October 2010 - Photo of the Month

Sunrise Shrimp Boat at Hunting Island 

Everything about my venture onto Hunting Island appeared dark and ominous on this morning.  I walked under a black-cloud ceiling with wet sand under foot and following a heavy rainfall.  From the beach-front, I watched this lone shrimp boat defy the threatening skies with nets dragging while running at full steam.  I had to work quickly to take advantage of this silhouette image of the working ship. The autumn colored strip of clear sky above the horizon was a nice backdrop while the black cloud cover filling the remainder of the sky added tension and a nice frame.

The weather forecast called for the clearing skies and by 9:00 am, not a cloud remained.  I left the park as this early morning drama vanished into blue sky.  I gave a cheer for the shrimpers working the ocean waters that morning, wishing them and all local fisherman much success in an increasingly difficult marketplace.

Photo Tip: Photographing wildlife around the coastal waters requires careful consideration of local tides.  Tides are influenced by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun to the earth.  They come and go approximately an hour later each day washing the banks with differing water depths.  The high and low tides provide important information about the natural environment that will serve you when making plans to photograph, whether on foot or at sea.  It is why I labor over inclusion of the tides and moon phases in my Lowcountry Calendar each year.  On this Hunting Island walk for example, I planned to arrive just after high tide so that by the time I made the beach, there would be sand to walk on (not the case at high tide) yet still wet.  I like to have the option of using the residual tide pools as compositional elements.