Look, you don’t have to act like a tourist to carry a camera. Instead of setting up shots with the family in front of the biggest attraction around, save your camera’s memory ship for something special – like local wildlife, or hard-to-find images of real people going about their remarkable lives. Put those images in your camera and print ‘em. That’s the kind of material that will last a lifetime.
To that end, a couple of Carolina Lowcountry tours of note:
Local photographer Eric Horan runs some decidedly distinct wildlife photo safaris. These sojourns last two and three hours, and they take you—literally and figuratively—where you’ve never been before. Among the venues are Charleston Harbor seabird tours, dolphin behavioral photo safaris, and historic Savannah River tours. The trips are designed to accommodate folks with a range of shutterbug skills, and they run both the mornings and evenings.
Take that same camera and join in a Gullah Heritage Trail Tour. The language, lifestyle, folklore and foods of these Lowcountry African Americans are forever fascinating – determinably distinct. Fourth-generation Gullah family members relate—first-hand—the stories and traditions that animate their lives to this day. In a cookie-cutter world of too much cable TV, this kind of Carolina Lowcountry sojourn helps put the planet into a bit saner perspective.
The trip weaves its way through ten family-based villages, enclaves that have sustained themselves for over a century. Along the way there’s a ruined plantation, a one-room schoolhouse, and an historic marker commemorating the first freedom village.
Break away from the beach for a bit and really see what this slice of the East Coast is all about.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Eric Horan)
