Ground Transport: SAV
Photo map of Savannah. Click image for interactive map.
What I wanted: a couple of Guatemalan nights in a yurt on the shore of Lake Atitlan. What I got: yet another disappointment when I checked the flight loads a few hours before departure. As had been the case all summer, flights that had looked a million dollars the night before had gone straight into the blue juice. My bags were packed, my cat care was lined up, and I was hyped up for some shooting. I had to go somewhere. And I needed not to be stuck there trying to get home. It was time to take this show on the road.
I had considered taking a photo trip to Savannah before. It’s about a 6-hour drive from where I live, and I had never been downtown or to any of the historic or coastal areas. I knew there were Victorian homes, horse-drawn carriages, a river, a beach, and lighthouses. Should be enough subject matter for a couple of days of photography.
As we crossed the bridge into Savannah around 6 pm, we were greeted by a torrential thunderstorm. As we turned east at the foot of the bridge and headed into town, we passed a very mysterious and colorful motel called the Thunderbird Inn. Noted for later. By the time we checked into our hotel, the storm had passed, and the atmosphere had been primed for a spectacular sunset. We had dinner at Treylor Park, took a stroll around the square, and then headed for the riverfront as the sun was setting over the Savannah River. The Talmadge Bridge provided a beautiful silhouette against the setting sun. Sailboats and riverboats obligingly cruised past, the perfect foregrounds for these twilight shots. Satisfied with the evening’s work, I retired to the hotel, placed my lenses in a Ziploc with some silica packets, and prepared to get hot and sandy the next day.
Sunset over the Savannah River, after a thunderstorm.
The next morning dawned hot, humid, and bright. We headed straight for Tybee Island, hoping to get some backlit lighthouse shots before the sun got too high in the sky. First stop, Tybee Island Lighthouse, where my 14mm lens and a low shot angle lent some really interesting distortion to the towering structure. We then headed back west toward the mainland, with a stop overlooking the Cockspur Island Lighthouse. These shots required my 70-300mm lens as the spit the lighthouse is built on is fairly far from the viewpoint. Since I had the zoom mounted, I also took some shots of birds flying around the shrimp boats docked across the way.
Sweaty and starving, we didn’t feel human enough to enter a restaurant. We made a quick stop at Publix to pick up some sandwich parts for a picnic. As luck would have it, we ended up at a small pavilion on the road to Bonaventure Cemetery. To be honest, I had been disappointed with the cemetery in the middle of town (from a photographic standpoint). Savannah is known for its ornate, creepy cemeteries, and that wasn’t it. But Bonaventure Cemetery was exactly the place I was imagining. We alternately drove and walked through it, enjoying the shade from the old-growth trees along with some afternoon clouds that had formed. The cemetery was beautiful, melancholy, and classic Savannah.
This is what I came for, at Bonaventure Cemetery.
Having showered and returned to the land of the living, we grabbed some Mexican food to fuel us for some night shooting. First stop, Forsyth Park and its iconic fountain. Little did I know that this was graduation weekend at the local university, and I got my favorite shot of the trip as a group of young graduated popped champagne in front of the fountain. The sun set, and it was time; I would have my shots of the Thunderbird Inn. A long walk down the main drag placed us there well after dark. It was definitely sketchy down that way, and Jay was on high alert as I captured the images that had been at the top of my shot list since we rolled into town. Safely back at our hotel, we called it a wrap on Savannah.
Mission accomplished at the Thunderbird Inn.
No airports, no passports, but this trip had something in common with the others: no matter what draws you to photograph a location, it’s the surprises that become your favorite work. I find this to be a common thread in all my trips. I couldn’t have anticipated those shots, and afterward I can’t believe my luck to have taken them. Photography has a way of putting us in the right place at the right time. It only asks that we get out there and get ready to pounce on the photons when they fly our way.
