Although most of my images from Charleston and the Magnolia gardens were HDR. This one is not. I like the clean look and the fallen azalea blossoms. This may become one of my favorite photos.

Charleston Rookery at the Magnolia Gardens

This white egret was building a nest and kept going back and forth through the same area, so after two trips I got the idea and tried to include the reflection. We stayed in this spot for over a half hour.

Once he got to the nest the other egret helped him place the stick and then he would take off and get another one.

Azaleas and Spanish Moss at the Magnolia Gardens plantation in N. Charleston, SC. We were there last weekend and the azaleas were in full bloom. It was so beautiful. This shot is an HDR photograph, using 3 exposures and blending them in NIK HDR Efx Pro. There is also a rookery there and I will have a photo on my next post.

The Making of a Lighthouse Photograph

This image was photographed at Folly Beach near Charleston, SC, Friday evening. I had taken several photos with a couple of filters and liked parts of each one.

I loved the waves at 1/25 of a second, the water at 8 seconds and the clouds with a polarizer. So.....I layered all three images and masked in the parts I wanted and masked out the parts I didn't like. So this image is three in one, the clouds with a Circular Polarizer, the waves and rocks at 1/25th and the water utilizing the Singh-Ray Variable Neutral Density filter. The Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter is expensive but can decrease the light by 8 stops, which is very good for smoothing out water movements, like creeks and waterfalls. My only concern now it that the horizon is too centered. It's not really centered, pretty close, but I don't want to lose the clouds by cropping the top or lose the sand by cropping the bottom. So I think it's finished.

Magnolia Gardens and Plantation

Had a great couple days with photo friend Mike Crosby at the Magnolia Gardens in Charleston, SC. Here is just one of many images that are now on FB.

Cherry Blossom Time

Va Photo Safaris

Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of Virginia Photo Safaris.