For the third day of this trip, which was the second full day in Charleston, we planned to explore downtown. So after breakfast, we drove towards the City Market, which was on our to-see list. We didn’t have a detailed plan, and decided to just kind of figure it out once there.
I wasn’t fully sure what to expect photographically, and thought there might be some panoramic opportunities, so I decided to bring my Fujifilm GFX100S II with the Fujinon 30mm f/3.5 lens. Big mistake—and by that I mean the camera is much too bulky and heavy to carry around all day. It’s not a good option for walk-around photography. It captures lovely photos, but I won’t be choosing it for situations like this again, where I’ll have it around my neck for hours and hours. I definitely regretted the camera choice for this day. Still, I came away with a handful of good photos, so it wasn’t for nothing.
When we arrived, we saw all these horse-drawn carriages, and thought it looked fun. There are a lot of different options, and we chose Palmetto Carriage Works. I’m not sure which one is best, but we had a great time on ours. It was an excellent way to see the city and learn some history, much of which we would have missed if we had not done this. Besides that, my two daughters love horses, so they were especially happy about it.
After the carriage ride, we walked around a little, then found some lunch (which was a late lunch… we were still on Arizona time). After that, we finally made it to the historic City Market, which was cool. There were a couple photographers selling prints, and many other artists. We explored downtown a little more, before heading to Rainbow Row (colorfully painted historic homes from the late 1700’s) and The Battery (historic promenade along the Charleston Harbor).
I was disappointed to learn that morning golden hour is better for Rainbow Row than evening golden hour, since the buildings are backlit in the afternoon. Still, I did find some little slices of interesting light, so it was nonetheless worthwhile. We were going to spend sunset at The Battery, but the no-see-ums were out in full force, so we didn’t stick around for very long. The bugs weren’t a problem in the city, but by the water it was definitely an issue.
After spending most of the day in downtown Charleston, we decided it was time to head back to the AirBnB. We took the long way back through Mount Pleasant, and I found a Fujifilm sign in the window of a frame shop (turns out they develop film). We ended Day 3 with waffles for dinner. By this time I had exchanged the GFX for my Fujifilm X-E4 with the 27mm pancake lens, which was a relief; however, the photographic day was pretty much over by then. Oh, well. Lesson learned.
This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.
Fujifilm GFX100S II:
Amazon, B&H, Wex
Fujinon GF 30mm f/3.5:
Amazon, B&H, Wex
Fujinon 27mm f/2.8:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex
You got a fair taste of Charleston, I see, from so many great photos. Too bad the Battery was bug-infested. That is a salt water problem hereabouts, such as where I live right on the marsh on Tybee Island, where it can get that way anytime the breeze dies. Unfortunately, I have no photo, lab or camera stores to recommend in this whole area (coastal Georgia and South Carolina) other than Crown Camera, a small used camera store in Savannah which also does some film processing and digital printing. KEH visits Crown every few years to buy used gear from this area, but otherwise we are ignored by the photo industry and art world alike.
Thanks for the info. It’s too bad that the region is ignored by the camera industry.
We had no-see-ums (and lots of mosquitoes) around the Great Salt Lake in Utah when we lived there a few years back. It was quite normal, and just something you live with if you live there. They were especially bad on Antelope Island, but it didn’t stop me from visiting. I see coastal South Carolina as similar, so it didn’t bother me much—only enough to alter plans a little to prevent from getting too many bites on a couple occasions.
If I ever make it back out that way, I hope that we can meet up. Would be a ton of fun to do a photowalk.
I wouldn’t say Charleston is ignored by the art world we do have Spoleto every year. Which is a 17 day long art festival.
Poor choice of words by me. I have been to Spoleto several times, a fabulous event, and Savannah has its own fine art events as well. What I meant is that we – the photography customer especially – have no resources hereabouts from the art business world. We do have art supply stores and musical instruments stores and picture framing places, etc, but not much for camera buffs, never mind any photo processing labs.