parents for taking me as a kid when we used to go camping and exploring a lot as a family. But its also natural to me that I like to research and discover new places on the map that I've never seen before. Yet sometimes the ways I find out about a place are as interesting as the memories of when I go see them - which was the case when I wanted to go check out the historic Campbell's Covered Bridge in the Upstate of South Carolina.

I enjoy learning about all the history in the Appalachians, which happens to include the history of moonshining. About a month ago, I watched the action-packed movie about the famous bootlegging Bondurant brothers of the mountains in Virginia - "Lawless". I was really interested in seeing the movie when I saw the old-timey scenes of the mountain backwoods and moonshining adventures during the previews...and of course all of the action. While some of the bang-bang shoot'em up got alittle intense and hard to watch, I particularly remembered some of the scenes when the outlaws were making moonshining runs and deals under old covered bridges that were popular back then.

With my fascination in history of the Appalachian mountains and other local areas around South Carolina, I find myself watching a lot of tv shows...which sometimes can be random ones that come on ETV. Several days ago I was flipping through the channels and landed on an ETV show because I recognized an Upstate S.C. mountain scene (Glassy Mountain, to be specific). The film was called "The Dark Corner" and it was a documentary exploring why a certain area of South Carolina's Upstate is referred by locals as The Dark Corner. I learned for the first time that moonshining and mayhem was part of history in these areas of the Upstate above Greenville. Part of the film talked about the only remaining covered bridge in the state, known as Campbell's Covered Bridge and built in 1909, and how it played in the history of The Dark Corner and moonshining days.

As many times as I've been in the Upstate, I vaguely remember seeing signs to the Historic Campbell's Covered Bridge, but never had really thought about going to visit it until now! After seeing all the beautifully familiar foothills scenes in the intriguing film "The Dark Corner", and having my adrenalin pumping for an adventure on the back country roads like in the movie "Lawless", I was ready to set out on a road trip of my own to check out Campbell's Covered Bridge myself! So one day recently I grabbed my camera bag, popped in my new Mumford & Sons CD and hit the road!

Below are some of my pictures from the beautiful Campbell's Covered Bridge. I look forward to going back again to get more pictures of this beautiful place during other seasons! I'm sure it would make a beautiful autumn scene. To learn more about "The Dark Corner", check out the film or watch the trailer click here! Or just google "The Dark Corner SC".

Campbell's Covered Bridge 1 Campbell's Covered Bridge 2 Campbell's Covered Bridge 3 Campbell's Covered Bridge 4 Campbell's Covered Bridge 5 Campbell's Covered Bridge

A day before New Years eve, I took one of my spontaneous trips up to the upstate to explore an old bridge (a blog post will be about it soon), then had the urge to spend some quiet time watching a sunset from atop of South Carolina's most beautiful views - Caesars Head (The first picture you can see the rock for why it's called Caesars Head). Several people had the same idea to watch the 2012 sun set, as they made a trip out to the cliff to take a quick look since it was cold, but a look I thought was worth watching. I actually got to meet another fellow photographer and make some connections - its always neat the people you can meet while doing photography.

Its an amazing feeling watching a quiet sunset while 3215 feet above everything else, yet knowing way off in the distance is the everyday activities and noises going on in the cities, towns, and houses. Its a calming feeling of being so small in a big world. The evening was a great one to rejuvenate and look ahead for the upcoming year. Below are my pictures that I hope you will enjoy from the sunset, but first I wanted to share an encouraging word that really seemed to complete my trip that day. Thanks to my pastor friend, Jim, for bringing this message at church this week.

Can you look back on the past year and see what all the Lord has done? Difficult times, lost loved ones, and stress can often cloud the rearview mirror as you look back, but we all have things we can be grateful for. God is always ready to help and set free those who call out to Him and stand on His steadfast love. Now that the sun has set on 2012 and has risen for 2013, maybe now God wants us to expect great things in 2013 by already thanking Him for it today and claiming it through the Power of His Name. He has a whole new adventure out there for us in 2013, as long as we stand on His steadfast love, trust Him, and expect He will do great things. Then when we look back on our life this time next year we can say like David in Psalm 118:23 – “the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

I encourage you to read the rest of Psalm 118 and be blessed. Enjoy the sunset at Caesars Head 12/30/12...

Caesars Head, SC Caesars Head Sunset Caesars Head Sunset Table Rock Shadows All Is Well Caesars Head Sunset Caesars Head View A Caesars Head Evening Table Rock Night Light

Click Here to view my Caesars Head, SC photos or to purchase one of them.