Lighthouses of the Carolinas

This summer, our fieldtrips took us south from Hunting Island, SC and north to Currituck, NC. It was an attempt to capture all the lighthouses on the Carolina(s) coast. We ended up missing a few but that’s just a good reason to plan more field trips! Today we are releasing 18” x 24” prints on satin fabric just in time for the Atalaya Festival at Huntinton Beach State Park Sept 27-29. Following the festival we will get these on our store. Please scroll right or left thru these eight prints. Leave us a comment and let us know which one is your favorite!

Carolina Lighthouses - Trotter Arts Field Trips

Our Bucket List of Carolina Lighthouse Field Trips (north to south) : Currituck Beach (NC), Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke, Cape Lookout, Oak Island, Old Baldy, Georgetown (SC), Cape Romain, Sullivan’s Island, Morris Island, Hunting Island and Harbor Town. Thirteen unique locations, each with its own story to tell. Our hope is that we can capture a quality photograph of each one to add to our Lighthouse gallery. So far we’ve seen 9 of 13. Some require ferry rides and hiking. They also require some planning to get to and we’ve logged about 2,000 miles this summer. Some are still active: Currituck, Bodie, Hatteras, Lookout, Sullivan’s, Hunting and Harbor Town. All have their unique and interesting history.

Below are some of our photographs. These are works in progress and our aim is to get the best ones edited, printed and added to our gallery for our September shows. Several will require a return field trip. Some days the lighting or weather just doesn’t cooperate with the lens! Its all part of the adventure! As Forrest Gump may have said; Fieldtrips are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get! Enjoy what we have so far!

Currituk Beach

Completed 1875, Brick Structure, approximately 1,000,000 red bricks.

Bodie Island - Landscape

Bodie Island Lighthouse. Built in 1872, original destroyed in the Civil War. 150 feet tall.

Bodie Island - Portrait

Built in 1872, original destroyed in the Civil War. 150 feet tall.

Hatteras Island Lighthouse

Nation’s tallest lighthouse. Called America’s Lighthouse built in 1870, 257 steps to the top.

Lookout Lighthouse - Cape Fear

154 feet tall, completed in 1857 and was often used as the model for other Lighthouses.

Cape Romain Lighthouse

Completed 1857 - 154’ tall. Yes, it is several degrees from plumb.

Morris Island Lighthouse

Original Lighthouse marking Charleston Harbor destroyed in the Civil War. Rebuilt in 1876 and is 161 feet tall.

Hunting Island Lighthouse

Completed in 1859 and is 132 feet tall. Relocated 1.25 miles from its original location due to erosion.

Harbour Town Lighthouse

Privately built in 1970 , a part of Sea Pines Plantation.

Field Trip - Cape Romain National WIldlife Refuge

Many thanks to Coastal Expeditions who provided a sunrise trip to Bull’s Island and a day trip to the Cape Romain lighthouses! Both of these locations are within the protected boundries of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. Truly a South Carolina gem and only one of three Class I Wilderness Areas in the United States. Both great field trips!

The Bull’s Island sunrise excursion requires an early start, 4:15 am on the dock! Don’t be a minute late because the sun and the captain will wait for no man! This wonderful excursion includes a ferry ride, a trailer ride across the island and a good walk up Bull’s Island’s boneyard beach. We enjoyed about an hour and a half of photographing and the breaking of a new day. It seemed like every few steps on the beach required you to stop and admire the creation! Below are a couple of pre-dawn photographs from the boneyard beach.

On our second excursion we visited the Cape Romain lighthouses constructed in 1827 and 1857. We enjoyed the ferry ride to Lighthouse Island and the shallow wade from the boat to shore as there is no dock. It was a pleasure to experience a presentation from Mr. Tommy Graham who has personal knowledge and the history of the Lighthouses. Tommy’s presence on the excursion made the trip much more interesting and we hope that the restoration efforts are successful. Below are a few photographs.

Interesting fact(s): Looking directly from North to South, the windows in the lighthouse align and you can see thru the lighthouse windows! The paint scheme of the lighthouse serves as a day marker. And yes, the lighthouse is leaning towards the south.

We love field trips, but now the work begins……. Will we find a shot or two that we want to add to the Trotter Arts Gallery? I’m pretty sure that we have some great shots among the 4,000 images!

Keep watching our online store/gallery for new pieces from Trotter Arts. We would love to work with you on the perfect piece for your home or office. We’re beginning to print for three shows in September, now would be an excellent time to get a custom piece printed!

Stay tuned……. I wonder where the next field trips will lead us!

Chasing Rosey - Part 3

After chasing Roseate Spoonbills all Spring, we finally created three pieces for our last show and they were received well. They became quite the conversation piece in our booth. We heard questions like; Is that bird really pink? Is that a flamingo? Is that bird really indigenous to South Carolina? Where can I go to find these wading birds? So our answers were: Yes, they are pink and their diet will dictate their color with a shellfish diet producing more pink; They are not related to the flamingo (color is the only thing in common); yes you can find them in South Carolina and some good places to look are Bear Island WMA and Donnelley WMA. It’s always fun to introduce people to something new and unusual! We enjoyed the chase and it reminded us that God’s creation is always interesting and inspiring!

Below are the three pieces:

We framed this triptych - the cedar frame was stained dark walnut.

We just updated our Web Site and have included these three pieces the store. I’m sure that there will be future Trotter Arts field trips chasing this interesting bird!