Charleston: My first hired photography tour

[Mike Buckley]

While researching our trip to Charleston, South Carolina, I came upon this website advertising, among other things, photo tours for people visiting the area. I had never purchased a photo tour or instructional workshop of any kind. The idea seemed interesting this time mostly because the company was happy to design a custom itinerary that attended to our highest priorities and because we knew my wife and I would be the only customers unless some other people signed up. (We later learned that they never take more than four customers, though apparently that can be a very enjoyable dynamic.)

I explained at the outset that we weren't interested in photography advice (not that we couldn't benefit from it, of course) because our highest priority while vacationing is always to enjoy experiencing the area as opposed to photographing it. We were mostly interested in hiring the company to get us to scenic places quickly, at the right time of day, and to places that we wouldn't ordinarily find on our own. In the end, all of that happened and our host also ended up helping my wife use a tripod and Live View for the first time. I was exceptionally pleased with the outcomes and gave the company a rave review at Trip Advisor.

We were taken to four scenes in the late afternoon about an hour's drive away from Charleston. I had never come across any of the scenes in my own research. The three photos shown below are my best keepers from our tour.

Please click to review the photos in the Lytebox.

[Rider in the Sky]

Hi Mike,

Cool shots.

Btw, your 2nd shot looks like a scene from F. Gump.

[dje]

Mike that's a very good set of shots, all different and all very pleasing to the eye. Your host seems to have helped by getting you to these locations at the right time of day for some very good light. And the compositions work very well indeed.

Dave

[bnnrcn]

Those are all great shots Mike My fav is #3. It seems that the photo tour worked very well.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

[Donald]

Excellent, Mike. Three very strong images. That of the avenue of trees is just outstanding.

This is exactly the sort of thing I have in mind in purchasing 1:1 specialist guiding time from the Ansel Adams Gallery staff when I visit Yosemite during 2016.

Money well spent by you, I think.

[Shadowman]

Nice set and interesting information on the tour details. Did your group reach maximum capacity?

[Mike Buckley]

Donald: Considering the amount of time you'll be in Yosemite, you'll be able to leverage the use of your guide by regularly returning to places he takes you. I was in Charleston such a short amount of time that I wasn't able to do that.

John: Our group was just my wife, me and our guide. In fact, the flexibility was so good that I was in daily communication with the company just in case a change in the weather forecast motivated us to change the date and/or time of our tour.

[IzzieK]

I particularly love #1 and #2 is the best as the conversion is good and I have been looking at those kind of scenes for the last few days here where we are...but never got to photograph any of them.

[wilgk]

Excellent planning and results, what a bonus from your trip.
I have thought of this myself, but never acted on it ...yet.
Wonderful trio of images.

[Donald]

I keep coming back to look at that pic of the avenue of trees and have been trying to describe to myself what it is that makes it the great image that I think it is (It's a good way of learning from the work of others).

One of the key factors, I realise, is something I do myself - The viewpoint is not from the centre of the road/pathway. It's slightly to the right of centre. That means there is not perfect symmetry in the edges of the road/path. Sometimes that is needed in a composition. But for something like this, as I have found with scenes in which I have put a road off-centre, to do so would be clichéd and a bit predictable.

But the knowledge and skill on show here, in just moving slightly off-centre, gives the image much more strength and interest. It's so subtle that many folk would not notice it. But it's there.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Izzie, Kay and, again, Donald!

Donald: The most appealing characteristic for me about the avenue of trees is the perspective. The camera was relatively low to the ground and pointing slightly upward. That camera position emphasized the height of the trees and devoted as much space as possible to them. The focal length was 24 mm mounted on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor. When I reviewed the photo on the computer, the perspective distortion had a wonderful effect that made me feel like a little child looking up and being amazed by the trees. I would have left the perspective distortion in place if it had not been for the moss; it looked really weird because it wasn't hanging vertically. Even so, correcting the perspective distortion left the perspective that I like so much intact, of course.

You might be disappointed to learn that I didn't concentrate on the placement of the road in this version. I was more intuitively concentrating on the position of the compositional balance of the base of the trees. However, I did capture a version that placed the road far off-center and determined while reviewing it on the computer that it was a particularly good fit with the Delete key.

[deetheturk]

Very nice set of images Mike, #2 is my favorite if I had to pick but all good!