The Beach on Kiawah Island - f10 1/640th

A Photography Trip

I took a quick trip to Kiawah Island over the weekend. 

I had my second live art show on Facebook Wednesday evening, then I dropped Bauer at a friend's and got myself packed. 

I took off around 8:30 Thursday morning with a good playlist for my six-hour drive, for anyone who knows me well, you know that included a good bit of Jackson Browne!

I thought I had checked the weather and it looked like it would be pretty nice Thursday through Sunday. I must have dreamed it. 

It was a bit of a harrowing drive to the island - going through what felt like hurricane-force winds that kept pushing my little Honda out of my lane - yikes!

The rain was pouring down so hard I could only see a few feet in front of me.  

Not my favorite driving conditions, especially having grown up in Southern California. I didn't get a lot of practice driving in the rain when I was young. 

I arrived safe and sound around 2:30 or so and it was much nicer in Kiawah than it had been during the drive, though still a bit wet out. 

I was visiting my friend Marla at her daughter's place. 

Not the Best Photo Weather

I was looking forward to taking a lot of photos but due to the weather, I didn't get as many as I would have liked. 

On Friday, we spent a nice amount of time on the beach, mostly walking. We tried sitting for a while but the wind gusts were lifting the sand and making it impossible to keep an umbrella up.

It was kind of cool to see the way the sand was drifting above the beach but I wasn't going to risk taking my camera down there. Sand + camera = trouble. 

Marla and I had a nice time catching up. We hadn't seen each other in about a year. We ate some good food and drank a little wine. We may have had a little chocolate too...

The mornings were cloudy, giving me an excuse to sleep in which is something I rarely do. 

We walked about nine miles on Saturday - all along the walking paths. We saw a big alligator near the golf course. 

Alligators are so strange. They look so clumsy and odd. You'd never think they could move as fast as they can, which kinda creeps me out. I didn't get close enough to take a photo. 

The wind died down late Saturday afternoon when we got back from walking. I was finally able to get my camera down to the beach.

The island runs east-west so the sun doesn't set over the beach. That's such a strange feeling for me. I'm so used to the sun setting in the west over the ocean. 

It's sort of that way in Destin too. There, the sun does set over the water at certain times of year but not straight out in the middle of the water. 

I didn't get any sunrise/sunset shots on this trip. I got obsessed with trying to capture birds in flight (in focus!) and an hour passed like a minute. 

I have mad respect for people who get great shots of birds in flight. It's challenging, to say the least!

I got a few birds in flight in focus which I'm hoping I'll be able to cut out and use in some of my other photos. I also got a few like this:

I love birds. I have a pair nesting on my front porch right now and I noticed a little bird learning to fly recently. It's so sweet. 

Sunday morning came too fast and it was time to start the long drive home. Thankfully, it didn't rain on the drive home.

I hope you had a great weekend!

See you between the raindrops!

xoxo,
Susan