(pleasant music) SIGMA is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world, and we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(pleasant music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "View Finders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on Highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Troncalli Subaru or find out more online at troncallisubaru.com.

(pleasant music) - [Announcer] Here at United Community Bank, we are committed to doing the little things to earn customer trust, one customer at a time.

United Community Bank is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."

(no audio) (waves crashing) - [Narrator] Welcome to the second episode on Georgia's Hidden Coast.

During the first one we explored Ossabaw Island, a truly stunning barrier island that is full of history and unspoiled natural beauty.

We walked away with some gorgeous images and some wonderful memories of our time there.

This episode takes us to Wassaw and Blackbeard Islands.

Managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, these two islands are difficult to access, which in turn provides a level of solitude that is rare among the US coastline.

We couldn't wait to start exploring.

(soft music) (majestic music) (majestic music continues) - 100 miles long with 15 barrier islands.

- One of the most productive ecosystems in the United States.

- Over 400,000 acres of marsh.

- This is Georgia's coast.

I'm Chris.

- I'm Paul.

- [Both] And we're the View Finders.

(country rock music) (country rock music continues) ♪ Born out of the fire like a bullet ♪ ♪ Torn out of the sky like a comet ♪ ♪ Pulling by the tide, let the current take me on out ♪ ♪ Take me on out ♪ Used to wait around for a moment ♪ ♪ Hope it I would climb to the summit ♪ ♪ But now I'm goin' higher than I've ever been ♪ ♪ Now, baby, please don't let me down ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm coming around ♪ Yeah, I'm comin' around - US Fish and Wildlife Service has over 560 national wildlife refuges across the country.

And Blackbeard and Wassaw are two of the many refuges that we have across our country.

And each refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge system has a purpose.

And here on these barrier islands, one of the primary purposes is just to maintain the beauty and the uniqueness of the barrier islands and protect the birds, the sea turtles, and various wildlife that live here on the barrier islands.

So Wassaw Island was actually deeded over from the Nature Conservancy in 1969.

The Parsons family actually sold it to the Nature Conservancy.

When people visit the refuge they visit a lot of times by boat.

Well, they have to visit by boat.

This is a boat entry only refuge.

And when they get here, it's hiking opportunities, a lot of nature photography opportunities, bird watching.

Of course, a lot of the use here at Wassaw is beach use.

So sunbathing and just enjoying family time on the beach.

♪ Well he's miles away ♪ Ain't got much room to speak at all ♪ (country rock music) ♪ Well he's miles away ♪ Ain't got much room to speak at all ♪ (country rock music continues) ♪ Well we're still waiting to find ♪ ♪ What we haven't found in ages ♪ (country rock music continues) ♪ Well it's miles away ♪ Ain't got much room to speak at all ♪ - Yes, my name's Russ Webb, I'm refuge manager here at Wassaw Island National Wildlife Refuge.

It's one of our seven refuges in the coastal complex.

We're very fortunate to have a chain of barrier islands on our 100 mile coast in Georgia that are absolutely gorgeous, beautiful habitats.

But, one thing that probably more important is the tidal marshes.

We're in Georgia, we have about 400,000 acres, which is a third of the tidal marsh in the Atlantic seaboard.

And the tidal marshes serve a purpose that really protects us and keeps our coast land pristine.

The marshes act as a filter.

There's a strong tidal influence here of about seven feet on average.

And what that does is the high energy, it brings nutrients, it cycles nutrients through the the pluff mud, the spartina grass.

And, you know, these nutrients are cycled through the ecosystem and it really acts like a a kidney or a filter, keeps us clean.

In addition, the saltwater marsh is a shock absorber for storms.

We're on the Atlantic Coast and we do have hurricane threats, hurricanes hit.

And in contrast, Florida is, the ocean butts up directly to the land, there's no barrier islands and or tens of thousands acres of tidal marsh.

And what this tidal marsh does and also the barrier islands, they absorb the impact of these hurricanes.

And it lessens the impacts to the mainland.

So if we get a eight or 10 foot storm surge, the marshes'll absorb a lot of that.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (camera shutter clicking) - The island that creates or the areas that create Wassaw began to form essentially about 1,500 years ago about 500 AD, and consisted of a series of ridges that culminated in what's known today as the great Wassaw or the main part of Wassaw Island.

The earliest mentions of Wassaw is in the late 1700s when it was picked up by an individual named Bernard.

He apparently did not actually live there, but he apparently had,, you know, used the island for free ranging of primarily of horses, it sounds like (soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) - Those clouds just lit and it is getting so nice and this tree, long exposure, I'm shooting it for 30 seconds.

So the ocean is just flat and dreamy with pastel colors.

I mean, it's just hitting, you can literally right now watch these getting more and more vibrant.

Beautiful sunrise here on Wassaw.

A great, great morning.

(soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) - I like that sunrise, man.

- It was one of those moments where like we got there, we got out on the beach- - And it was all in place.

- We got to the location, and it just started going off.

- [Paul] I got some long exposures.

- [Chris] Yeah, how long were you shooting for?

- [Paul] Well, before the sun came up, or before it got kind of high in the sky, I got a couple of 30 seconds shots, a couple of 15 seconds on the shot.

- [Chris] Yeah, I got a few that on the back of my camera were looking good.

I tried a couple different lenses, some telephoto, some wide.

And then I saw this big sand dollar, so I got down kind of close to that.

- [Paul] Yeah, I saw you doing that.

- Shot with a real wide angle lens and some motion of the water coming in and washing over it.

And so I think it's gonna turn out pretty good, it was looking pretty good, but I'll tell you my tripod paid the price.

That water was washing over it and into the mechanisms and it's all gritty now.

- Mine too, yeah.

- So the good news is I brought a backup tripod.

(both laughing) So here's what happened, so I did have a backup tripod and Paul was being awesome and helping me out and picked my bag up and I did not have it secured to my bag.

And that thing, what happened?

It just fell.

- Dropped in the water.

- It was gone, in the water, never to be seen again.

(rhythmic music) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) (rhythmic music continues) - So, barrier islands are very dynamic, you know, that goes with the tides, that goes with the current, and just the saltwater environment, the winds, the waves, it changes things and and islands move.

We have boneyards here that are former, most of the boneyards are live oak trees, and the system's changing and moving and the beach inundates the live oaks and they die and they turn into a boneyard essentially.

So in contrast, the south of us, the island builds, and then we get lower pioneer species like pine trees.

So you can tell on these barrier islands the newer part of the island and the older part of the island from the tree cover.

- Blackbeard, the name for that particular island is kind of a misnomer.

We don't know if he actually ever set foot on the island.

It seems to be part of folklore or, you know, something that comes out of legend.

And one of the things that hs been, you know, passed along is is that for some reason he buried some of his treasure on that island.

And over the years we have had to deal with individuals seeking his buried treasure.

But there is, as far as we know, there is no such thing as buried treasure there.

The treasure on that island is basically the maritime hammock and the marshes that are on the backside as well as the beachfront which supports a major sea turtle, you know, nesting ground.

That's the real treasure of that island.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) - [Chris] I don't know about you, but I was a little bit struggling with that.

- Yeah, struggling is an understatement.

(Chris laughs) - Give me one word to describe that sunset?

- Ah, disappointing.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - But the thing is- - Non-existent.

- Yeah, you know, but it's like sometimes, I mean, you're not always gonna get perfect conditions.

So we know that gray skies are gonna come, but sometimes you can get something as a subject and kind of work around the gray sky, make it one shot.

It was just not as easy as I thought it would be.

But you know what, I'll tell you this.

A lot of times I go out and I'll shoot and I'll think, you know what, I didn't really capture anything.

I'll just leave this memory card in the camera and look at it another day.

I come back on another day.

- It's good.

- You never know.

- That's true.

That's the beauty of photography.

- Yeah, we'll see what happens.

(camera shutter clicking) (soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) I'm gonna set up a shot here where I see the sun coming up just over the right side of this little dead tree that's in front of us.

And I took my filter off, my ND filter, so I'm gonna have a quick shutter speed, kind of show the force of the waves hitting that tree, and the sun rising in the back.

And I will also put the filter back on to smooth out the water, so I got two different shots.

One showing the force of the water, and the other just kind of smoothing it out and giving it a mellow look.

So we'll see how this works.

It looks like it's about to pop up.

- So a lot of these barrier islands have boneyard beaches which are these trees, these old trees that are kind of coming out of the sand, out of the water.

They long since died, but they're very beautiful.

And so we've been photographing 'em in the mornings and my challenge is finding a good shutter speed, especially when there's water involved.

This morning we moved down the beach to some trees that were actually still in the water because of the tide, the tide is way out.

And so the movement of the water and changing my shutter speed can really impact the feel of the image.

And so I'm adjusting my shutter speed, trying different lengths, taking a look at the image on the back of my screen until I find one that I like the most.

And so it's kind of fun, it's a combination of composing the scene in an interesting way, but also capturing the movement and the motion of the ocean, you know, contrasted with the tree that's been standing there for probably hundreds of years.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (camera shutter clicking) (soft music continues) Well, island life, man.

Had multiple days on islands.

It's pretty cool.

- Pretty cool is right, I mean cold.

- It's pretty cold at times.

This morning in particular.

- Almost freezing.

- I was frigid.

Oh my gosh, I'm so cold.

I'm so cold.

My fingers were so stiff I couldn't operate the controls of my camera very well.

- [Paul] I'm feeling like that right now.

I think those heated gloves we were looking at might do the trick, but man.

- I would've paid good money for heated gloves this morning, for sure.

Yeah, but you know, it was worth it 'cause the photography was great.

Like, we had multiple days of some great images, great photography, great conditions.

And then they changed, we had clouds, we had no clouds, we had rain.

It was the whole gamut.

- Yep.

- What do you think?

- I liked it this morning.

This morning I feel like, like I was telling you earlier, I mean, I'm not gonna get to a beach unless it's, you know, vacation with the family in the summertime or spring or something like that.

And I got like, what, three days worth of beach shots.

So I think I got some pretty good shots to add to the portfolio.

Got a good couple of good sunrises.

I'm happy.

And you kind of forget, like I said, you're in the state of Georgia.

- Yeah, it doesn't feel like Georgia all the time and it's nice, it's nice.

- [Paul] Nice to get away from the city.

- It is.

- At least for me.

- [Chris] Yeah, I mean, it was a really just rewarding day, you know, multiple days of just exploring the coast and appreciating it and getting some really good images too.

- I've been doing a study.

Now for those of you who don't know, Chris drinks, he gets a cup of coffee like early in the morning, when we leave before sunrise, so we're talking like maybe six, 6:30 in the morning.

Like most of us, we get our morning coffee.

- [Chris] Totally normal.

- Okay, it runs off the tracks when he keeps this same cup of coffee from 6:00 AM to what, maybe 10 o'clock in the morning?

- I told Paul, I go on a journey with my coffee.

So I start drinking it, it's nice and hot, fresh, but then I keep sipping, I sip it, I don't guzzle it, okay.

And so 10:00 AM, I might still have a little coffee left.

It's cold coffee at that point.

But it's still good to me.

- It's freezing.

Coffee is made to be had hot.

- You know, well some people like cold, like ice coffee, cold brew coffee, some people like hot coffee.

I get to enjoy both in one cup.

I feel like I get more value outta my coffee.

- It's stale by the time it.

- We both like our coffee, we enjoy it different ways, We both love our photography and we enjoy it in different ways, you know.

- I'll give you that.

- It's cool, man.

And it's been fun, we had a great trip, great time, and I'm looking forward to where we go next.

- Yeah, you got it man, I'm ready.

- All right, well let's take this boat and get back to the mainland, huh?

- Me drive, right?

- All right ♪ Hollows in the woods call out ♪ ♪ Trails up mountains climb ♪ Waves and sand keep beat and time ♪ ♪ Mossy blankets, swirling streams ♪ ♪ Over rocks and dirt ♪ Run at pace with all the earth ♪ ♪ Could we capture nature's wonder ♪ ♪ Find our way to getting lost ♪ Freeze a frame to save forever ♪ ♪ Adventure worth the cost ♪ Bees and dandelion grain ♪ Dance in sun soaked fields ♪ Wind and gleam together yield ♪ ♪ Pocket worries fade to dim ♪ Wait on focus new ♪ Wild is coming into view ("Chasing Light" by The Lonesome Dawn) ♪ Hues on fire in clouds ♪ Perfectly exposed (pleasant music) SIGMA is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world, and we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(pleasant music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "View Finders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on Highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Troncalli Subaru or find out more online at troncallisubaru.com.

(pleasant music) - [Announcer] Here at United Community Bank, we are committed to doing the little things to earn customer trust, one customer at a time.

United Community Bank is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."