caw caw overnight

Tom McCorkle February 3, 2014

a few weekends ago i talked 2 of my adventurous friends into joining me on a chilly (for charleston) 40 degree over night paddle into caw caw swamp. we left from lime house landing on johns island and headed to a spot i had been to before, but never overnighted at. the plan was to photograph a few trees for my current project that evening, however we had zero water in our the canal we were staying on from 8 pm until 2 am, when the tide started to come back in. so i decided to get up around 5, and photograph before the sun came up - and it worked out perfectly. i managed to get a good time-lapse of the sunrise at the same time i was out shooting the trees.

berries and bubbles

Tom McCorkle January 25, 2014

who would have thought that putting fruit in sparkling water would be so cool? thanks to sloane who dropped some raspberries in our drinks, and a sunny afternoon, i was able to make some cool images right on our coffee table. refreshing and beautiful. click on the images to view them in all their splendor.

sunday funday, and some history thrown in

Tom McCorkle January 17, 2014

this past weekend, our plans to camp saturday evening were thwarted by the possibility of death by tornado, which didn't seem like much fun. so we enjoyed the chicken chili we were going to cook in the dutch oven, on the stove instead and watched football in the relative comfort of my friends house. we got up early on sunday to clear skies and calm winds, and hatched a plan to paddle eleven miles from sunrise park on james island to crosby's on folly road. we caught the back end of an ebb tide from sunrise park and let that and wind carry us out of the harbor.

the history part of this trip comes in the form of the civil war. very near the entrance to charleston harbor is fort sumter, the very spot where the first shots of the civil war were fired. the fort is now a national monument that folks can tour either by paid ferry ride, or by personal boat. we opted not to get out and explore, as we had all been there before.

we pulled our boats out of the water for an expiration of the north end of morris island, and waited for the tide to start coming back in, so we could paddle with it the next nine miles inland.

dead dinosaur, or horse shoe crab as many know them

view of sullivans lighthouse from morris island

brad and beth on the home stretch - check out that awesome hat

holidays up north

Tom McCorkle January 5, 2014

sloane and i traveled north this december to spend the holiday in rhode island and vermont. below are some images from our travels. click on an image to view it larger.

the ottauquechee river flows past the old mill building that houses simon pearce glass studio, restaraunt, and show room.

the new re-enforced quechee covered bridge, the old one was severely damaged by flood waters during tropical storm irene in 2011.

the town of woodstock, vt from the top of mount tom

brendan and i went snow shoeing in vt - but it was more like ice shoeing

a corral along the hike up mt tom, in vt

the little bit of sun we saw in vt - peeking through the clouds.  view from mt. tom — the little bit of sun we saw in vt - peeking through the clouds. view from mt. tom

old fashioned light painting by the vincents - at our new years party in chucktown

making the best of the shortest day in 2013

Tom McCorkle December 23, 2013

i had planned to camp this past weekend during the winter solstice, rain or shine. i was prepared for chilly temps and a windy night, but what we ended up with was 75 degrees and sun during the day - variable winds and high 50's at night. it was quite delightful. i finally dragged my old buddy natbo away from his work for a few hours, and forced him into a kayak. we headed to lake marion, to a spot i had never paddled at - and set out to find an island to camp upon.

nate doing his best to climb into a hammock from a kayak

we kind of wanted to sleep out here, but thought we may be gator bait if we did

the campsite, the longest night of the year meant more time to drink beer

we were roused early in the morning by the sounds of rapid gun fire, which seemed dangerously close to our island paradise. i have no idea what the hunting season was, but what ever it was, i don't think any of those particular animals are left, judging by how many shots we heard. i got my self up and moving, and decided to go for an early morning paddle - to get a better view than we had from our campsite.

lake marion is a man made lake, created in the 1940's by damming the santee river. there are a few ruins left over on the various islands, but from what i understand the rocks cemetary on church island is the most significant. it is still somewhat maintained and has a lot of folks who fought in the civil war buried there - hence the confederate flags.

my brother's backyard

Tom McCorkle December 10, 2013

my family gathered this thanksgiving in clarendon, pa - at my brother and sister in-law's house, which happens to be in the state park he manages. aside from the 13 hour drive both ways, it was a great trip. i was introduced to my niece brenna, got to play in 15" of snow, hang out with the family, see a few friends and eat until i couldn't eat anymore.

these are all images from chapman state park, which doubles as my brother's backyard.

remember - only you can prevent forrest fires

the sun poking through the clouds between snow showers

the swinging bridge on the lowlands trail

more images of the park in the gallery below to save some space

a time-lapse of sunset over chapman lake.

a cold, cloudy night in chucktown

Tom McCorkle December 4, 2013

spent a bit of time downtown in between a business meeting and pecha kucha a few weeks ago - this is what i came up with.

capers island in november

Tom McCorkle December 4, 2013

a solo trip to capers, to re-shoot my favorite tree at high tide, celebrate the end of november, and enjoy some incredibly mild weather.

rantowles creek at low tidea fish surfaced right before i snapped this shot — rantowles creek at low tide
a fish surfaced right before i snapped this shot

thirty-one aint so bad

Tom McCorkle November 17, 2013

i reached the ripe age of 31 this past saturday - and it was quite painless. aside from a hangover, which i am pretty sure i have had every year on nov. 16th since i turned 21, my day was quite enjoyable. the weather was incredible for mid november, i think the high was 75, and the wind was almost dead calm. i spent the morning surfing the waves at folly beach in my newest boat (thanks to sloane), a bright green jackson all-star. the surf was clean and fairly consistent, not as large as i would have liked, but i managed to get a few good rides in. after working my hangover off paddling the surf, i headed home and hatched a plan for the rest of the day. i decided to go kayaking again - since the weather was so nice. so i got a hold of my buddy anthony and we met up around 330 at the landing for a low tide exploration of rantowles creek. images of our adventure are below.

we had plans to do a loop, which i had done before - but with the tide being as low as it was, i knew we would probably have some troubles, and i was right. the tiny creek that runs behind the island we were looping around started off promising, but soon ran out of water that was paddle-able. we decided to push through the mud, but before we did, i got out of the boat to take a few shots of the sunset that was happening behind our backs.

we pushed on through the mud, by taking apart our paddles and using them as push poles on either side of our boats. it took some time but we finally made it to water deep enough to paddle. we were fast running out of sunlight, but the full moon came up right before dusk and lit our paddle back to the landing. the rest of these shots are long exposures made from my camera mounted to the cockpit of my kayak. the squiggly light in the sky is the north star - not a ufo.

anthony's fancy pants kayak lighting system in use

the moon had come up pretty high by now, lighting the bow of my boat

national park in my back yard

Tom McCorkle November 11, 2013

one of the less know national parks, congaree, is only a 2 hour drive up the road from charleston - and it is well worth the trip. i am surprised how many people i talk to that have lived in charleston for years, and don't even know we have a NP. i have paddled the park a number of times, there is a canoe trail here that is amazing, although usually quite difficult. i say it is difficult because it is rarely maintained, and trees fall across the creek on a weekly basis it seems, causing many muddy and inconvenient portages with a fully loaded boat.

i decided to forgo paddling this time, and see it from a different view - hiking. there are 24 miles of hiking trails here, and i got about ten covered on my recent visit. congaree contains the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the united states. what does that mean? giant. ass. trees. one of the loblolly pine trees here is 167 feet tall - that is 16 stories high. unfortunately a lot of the giants fell to strong winds from hurricane hugo in 1989 - but you can still feel incredibly small walking through this forrest.

if you live nearby, do yourself a favor and check this place out - it is free!

if you can't make it, check out the gallery to see what you are missing.