t was a stormy fall day when I approached the St. Helena Shrimping Docks. Captain was just about to head out to check his crab pots and said, would you like to join me? He stated “He was just going around the corner”, knowing how stormy a day it was, I thought that I would be safe from some terrifying experience. Little did I know that in the crabbing world, “just around the corner” meaning we were going to go anywhere the crab pot lines take us. As we entered the St. Helena sound in our 20-foot flat bottom boat, there were 4-6 foot waves breaking and some were as big as 8 feet. Captain began pulling up the pots while I held on for dear life, also while trying to prevent a very expensive camera from being destroyed. As I am taking pictures, I begin to notice water going over my ankle in the boat. Thinking that this is probably not a good thing I mention it to Captain, he simply looks back and says pull that glove out of the bilge that is keeping the water from pumping out of the boat. Using one hand to hold onto and shelter my camera, I reach back and pull the glove out of the pump and the water level in the boat returns to normal. About the time we are doing this, a crab pot line gets caught in the propeller of the engine. As the current ripped through and the waves continued to beat the boat, we had to quickly throw anchor to avoid running a ground on the nearby sandbar. After freeing the line from the propeller, the Captain continued to pull each pot up one after another. It was then that the biggest wave of the day came over the top of us, I quickly fired off the shutter as the wave hit the Captain in the face and then me shortly after. Thus, the image you see here, of the picture entitled “No Discounts”. This is the only title that could come to mind, as I thought about the many customers that would be purchasing these sacred and well-earned Lowcountry Blue Crab.
Signed by Andrew Branning | Carbon K7 Piezography Giclée | Hahnemuhle Archive Print | Print will require framing and matting
Artist Andrew Branning
Andrew uses the latest in digital camera technology from Sony, Nikon & Leica to capture the highest quality digital negative for large format printing. He approaches the darkroom as if he were editing film, by utilizing minimal photoshop techniques such as dodge and burn. Uniquely to Andrew is his style and ability to go from fine art portraiture, landscape & field journalism. Andrew has been a photographer for 10 years and his work can be seen in magazines and multiple best-selling book publications.