Click on each image for larger view (opens in new window).

Winter’s Dragon (10 December 2020)

One of numerous reflection pools at Brookgreen Gardens (Murrel’s Inlet,
South Carolina) on display during Night of a Thousand Candles

Copyrighted © 2020 by Cindy L. Sheppard. All rights reserved.

Ode to Joy (10 December 2020)

Christmas lights illuminating trees covered with Spanish moss at
Brookgreen Gardens (Murrel’s Inlet, South Carolina)

Copyrighted © 2020 by Cindy L. Sheppard. All rights reserved.

Low Country Christmas (10 December 2020)

Christmas lights illuminating trees covered with Spanish moss at
Brookgreen Gardens (Murrel’s Inlet, South Carolina)

Copyrighted © 2020 by Cindy L. Sheppard. All rights reserved.

Images are reproduced here with photographer’s permission.

Cindy L. Sheppard

retired five years ago after working for three decades at a public-utilities company. She always enjoyed traveling—when she could arrange time off, that is. After retiring, she relaxed for a while and then rewarded herself for all those years of service by taking an extended road trip with her best friend. They departed the east coast of the U.S. in June 2017 to visit, camp, and hike in more than 60 midwestern and western national parks and monuments. It was quite the adventure for Ms. Sheppard, including these highlights:

Hiking in hellish heat and through varied terrain, and scaling peaks in the Tetons, Sierra Nevadas, and other ranges

Losing her footing early in the trip and falling into the glacier-fed, rushing waters of Avalanche Creek, where she was drowning until three angels in the guise of kindly strangers rescued her (and yes, she has scars as souvenirs)

Fulfilling a lifelong dream of seeing moose and, better yet, of being surrounded by, mustangs in the wild—not to mention the redwoods in California!

Shooting many thousands of images with a brand new camera, another well-deserved retirement gift

Publisher’s postscript:

Although she has been shooting photographs for more than thirty years, especially to document her travels, Ms. Sheppard continues to resist being called a photographer, saying that she only points the camera and clicks the buttons. I’m tickled to include three of her most recent “point and click” images above, and a trio in Issue 4 of MacQ, shot during her road trip in 2017.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Several of Ms. Sheppard’s photographs from previous trips illustrate four stories in Issues 6 and 8 of Serving House Journal (for example, two shots in “Fighting Toads”).

⚡ Three of her experimental night shots appear in Issue 2 of KYSO Flash.

⚡ And two of her “Queen of the Night” photographs appear in Volume 1 of the KYSO Flash Anthology (2014), with one of them illuminating the front cover.