Lady's Island neighbors turn kayak trips into stunning wildlife photos, videos

The sinking sun has set the salt marsh aflame in color. There's not a wisp of wind, and all that roils the surface of Port Royal Sound is the pod of dolphins leaping in the twilight.

This scene doesn't play out every weekend, but it explains why a weekend seldom passes without best friends Susan Trogdon and Maria Ernestine taking a kayak paddle somewhere in local waters.  Dozens, if not hundreds, of neighbors also look forward to their trips, which are usually replayed on Facebook. Susan is in charge of photo galleries. Maria posts the videos.

"Every time out, it seems like we see something we haven't seen before or notice something we didn't notice before," Trogdon said. "It's very peaceful. It's a very calming way to wind down from the week or get ready for the week ahead."

Neither Trodgon nor Ernestine could remember exactly when their routine of regular kayak trips began, but they agreed it was Susan who took to the water first. She got a bonus on her 25th anniversary with employer Bundy Appraisal & Management and used it to buy a kayak she had been eyeing.

That was 12 years ago. Not long after, Ernestine purchased kayak of her own, and she and Trogdon started making regular trips to search for fossils on the islands and hummocks directly across from Brickyard Point Landing on Lady's Island.

As they grew more comfortable in their kayaks, they ranged farther from home. Then, Trogdon began lugging her camera with her, to bring ashore all the sunrises, sunsets, birds and other creatures they saw as they paddled.

Trogdon is not a professional photographer, but her father and uncle were. In fact, her uncle has been published in wildlife magazines.

"Honestly, growing up, I never cared about (photography)," Trogdon said. "When we went to visit family in Columbia on holidays, I always rolled my eyes because before we could eat, (my uncle) would have us pose for a family photograph, and it took forever."

Ernestine usually takes video on her smartphone or GoPro.

"Susan has a much better camera than I do. That's her passion," Ernestine said. "I decided we had to have more than the photographs, though. The first time out with it was during a trip in Battery Creek, with a little Canon camera. I find it's easier now to shoot with my phone, but the quality is so much better on the GoPro, so I try to use it."

The battery in Ernestine's GoPro was dead when she and Trogdon decided to make an impromptu, after-work trip Sept. 18 to The Sands in the town of Port Royal, launching from the landing near the convergence of Battery Creek and the Beaufort River. So Ernestine had to use her smartphone to capture one of the most stunning displays she and Trogdon have ever witnessed.

Pod after pod of dolphins swam about them, at times feeding, at times leaping from the water. Trogdon shot more than 300 frames that evening but held on to only about 25.

Dolphins are "the hardest thing in the world to photograph," Trogdon said. "They can be on the right side of you one second, and the next second they're 20 feet on the other side of the creek. That's why been most challenging for me. I see them do things that I want to share with people, but I haven't been able to. Recently, we've been in some larger pods, and that allows you to focus on pod that really active. ...

"Friday was lucky. We had a pod of 50 spread all over the place. As far as we could see, we could see dolphins. I don't know if it was the full moon, the tide or what, but it was awesome."

They don't always see the behavior they captured on their recent trip. However, Trogdon said she has had her boat bumped by curious dolphins. She also has seen dolphins break the surface with fish in their mouths and mothers teaching their calves to fish, although she has yet to capture sharp images of that behavior.

Trodgon said she and Ernestine can see dolphins just about every time out, no matter what local waterway they paddle.

"That's just the experience from paddling every weekend for how ever many years," Trogdon said, "... just knowing where they are and when they feed."

Trogdon said she sometimes hesitates to reveal too much about the exact locations of her trips because "people feed them and jeopardize their lives." (It is against both state and federal law to feed or interfere with the normal activity of marine mammals.) Recently, she photographed a dolphin that was missing its dorsal fin, likely a result of a "propeller strike." Conservationists say boat strikes more likely when people feed the animals because they learn to associate motors with food and are drawn toward the danger.

Ernestine said there is nothing like sitting in a kayak with dolphins around, when the only sounds are the pffff-hooo of their breathing as they break the water and clicking of the camera shutter.

"When they're jumping it's so exciting, but even when they are just breaching water, it's so peaceful," Ernestine said. "They're so fascinating to watch. To get up on a pod and watch them as they're feeding, I swear they're just happy sometimes when they jump up out of the water."

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This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Lady's Island neighbors turn kayak trips into stunning wildlife photos, videos."