With leaves now fallen, Yates Mill Pond woods landscape exposes a stark vista

It wasn't until recently that I learned that there are as many as 60 species of heron in the Wild Kingdom. So while doing my 2-mile walk Friday at Yates Mill Pond Park, I was excited to see that a heron was in photo-range distance for my iPhone while it slowly walked in high steps in the pond near the main pedestrian bridge.

If I had brought my DSLR camera (Canon 6D), I'm certain I would have been able to get a much clearer and sharper picture than the ones I got with my iPhone 13 Pro (see lead-off photo). A little farther away from the heron and the bridge were the set of water fowl shown in the photo below. Notice the small group of ducks in the distance from the fowl in the foreground and, in the extreme top of the image, a solitary duck that appears to be swimming toward the others. 

These two photos were the highlight Friday of my photo shoot, and they came near the end of my walk. I didn’t pull out my phone to start taking any pictures until the last half-mile or so of the trail course while still in the woods west of the pond.

I started taking pictures to document the stark vistas I had been admiring in light of how almost all the leaves on the deciduous trees had fallen or blown away. But also, the fact that there were no longer leaves on branches to admire made scores of fallen (or snapped) tree trunks and branches stand out unlike anything I had experienced there previously. 

The first 10 photos below illustrate (I hope) what I was describing in the paragraph above. Below those are some simple landscape photos, including the farm on an adjoining property, which I’ve photographed and presented here before. There are also shots of the trail and a particularly favorite gnarly tree I always come across while walking this trail. 

I finish with some pond reflection images, including a couple featuring the pedestrian bridge and a modest covered area at the bridge’s midsection. 

Autumn landscapes in haze, fog

A few days after returning home from the trip to South Carolina, there was a heavily overcast morning (with a haze and/or fog) during which I did my daily walk, which usually is in the neighborhood where I live. 

What struck me as interesting about that walk was the way the fallen leaves and autumn colors appeared when there was no sunlight to brighten the landscape. So ... I started taking pictures, of course. This post reflects the result of that shoot. 

All of these were taken with an iPhone 13 Pro, including the final photo, which was at full zoom, hence the regrettable pixelization. 

Conway, SC, Part IV: Churches

After the disappointments of this shoot, described in the previous posts in this series, I was able to photograph only two churches in Conway. If I had been able to find the library and museum, it appears I would have run into at least one other church, if not two. 

The first church I came across was First United Methodist at 5th Avenue and Main and Laurel streets. One side of this church, built in 1961, is shown in the lead-off photo, while the main entrance fronting 5th Avenue is immediately below. And below that, is another angle of the side and front together.

This building is the church’s third sanctuary over the years. The first, built in 1844, no longer exists. But the second and third, built in 1989 and 1910, are still on the property and will be shown in photos below. 

A more impressive structure on the property, however, is the church’s fellowship hall, shown in the three photos below. The fellowship hall looks more like a church than the church does. This is the structure built in 1898. The building, according to a Conway online historical website, is in Mission Revival (Spanish Colonial) style with a front-gabled roof and stucco facade. Two square bell towers with shaped parapets and corner posts frame the entrance bay. 

Across Laurel Street, the church also has what signage identify as a Family Life Center, shown in the photo above. And flush with Main Street at 5th Avenue is the 1898 sanctuary, a small edifice pictured in the first image below. It was laid in Flemish bond and features Tudor arched stained-glass lancet windows with lozenges and eaves with exposed rafters and purlin ends. Next to it is the church cemetery, depicted in photos immediately below the brick building below. 

Several blocks away, along Kingston Avenue and 3rd Avenue as well as being very close to a primary access point to the city’s Riverwalk, is Kingston Presbyterian Church, which dates to 1858. It is described in its Wikipedia entry as “an excellent example of Greek Revival ecclesiastical style.” (See photos below). 

Also on the property is a Colonial Revival style brick educational building (not pictured) built in 1956 as well as a church administration building (first photo below), a children’s center next to it (second photo below) and a playground and cemetery (photos below the children’s center). The latter two are closest to the Waccamaw River and Riverwalk. 

As always, if you’d like to view a larger and sharper version of a picture, simply click on the image. To view galleries of the two churches, follow the link in this sentence. 

End of series

Previously in the series:

Part I: The Riverwalk

Part II: Horry County courthouses

Part III: Trees and Downtown Conway