A Brit in the US

I was awoken by the sound of heavy rain against my window. The more I listened, the less like rain it sounded. It was very peculiar. I stumbled up to investigate and found the sun was shining brightly for it was 7AM. I peered through my bleary eyes and saw Mad Mike standing below gesticulating. I stumbled down the stairs covering my modesty with a hastily dragged-on dressing gown and opened the door. It turned out that Mad Mike wanted to go out for a photo jaunt. He sat himself down in my kitchen and helped himself to some coffee and by the time I'd stayed in the shower long enough to get wet and dragged on some clothes, he'd polished off the content of the cookie jar and was looking around for more. I swear that guy is an urban waste disposal unit! We leapt into my SUV, cameras ready and roared along US1 until we reached I20 and from there thundered toward Winnsboro and the Railway Museum where they were having a steam open day. We drove further and further out into the coun

Some weeks ago, I visited the town of Celebration in Florida. It's quite a nice and very Disney village. In fact, it's extremely quiet and I believe its first major crime ever was a murder a few months before I visited. I stayed in an hotel called oddly enough, the Celebration Hotel. This was situated on the bank of a large artificial lake It was a huge lake to walk around. It also had alligators swimming around. There were plenty signs about not feeding alligators. All around the lake was a pretty good wildlife habitat. The bird below was having a great time with its brothers and sisters, chirping away and presumably resting or waiting for prey. Marsh bird in Celebration, Florida Not to be outdone, the local flora was quite interesting too. Ignoring the Spanish Moss which seems to grow just about everywhere, there was this gorgeous flower. Oddly enough, this was right beside the hotel, just growing in a flowerbed. I suspect it had been planted on purpose but the ve

There are so many wonderful places to visit in the world. There are places even locally that the locals just know and ignore. They pass them every day but nobody has ever documented them. This is a crying shame as many are just vanishing before everybody's eyes. A few weeks ago, I went on a trek with my good friend Glendoria. We went down to Blackville. I'd been on a hunt for Menonites and indeed I found some. Out of respect I took no photographs of them. I did, however, find that Blackville was quite interesting. I don't know anything about Blackville other than it's a very quiet town and the day we were there it seemed to be almost dead. Abandoned and gutted building in Blackville, SC  Above is the dead center of Blackville. This is the building I first noticed when I arrived, standing there gaunt. I've done my best to make this photo look old-style Abandoned filling station, Blackville SC Not far away was this lovely abandoned filling station. Wha

One fine day I set out for Myrtle Beach from my home in Lexington intending to view all the tourist attractions. The first day was beautiful with wonderful weather and a wonderful evening scene as the moon ascended over the water. It was such a romantic evening as I sat on a bench on the promenade, watching the scene unfolding before my eyes. Myrtle Beach at night The moon on its own that night was beautiful. A few clouds in the sky failed to obscure the wonderful illumination of the waves. It was interesting to see the color of the water changing to match the color of the clouds in the foreground. That evening was really balmy with a slight cool breeze coming in off the Atlantic. The Atlantic at night The next day started fairly promisingly but soon clouds began to form over the ocean and a stiff breeze whipped the waves from their normal gentle roll into more of a frenzy. The white horses began breaking over the beach as the tide began to turn. Even the seagulls that

I was honored to be invited to join in as a photographer for an Indian wedding in Sparkleberry. It was described as being also a mini pow-wow. As a British man, I just didn't know what to expect and didn't know quite what a pow-wow was but I turned up, camera in hand ready to record the proceedings. When I arrived, there were a lot of people already present. It was a blisteringly hot day with not a cloud in the sky. There was a TV crew in attendance with the cameraman wearing a hastily knotted handkerchief to protect his scalp from the fierce midday sun. The ceremony started with a purification ritual performed by the medicine man. We were informed that later there would be a sacred fire ceremony during which no pictures would be permitted. Respecting tradition and my role as an invited guest, I did not step over the boundaries though the ceremony itself was interesting enough to need to be documented. Flash was not permitted but such was the strength of the sun, it was dub