PRT stands for Parks, Recreation and Tourism...It is a department of the South Carolina government...Every year it puts out a new brochure on the finer points of our state and why people from around the world should come here to visit and enjoy...This brochure is free and can be gotten by visiting their offices or welcome centers or by writing either e-mail or snail mail to them...
Bottom line...It shows our stuff...
Several years ago in the eighties when I had my photographic studio open ...my friend Felix asked me to take some specific shots which he wanted to add to the brochure...Felix was in charge of it then...He knew I was heading to Aiken, SC to photograph the Aiken Horse trials...So he asked me to visit two state parks on my trip which were close to Aiken...Barnwell State park and Aiken State park...He also asked me to visit God's Little Acre which was an artesian well located on an acre of land which was donated to the state by a generous donor to be used by anyone who wished to use the water flowing from it daily...
Felix also requested that I find a way to take a shot of horses feeding up on a hill with the sun rising on the left and fences and maybe a barn or pond in the background...I laughed at Felix and said, "You're crazy...how am I going to do that?" He laughed and said, "Ron...I know you can do it cause you are a great photographer." (I guess he kind of buttered me up there, don't you think?)
So off I went in my old beat up Volkswagen van with the crease in it where I backed into a telephone pole by accident...I hit God's Little Acre first...I got some good shots there ...There were several people there filling their jugs and children splashing around in the creek the well created...Then I headed to Barnwell State Park...It was empty of people ...I don't think I saw one person there...I didn't even see a rabbit or raccoon...It was desolate...
So on I ventured to Aiken State Park...What a difference...Here were people enjoying nature and I had plenty of subjects to photograph...People were sun bathing on blankets and some were fishing off the short pier...people out in the water in paddle boats...Groups were barbequing hot dogs or hamburgers and the smoke filled the air around them and added visual pleasure to my shots...
I was happy here...
Next I went to the arena where the Aiken Horse trials were taking place...While I was taking shots of these beautiful horses and their smartly dress riders I met an old friend of mine who lived right outside Aiken and he owned a horse farm...So I told him why I was there and about the shot that Felix asked me to take for him...He laughed and told me to get in his jeep and we tooled out to his farm....He took me up on a hill overlooking his paddocks and he said he would get his man to leave some feed up there and showed me where the sun would rise and then took me back to the trials...Wow! All I had to do was get back there the next morning real early...
That night I slept in my old van.. Well I tried to sleep...I had parked in between two of the horse barns that were being used by horses and horses...You can't imagine the sounds I heard that night...Horses pee and fart and whinny and neigh and stomp and fuss all night long...By the time I got up...I headed to the 7-11 for some wake up coffee and a roll...The sun would be up shortly...I raced to the horse farm and got up on the ridge where I was suppose to be...WOW! There they were ...three gorgeous horses eating the feed on the hill...I got out quickly and brought out my tripod which I had already attached my Nikon 35mm camera to with the wide angle lens...I had maybe twenty shots left on the roll in the camera....Here comes the sun...beautiful...The air was clean and the dew hugged the grass and bushes...When I finished shooting the rest of the roll I started to rewind it so I could put a new roll in... That's when the horses looked up and trotted away...I got my shot!
I went back to the trials and shot many pictures of graceful horses and their riders till mid- afternoon...Then I decided to back to Columbia...I said, "Well maybe I should go back to Barnwell State park and see if I could finish up my trip with some good shots there. "...When I arrived there I knew I had wasted my time so I decided to give Felix a shot he would not forget...They had a pond there with a small dock pointing out to middle...I set up my camera on my tripod at waist level and aimed it down the dock.. Then I put it on self-timer and pushed the button...as I did so...I stood in front of the camera , bent over and dropped my pants...
A few days later...I got my slides back and I put them all in Kodak Carrousels...Usually eighty to a tray...I brought them to Felix and told him I had got the shot he wanted and more but the shot I was most proud of...I called, "Moon over Barnwell State Park" I had hid it about number 50 in the first tray...Later...Felix called me to bless me out...He said he took those trays right into the conference room and set up the projector and screen...He then called in his staff of nine women to watch as he ran the projector He of course told them to look for my favorite shot...he said when it appeared... the gals whooped and hollered till they were hoarse ...(Mission accomplished!)
This is not the original shot ...It has been cropped...the original had three horses in it...This brochure came a couple of years after that one but they still liked the shot...
Here are three other shots of mine that they used in this particular brochure...
Riverbanks Zoo
Country shots
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