Picture Story

Angel Oak, located just outside of Charleston, South Carolina is a popular and heavily visited southern live oak tree. Before entering the park, I saw signs saying, "no tripods allowed" and I was bummed but thought to myself, "That's all right, I can just use my small table top tripod. No one should have a problem with that." When I first saw the tree itself, I was in awe of its size and unsure of how to capture its beauty and magnitude.

After walking around the tree a couple times to decide - what I thought to be - the best angle to capture this impressive piece of nature, I finally decided on a spot. While setting up my six inch tripod and composing my image, I wanted to ensure the trunk of the tree was centered, and allow the many branches to extend beyond the edges of the frame but still show enough of them to display the magnitude of the tree itself. Sure enough, a park employee came up to me and asked me to put the tripod away. I was shocked, but I guess rules are rules. Thankfully, I was able to capture a few frames before being asked to pack up my tripod.