South Boundary Avenue isn’t just some spot we discovered via word of mouth, it’s a place that came up again and again as we discussed visiting South Carolina. As it turns out, there’s a good reason for its prominence, Aiken’s ‘Avenue of the Oaks’ is nationally recognized as one of the South’s most beautiful streets. So, when we found ourselves nearby, it went without saying that we would be taking our picture beneath the legendary criss-crossed limbs.
Actually, it was our first stop.
As soon as we pulled onto South Boundary, the sun disappeared behind a mask leaves, reaching us only through windblown gaps as a thousand tiny dots and streaked, oblong speckles. As far as we could see ahead of us, the oaken line paraded unbroken, and our ceiling was just a thick woven thatch of gradient browns.
We hopped out beneath an especially dense section where the avenue intersects Marion Street. Gazing up at the tangle of limbs was like reading the synopsis of a book, the real magic is in the longview – looking down at the inverted basket stretched out beyond eyesight. I put Augustine on my shoulders so she could see further down (which I’m not sure has any science behind it). Together, we stood astride the double yellow line and took a picture – no problem. It was so easy in fact, I decided I wanted to come back an try a long-exposure night shot.
Now, maybe we were just lucky the first time, or maybe taking a long-exposure photo at night on a popular street is a bad idea. Either way, 10pm that night, the Jade, Augustine, and I were lined along the shoulder of South Boundary like horses at the gate, waiting for a brief thirty-second break in the traffic.
We were a team, camera – Jade, lookout – Augustine, model – Bob.
I know what you’re thinking – a toddler look-out is a bad idea. Well, at first Augustine had been hesitant about running across the road in the pitch-black of night, but after a handful of success runs – she was all in. She would run out and stand beside Jade with her eyes glued in the opposite direction, ready to shout ‘CAR!’ as soon as one appeared. Once the Augustine alarm sounded, taking the photo was a math equation.
From first spotting the car to being in headlights of the car was about :45 seconds. Jade would have to make the call on if the shot would work or not. Then at the last second we would grab the camera and scramble off the road again.
I of course did nothing. I was the model. If you are ever in a precarious situation that is really something you want to do more than anyone else in the group, choosing the be the model is the worst idea. Sure it was stressful standing there – looking away – thinking about what Jade must be going through, but I was twenty feet further down the road, I was there to look pretty. I was essentially useless.
After thirty minutes, we had captured about seven photos. With a full line of cars appearing off in the distance, we decided we had to have gotten the shot already and called it a night.
We weren’t done with the Oak Trees yet though.
Our third trip to the Tree Lined Street was by far the best experience out of the collection of trips. While the first time was a simple shot and the second was a covert-starlit game of frogger, the third was a casual capture, the foliage and street richly saturated by the morning’s rain – morning sunlight streaming through the branches making us visible to all oncoming cars.
The beauty of overgrown trees never seems to grow old to me. Especially when the arms are really thick with leaves, it always feels like a fairy tail and we were able to capture ourselves in the story.
**If you are heading to the Aiken Tree Street, check out “Tips for Photographing Aiken’s Famous South Boundary Avenue” by Visit Aiken – it’s got some great tips for getting just the right photo.
