This is the long-overdue conclusion to my Charleston, South Carolina, travel series. For our last full day in Charleston, we headed back to Folly Beach. We had visited the night before, but got there later than we had planned, so we thought we’d go back and spend a little more time at the beach. The next day, which was the final day, we returned home to Arizona.
Day 6 — Monday, March 24th
Beach Chairs – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Velvia Film
Folly Beach is great! We had so much fun there. I haven’t been to a lot of beaches on the East Coast, but of all the ones that I have been to so far, this is my favorite. It was mostly overcast, but the sun peaked out now and then. The camera I used was the Fujifilm X-E4 with the Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 lens. This is probably my #1 favorite travel camera-lens combo right now. The Film Simulation Recipe that worked the best for the location and lighting was Pacific Blues, which is one of my top-favorite Recipes.
After walking up and down the sandy beach and through the town a little, we headed to Angel Oak, which is a very large and old tree. For that location, I used a Fujifilm GFX100S II with the Fujinon 30mm f/3.5 lens, which worked out quite well. We spent the last part of the day preparing for our return home.
Vespa – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Kodak Film
Coca-Cola – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Under Folly Pier – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Kodak Tri-X 400
Three Seagulls – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Beach Berm – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Phoenix Sun, Carolina Sand – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Beach House – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Beach Palms – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Beach Bicycle – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Velvia Film
Americana Stripes – Folly Beach, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Spirit of Folly – Folly Beach, SC- Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Angel Oak – Johns Island, SC – Fujifilm GFX100S II – Velvia Film
Our flight left quite early, so we were up well before the sun. With sleep still in our eyes, we made our way to the gate. The Charleston airport is one of the better ones that I’ve been to. We had a layover in Houston (not one of the better airports…), and made it back to Arizona around noon.
It was a really great trip. Charleston was a fun, vibrant, and interesting city, and I’d definitely return. For photographers, this should be added to your “to-visit” list, if you’ve never been there. If you do go, I hope this series gives you some ideas of places to potentially visit, and what gear might be best. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!
On The Go – Charleston, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Kodak Tri-X 400
Embraer – Charleston, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
Express – Charleston, SC – Fujifilm X-E4 – Pacific Blues
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For this day, our plans were to visit Fort Sumter National Historic Monument, which is on an island right outside of Charleston, followed by Folly Beach for sunset. Fort Sumter is only accessible by boat (sort of… a sand bar from James Island connects to Fort Sumter at low tide, but accessing it that way is considered trespassing, apparently). There are two locations where boats depart for the island, one being the Fort Sumter Visitors Center near downtown Charleston, which is where we left from.
I had no idea until we visited, but Charleston was the site of battles at the very beginning of both the Revolutionary and Civil wars. There’s a lot of history—both good and bad—in this area. In retrospect, it’s not too difficult to distinguish the two; ideally, we can celebrate the good and learn from the bad. Fort Sumter was a Civil War site, occupied by both the North and the South at different times. Across the water on Sullivan’s Island is Fort Moultrie, which was both a Revolutionary War and Civil War site, and I wish that we had made time to visit it. Oh, well—perhaps next time.
Fort Sumter was interesting, but also surprisingly small. I’ve been to several old military forts in the Pacific Northwest, such as Fort Casey in Washington and Fort Stevens in Oregon, and the scale of those locations are more impressive, and the exploring one can do much greater (both are very worthwhile, should you have the opportunity to see them); however, Fort Sumter, while smaller and more restrictive, is obviously more significant historically. Since we were the last tour of the day (there are only a few each day), we got to witness the flag lowering ceremony, a perk to being last.
After returning, we made our way to Folly Beach, which is apparently one of the best locations near Charleston to see the Atlantic Ocean. We made it for sunset, but were definitely behind schedule, and didn’t have a lot of time to explore before the sun disappeared. Surprisingly, this was probably my favorite beach that we’ve been to on the Atlantic coast (granted, we’ve only been to a few, all in the Northeast). It was a bummer that our visit to Folly Beach was so short.
The only camera that I brought with me on this day was my Fujifilm GFX100S II with the Fujinon 80mm f/1.7 lens. I knew that we were going to have opportunities to sit and take the camera off my neck, which could make it tolerable for a long adventure. My hope was for opportunities to do XPan photography, but those turned out to be fewer than I expected. In retrospect, my Fujifilm X-E4 with the 27mm pancake probably would have been the better choice, although the GFX wasn’t too bad despite its weight because I had several opportunities to set it down and give myself a break.
All-in-all, this was quite a fun day, and I think the kids especially enjoyed it. If you plan to visit Charleston, I can recommend both Fort Sumter and Folly Beach for your travel agenda. Of the two, Folly Beach was our favorite.
Dock Rope – Charleston, SC – Fujifilm GFX100S II – Kodak Negative
