I recently returned from a great workshop in and around Charleston, SC, visiting locations like Folly Beach, Botany Bay, Middleton Plantation and the historic streets of old town Charleston. It is a fantastic area to photograph. The image above was taken in the morning before sunrise at Botany Bay where several trees stand offshore and many photographers stand onshore!

The image below is from Middleton Plantation, a large estate of beautiful gardens, ponds, farm animals and 18th century buildings. The azaleas had just started blooming the weekend I was there.

This next image is of Folly Beach with the rocks and the seawall framing the Atlantic Ocean and rising sun. To see more images from this visit to Charleston, click here.

My very first visit to Death Valley National Park was a total surprise. Whatever my preconceived ideas of this park were, they were totally wrong. I was shocked by the variety of color in this place. This was not the drab, vast wasteland I thought it was. It is a beautiful and exotic world where even the color of the sand is breathtaking and the salt formations of the Badwater Basin area appear other-worldly.

The nearby Alabama Hills also hold fascinating rock formations and colorful evenings.

This is definitely an area that should be on every photographer’s must see locations list. I will certainly be returning (but not in the heat of summer since temps can top 120 degrees!!) To see more images from this spectacular area, click here.