Walking - A Photo Essay

By: John A. Carlos II

This Story is still being written... I hope to have it up soon. 

During 2020 there wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do let alone photograph... I know the understatement of the century,  I started to take my camera on these walks that I'd take if only to break up the monotony. This is a story of my feet and their journey through life. I tried a buddy for a lighter camera that I could easily carry around with me, I did not know at the time that this would spark a deeper passion for documenting the walks that I was increasingly taking.

An ant climbs a piece of grass at Mungo Park in Irmo, SC.

It's kinda funny how a new piece of kit in your bag, makes you look differently at the world. At the beginning of 2020, I traded for a macro lens, my first since my film camera days. I instantly started to explore the tiny worlds under my toes. Ants watching became a pass time, I was fascinated by the seemingly endly wave of work Little colonies produced.

A broad-winged hawk flies over the the South Carolina State House grounds.

For Christmas, my nephew gave me a bird feeder, this gift rekindled my absolute love for birds. Which had an adverse effect on me looking up during long stretches of my walks, it didn't matter what kind of bird flew overhead whether it be a chickadee or mighty hawk, it was sure to catch my attention and a frame or two by one of my cameras.

A squirrel looks over a fence that is starting to fall down.

Sunlight shines through a stock of grass.

A customer checks out at a Wal-Mart pharmacy.

The new camera started to come with me everywhere after all that is why I wanted it, it didn't matter how mundane the task that little camera would be around my neck... and still is for the most part. I did not yet own a native lens for my Fujifilm X-Pro2, I was adapting my older manual focus Nikon lenses, something that the mirrorless cameras can do that is nearly impossible to do on a DSLR.

A loblolly pine rises from the floor of Congaree National Park.

Christina Carlos walks past a gaggle of geese.

I wasn't always alone in these escapades, my wife would tag along most of the time, it became our nightly routine. We've mainly but not exclusively been walking a converted golf course near our house. It offers a lot, hills, wildlife (mostly bunnies), a stream that runs through it, and a nature preserve. Mind you we did this walk a lot and it wasn't always sunny, we got rained on a bunch of times.

Raindrops form on my windshield. 

Limax Maximus or Leopard Slug noshes on some fungi.

A man rides a bike in Columbia 5pts.

An Oakleaf is submerged in a mix of moss and algae.

Fungus grows on the trunk of a tree in the Yost Creek Nature Preserve and Farm.

A blue 1968 Pontiac LeMans in a parking lot.