Rare plants occur in rare places. To know one is to know the other; each points the seeker towards the other. British writer Peter Marren writes, "rarity lends a plant distinction. ...The plant is not only precious, but part of the meaning of place, its genius...
I moved to South Carolina for college in 2001. Soon enough, I was taken with the surrounding landscapes, particularly the waterfalls. This was long before the tourism board made any efforts to mark or sign these landscape features. Waterfalls were, for me,...
This is my favorite waterfall. This is where, when I lived in Upstate South Carolina, I went to sit and find silence; the type of silence that is loud on the exterior and quiet on the interior. Most waterfalls in the Southern Appalachians are not solitary features....
Much of the biodiversity in the Southern Appalachian Mountains occurs at a small scale: liverworts, mosses, ferns etc. Becoming comfortable with a macro rig has been hugely liberating for me and my photography. This is a liverwort, a non-vascular land plant that...
When I returned to Clemson University in 2008 for my master's degree, I was deep into a new passion for landscape photography. There are over three hundred recorded waterfalls in Oconee County, South Carolina. It was my over-zealous goal to visit and photograph them...
The intimate focal range--between wide and telephoto--is often the most challenging for me. And the most rewarding. I don't naturally see in this way: to remove the sky and leading line elements, but also to not punch in so close that the scene becomes abstract,...
I find beauty in shape and pattern. This is the beginning of a Maidenhair Fern. It's absolutely fascinating. And it's why I love macro photography.Camera: Canon EOS 5DrLens: Canon MP-E 65mmTripod: Handheld w/ flash Date taken: March 18, 2024Settings: f14,...
When I bought and built my macro rig, it was with a dream of finding subjects and making images like this one. The Southern Appalachian Mountains are rich with plant and fungi diversity; every hike an opportunity to find, notice, and pay attention to something new,...
*From my journal March 17, 2024: Camp filled up last night. Neighbors on all sides. Children. Bicycles. Dogs. Sounds of life, human life. Sometimes the campground is a real shitshow. Try any weekend. It will almost happen without fail. I thought, as I settled...
In 2021, Pat McMillan and Larry Cushman discovered the only known population of a new species of Saxifrage, which they named Shealy's Saxifrage for Dr. Harry Shealy. Unlike other nearby saxifrages, Shealy's Saxifrage flowers late winter to early spring, has five...
*From my journal, March 15, 2024: Flashes of light. Distant rumbling. Songbirds singing. An eery reddish/pink light at sunrise through the mesh of my tent fly. My first thunderstorm of 2024! Unexpected. Not in the forecast. Plans get derailed. When camping and...
I'll always remember the late Jim Fowler, local wildflower expert, when I photograph Sweet Pinesap. It was his writing and detailed blog posts about this rare plant that lead me to crawling around the forest seeking the beautiful smells of nutmeg, clove and cinnamon....
I became aware of Oconee Bell wildflowers when I moved to South Carolina to attend Clemson University. In 2022, after over nearly twenty years experimenting with photographing these beautiful wildflowers, I finally got myself and my gear in alignment, and I made what...
Jocassee Gorges - Spring 2023The Southern Appalachian Mountains are defined by their biodiversity. To know this place--to understand the physical landscape--is to know the plants. This is what I've come to believe. Chasing the early spring bloom as a photographer is...
Trip Journal: April 27 - May 4, 2022 The Blue Ridge Escarpment is a place of transition where the high mountains of Western North Carolina drop dramatically into the Piedmont of South Carolina and Georgia below. Steep elevational drops, high rates of precipitation,...
Trip Journal: April 20-26, 2022The Blue Ridge Escarpment is a place of transition where the high mountains of Western North Carolina drop dramatically into the Piedmont of South Carolina and Georgia below. Steep elevational drops, high rates of precipitation, and...
Seeking "Perhaps The Most Interesting Plant..." Oconee Bells are rare wildflowers growing within the Jocassee Gorges region of Upstate South Carolina. Early American botanist Asa Gray spent a lifetime searching for Oconee Bells in the wild, largely unsuccessful. I...
Flexibility in the field is something I pride myself on. I shoot what the landscape tells me to shoot. No plan's so set in stone that I won't pivot and take advantage of natural gifts in my path. And on this evening, it was Cannonball Jellyfish. I walked past the...
March is all about the Lowcountry of South Carolina. There's no comparable in my annual photography travels. Color. So much color. The most amazing trees. Draping heavy to the ground--and below--and then back up again. Flowers. Riotous azalea. Spicy vanilla...
I'm partial to Oconee Bell wildflowers! Perhaps it's because I lived in Upstate South Carolina for almost a decade. I moved from Northern Virginia to Upstate South Carolina for college at Clemson University. After leaving for work, I returned again for a second...
February means the end of winter for me: it signals the start of the great spring bloom. I don't much care for the daffodils that decorate suburban lawns and manicured gardens. I do, however, get very excited about the return of natives like trillium and bluebells....