A pictorial toast to street performers

There's a funny story (OK, perhaps only slightly funny) to the genesis of today's post. I'll try to make it brief. 

While working at my online site at SmugMug.com, I was organizing a gallery involving street performers I'd photographed in the past. It had not occurred to me until doing this work on the gallery that I photographed a flute player in Savannah twice -- and four years apart. And each time, he was performing on the riverwalk along River Street. 

The first time was on Feb. 1, 2018 (see photo leading off the post). He was wearing a red, black, gray and white checkered long-sleeve shirt, light blue jeans and a small fedora with a feather on top. I'm sure I came across him while doing a walk-around the riverwalk area that day.

The next time was on March 30, 2022 (see photo above), and I spied him not far from where the Savannah River cruise ship, The Georgia Queen, was docking after Lee Ann and I had been on a leisurely trip along the river close to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. We were still on the cruiser when I took this photo. This time, the musician was wearing a white shirt, gray pants and a ship captain's hat. 

Interestingly, each time I photographed him, I happened to catch him looking my way at least once in my pictures. (see first two photos below). Nevertheless, it did not occur to me in 2022 that I had seen this guy on the 2018 visit. That lightning bolt struck Tuesday of this week as I was organizing the aforementioned street performers photo gallery, a link to which you'll find in this sentence. 

I figured that while relating this story, I'd go ahead an offer some more photos from the street performances gallery here. So below are some other shots. Most, I might add, were taken in Savannah, where there are quite a few such performers at various spots along the riverwalk. 

The fellow above and below I remember only by his first name, Mike, even though he told me his full name at the time I took these photos in October 2011. I even did a post about him ... in 2013, two years after the fact! I encountered him while doing a photo shoot along Mass Ave in Indianapolis. As the 2013 post mentions, Mike told me at the time he was leaving for Europe the next day. I've always wondered what became of him ... 

   

We're back in Savannah for the next few performers. I did not catch any of their names, unfortunately. But the guys in the photo above, below and second and third photos below all were stationed at some point along the riverwalk. I came upon the guy above on March 7, 2017, which coincided with my first-ever visit to Savannah. The next two performers, very animated in their a cappella delivery, were photographed Feb. 1, 2018, the same day I first photographed the flute player in the lead-off photo. 

The horn player above and below I came across in Savannah's Forsyth Square, the largest (by far) of the city’s almost two dozen neighborhood one-block parks, or squares. The photo date was Dec. 14, 2017. On that same date, in one of the smaller neighborhood squares, I came across a saxophone player dressed as Santa entertaining a young boy and his mother (second and third photos below). 

Above: This performer I came across in Savannah on the far western end of the riverwalk on April 1, 2022. 

Above and below: We briefly leave music in order to transition to painting with this guy, who is bundled up on a cold autumn day, Nov. 16, 2018, to be exact. He was demonstrating his craft in one of one-block neighborhood squares in Savannah. The bottom photo is a cropped version of the one above.

Above and below: Still in Savannah for these shots, again in Forsyth Square, but on March 29, 2022. 

Above and below: The last performer in this post was another sax player, this time on the pier at Waterfront Park in Charleston, S.C. I came across him on March 10, 2017. We stopped in Charleston after leaving Savannah that month before returning to North Carolina.  

Another return to Charleston yields yet another enjoyable photo experience

I've read a couple times now that a growing number of locals in Charleston, S.C., are not happy with their city's high ranking (if not THE top ranking) as a tourist destination in the United States.

Compared to major metropolitan areas like Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles, Charleston is quite small, but tourists find its downtown neighborhoods, city market and restaurants charming, the architecture striking and the peninsula's two waterside parks irresistible. And I'm one of those.

In May, I made my third visit to Charleston in 13 months. I've covered a lot of territory on the peninsula, and still, I didn't have any sense that what I was seeing in May was "old hat." The third visit was the first, too, in which my lodging accommodations were actually in the downtown area. In fact, unless you have thoughts of making a lot of visits to one of the half-dozen or so well-known plantations outside the city, staying downtown is all you need need when visiting Charleston because there is so much to see and do there.

And if you really want to get out and visit something beyond downtown Charleston (and there are very nice places like that), you could do like I did my first two times -- plan such trips for the day you leave. Just get up and check out of your lodging early so you have all day to drive around before heading home or to your next destination.

This post is devoted to the first three of four days we spent in Charleston. The opportunity to get out and explore was limited those days because of rain, in varying degrees, on each of those days. I'll do a second post on the best day of the lot, the fourth day, when we had the sunshine we remembered and enjoyed on the first visits.

The overcast skies actually gave me a new look at Charleston. It cast a different background on the sites I'd seen and photographed previously, so I didn't mind. In quite a few cases, I got a lot of purple in the my sky blues, for instance. I did without the polarizing lens on those days, too, but still managed to get nice detail of clouds, thanks in part to the Photomatix high-dynamic range software that I used in post-processing. The only thing I minded was dodging the raindrops while out and about, and having to dash back to the hotel trying to protect my gear in the race to get there.

You can see evidence of the considerable downpour in several pictures in this post, and in some cases, I'll point it out to you in the captions. A great example is the photo leading off the post, a reflection shot taken at a modest pier in Waterfront Park. You can tell from the dark skies that a downpour was imminent, and indeed, the skies opened up about 30 minutes later.

As always, click on any image to bring up a larger, sharper version. This is particularly useful if you access the blog using a mobile device. Click on the link in this sentence to view a full gallery of the images I made from my May visit to Charleston.

Photo geek stuff: I shot all of my photos with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens. I bracketed all compositions for three exposures to allow for melding in high-dynamic range (HDR) software in post-processing. Many of the images in this post were treated that way. Shots of the wildlife and squirrel are examples of single-frame shots I used in this post.

Above and below: New views of Waterfront Park on my return trip there, near the top of my list of favorite places in Charleston.

Above and below: Shots of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, scene of a terrible multi-victim homicide on June 17, 2015. Asphalt patch crews were working on Calhoun Street in front of the church when we arrived. In the hopes of getting unobstructed photos, we talked to the crew chief to inquire how long they'd be there in the likelihood it would not be very long. The chief was very understanding and said to give them 15 minutes. We walked down the street to Marion Square, and 20 minutes later, we strolled back and the crews were just heading out. They had to leave behind the one cone as a motorist caution, however.

Above: I've photographed the pier off Waterfront Park from the walkway side (right of this) previously, so I grabbed a couple shots from the other side, including this one.  

Above and below: A bird wades through about an inch-deep puddle near the pier, while a squirrel tries to establish whether I'm friend or foe. Hey, I told him, I just wanted a picture ...  

Above: In Marion Square while waiting out the asphalt patch crew, I composed this photo near the fountain. I put the water in focus, but I wasn't disappointed the people conversing at right came out relatively sharp.

Above: This is the house on East Bay Street where comedian and CBS talk show host Stephen Colbert spent a portion of his childhood. The home has a great view of the water, and is not far from White Point Gardens (aka Battery Park) at the southern tip of the peninsula. Moments after taking about a half-dozen shots of the house from different angles, the skies opened up, and we made a mad dash back to the hotel. 

Above and next four below: On a later outing, I walked the neighborhood near downtown and came across some fascinating old-building exteriors. The flag outside the building in the photo below was the first notice I had of the renowned annual 17-day Spoleto Arts Festival that would start the day after we left Charleston. Rotten timing, on our part! I was so taken by the facade of the building in the third photo below, that I felt compelled to lean backward to get a different angle.

Above: One of the theater venues for the Spoleto festival.

Above: A couple streets in near-downtown neighborhoods have a cobblestone surface. This one, Church Street, I believe, is one of them. 

Above: A commercial building along Broad Street. 

Above: A geometric composition made easy by the novel pattern on the gate.

A closeup (above) of the roots of a distinctive tree shown in less detail below.   

A fountain (above) in front of a private residence in a photo I took through an opening in an iron fence. A closed of the lions in the fountain is below. 

Above: A shot from Rainbow Row. 

Above: I was racing to my hotel because of rain when I stopped to take the photo of this building facing East Bay Street before returning to my sprint to avoid the rain.

Above: A bird seemingly unbothered by the rain. It camped out at another fountain, this one at the hotel. 

Next up: Day 4 at Charleston

Previous posts in this East Coast swing series:

James Madison's Montpelier

George Washington's Mount Vernon

Barboursville Vineyards, Barboursville, Va.

Alexandria, Va.

Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Va.

Virginia Capitol at Richmond, Va. 

First Colonial settlement at Jamestown, Va.

Battlefield and modern-day town at Yorktown, Va.

Virginia Beach and Cape Henry, Va.

Revisiting Charleston and its charms

When we were in Charleston, S.C., a year ago, a trip that would lead to our joining a vacation "club" (for lack of a better word), I was pretty certain we'd be back.

Lee Ann and I spent several days in Charleston last year but didn't get to see or do nearly everything we wanted to accomplish. Our time there this year was even shorter, and while we scratched one or two new things off our list, there is still more.

In the late afternoon, we did return to Waterfront Park, a wonderful amenity for the community. I was fortunate to photograph a nearly full moon and a passenger plane flying over the city to use for composing pictures this time, too.

The photo of the park fountain leading off the post doesn't include the plane, but it does include several other nuggets -- the children on the left, the aforementioned moon, the Charleston Bay in the background, the cool color spectrum on the horizon and a sailboat on the water where the setting sun is still shining bright. And if you really indulge me the stretch I'm about to make, click on the picture to bring up a larger version (if you haven't already), then look closely behind the sailboat. That teeny structure is Fort Sumter. Hey, I warned you that it was a stretch, but it is there!

The fountain in the lead-off photo is actually one of two in the park. This one is more centrally located, although it's on the park's north end. The other fountain, at the far north end, greets pedestrians accessing the park at the junction of Queen and Conrad streets. It's also the one where children gravitate toward because there's no barriers to stop them from getting intentionally doused. The pavilion and pier you see in my photos can be found on the extended walkway from this second fountain, too.

We also made it back to Jestine's Kitchen, where we enjoyed the touted fried chicken last year. This time, I opted for the delicately fried catfish on special, and it was divine. Lee Ann returned to her friend chicken livers, and was very satisfied. We also ate at a place supposedly known for its barbecue and ribs, but I was not impressed.

As always, click on any picture to pull up a larger, sharper version, which is particularly important if you access the blog from a mobile device. To view a full gallery of my shots in Charleston, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I shot everything you see here with a Canon 6D equipped with a Tamron 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 Di VZD VC lens and used a polarizing filter when I was outdoors until dusk, at which time I swapped out the polarizing filter with a UV filter. I bracketed all shots for three exposures, melding a good number of all three for each composition in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. In some situations where using HDR software was impractical, I composed a shot with single frames.

Above and below: Two examples of integrating the moon into the photograph. The one of the flag pole above also includes the airplane (the speck to the right of the pole just below center).  

Above: Another look at Waterfront Park, facing south, a view that shows the row of Palmetto trees along the east perimeter. The Palmetto is South Carolina's state tree and it appears in its state flag.

Above: The plane now heading north after circling over the city ... and the glowing sunset. That's the Queen-Concord street fountain ... and the pier and a portion of the pavilion.

Above: On the night we were there, this gentleman was performing by himself outside the pavilion.

Above and below: Shots taken almost at dark (I brightened them in Camera Raw to bring up detail). In the image below, you can better see Fort Sumter in the background.

Above: A view of the U.S. 17 bridge connecting Charleston with Mount Pleasant.

Above and below: Two more shots integrating the moon, the one above taken almost near dark, and the one below taken earlier. In the one below, don't miss the little boy peering through the fence in the bottom left corner. That's Fort Sumter (again) on the far right of the horizon.

 Above and next two below: Scenes fron the fountain at Queen and Concord streets. 

 Above: St. Philip's Church in the background, looking south on Church Street from the City Market.

 Above: Carriages carrying tourists stack up at this intersection near City Market. 

Above: Somebody left a coffee and a bag of treats unattended on a bench, no doubt mindful that I'm on the prowl to photograph unusual things. 

Above: A scene off East Bay Street downtown. Across the street is S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad), a restaurant Lee Ann and I enjoyed during our visit last year.

Above: In Mount Pleasant, across the Cooper River from Charleston, this mural by Portuguese artist Odeith on the side of a Moe's Southwest Grill restaurant stirred controversy last year (and perhaps still) because of perceived zoning issues raised by municipal zoning authorities. The mural depicts images of John Lennon, Al Capone and Marilyn Monroe (supposedly these people were selected to help represent the areas of music (M), outlaws (O) and entertainment (E) [i.e., Moe] in our culture.

Next Up: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

Previous posts in this series:

Part I: Savannah's Forsyth Square

Part II: Savannah's old-city neighborhoods 

Part III: Savannah's Riverwalk

Part IV: Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery

Part V: Tybee Island, Ga.