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Paddles Up!
To get this award-winning shot of the Dragon Boat Charleston team at work, Smith perched his 6-foot-4 frame in the seat normally reserved for the team’s drummer. Published on the January 2014 cover of South Carolina Living, the image earned second place in the Cover of the Year category of the 2014 CCA Communications Contest. See the final cover here.
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Paddles Up!
With two decades of experience as a newspaper photographer, Smith has a rare ability to capture those unexpected moments. In this shot, Dragon Boat Beaufort drummer Jeannie Wells keeps her colorful racing costume dry by hitching a ride on the back of a race volunteer from The Citadel. Read the dragon boat story here.
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The Winds of Fortune
Creative use of strobes inside the wheelhouse helped Smith capture this memorable shot of Capt. Wayne Magwood at the helm of The Winds of Fortune. Smith and writer Hastings Hensel spent the day with the crew for a story on the challenges facing S.C. shrimpers. Read it here.
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The Winds of Fortune
Using ambient light, Smith captured this shot of third-generation shrimper Rocky Magwood getting nets ready for the summer fishing season. The image ran as the cover of the June 2013 issue. See the cover treatment here.
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Catch of the Day
Smith spent a day on the water with An Mathis Springs, aka, “the crab cake lady” of Murrells Inlet. In her 70s, Springs still loves nothing more than running around the inlet in a 14-foot jon boat, checking her traps. This engaging photo, published in the S.C. Stories section of the April 2013 issue, earned Smith third place in the Best Portrait category of the CCA Communications awards. Read the story here.
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The Gunfight at Givhan's Ferry
To illustrate writer Jan Igoe’s award-winning feature, “The Gunfight at Givhans Ferry,” Smith spent the weekend with more than 200 pistol-packing cowboy action shooters during the 2012 Southeast Regional Championships. For all you greenhorns, cowboy action shooting is a form of competitive target shooting in which contestants dress in Old West attire and use replica pistols, rifles and shotguns similar to those used in late 1800s. Read the story here.
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The Gunfight at Givhan's Ferry
Smith’s eye for detail helped capture the rich texture of the cowboy action shooting competition, down to the club badges competitors use to adorn their gun and ammo carts. Read the story here.
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Sue Render
The 2012 Single Action Shooting Society’s Southeast Regional Championships offered plenty of opportunities for engaging portrait photography. Rhonda Metz, who shoots under the cowgirl alias Sue Render, displays her weapons and best shooting outfit. Read the story here.
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Living History
As a news photographer, Smith has been to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, making him the perfect choice to embed with Civil War reenactors and shoot the 2013 Living History weekend at Boone Hall Plantation. Read the story here.
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Living History
Civil War reenactors do not allow modern gear or clothing to be visible during events. Dressed in period attire, his cameras camouflaged by burlap sacks, Smith roamed the mock battlefield at Boone Hall as living historians recreated the famous 1865 Battle of Fort Wagner and the charge of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment. Read the story here.
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Living History
Camping out with the men of the 10th South Carolina Infantry unit allowed Smith to explore what reenactors call the “period rush” — moments when they feel as if they are literally stepping back in time. Read the story here.
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Secrets of the H.L. Hunley
Getting creative shots sometimes requires creative solutions worthy of TV’s MacGyver. Smith couldn’t get inside the conservation tank holding the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley, but managed to get this striking image from the edge of the tank by using a fish tank as makeshift underwater housing. This shot ran as the cover of the February 2013 issue. See the finished cover here.
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Surf's Up!
Shooting the April 2012 cover feature on Folly Beach surfing meant wading into the water during the icy-cold month of February. Smith managed to avoid frostbite, keep his camera dry and get a killer shot. Read the story here.
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Awendaw Green
Mic Smith teamed up with his wife, writer Susan Hill Smith, to deliver the May 2013 cover feature “Performing Magic” — an exploration of the weeknight barn jams at Awendaw Green. The CCA photo judges complimented Mic for ability to light and frame this shot. “It is extremely difficult to shoot a nighttime concert with spotlights, but he has done it very well,” one judge wrote. Read the story here.
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Awendaw Green
Technical skill and creativity are a must for any professional photographer, but sometimes it helps to be lucky, too. Smith was shooting the band Country Mice during a performance at Awendaw Green when Jukebox the goat wandered on stage and started munching the set list. Read the story here.
When the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) announced the winner of the 2014 Photographer of the Year award, we were delighted—but not surprised—to learn that South Carolina Living contributor Mic Smith had taken the top honor.
Smith is a talented, can-do shooter based in the Charleston area, and his creative eye is backed by two decades of experience as a photojournalist at The Post & Courier and The Herald in Rock Hill. The judges of the CCA Communications Contest also recognized his talent with three additional awards for his recent work in SCL.
• Cover of the Year: Second place with Sharri Harris Wolfgang of Auras Design for the January 2014 cover “Paddles Up: Dragon Boat Racing Builds Bodies, Confidence and Friendships.”
• Photo Essay or Story: Third place for the June 2013 cover story “The Winds of Fortune,” a day-in-the-life piece on South Carolina shrimpers.
• Portrait: Third place for his S.C. Stories photo of An Mathis Springs, the “crab cake lady” of Murrells Inlet. That portrait ran in the April 2013 issue.
Smith also shot the memorable October 2013 cover story “The Gunfight at Givhans Ferry,” which earned first-place honors for writer Jan Igoe in the Best Entertaining Feature category. SCL Art Director Sharri Wolfgang credits Smith’s images as one reason behind the magazine’s third-place finish in the Best Use of Photography category.
“Mic has a great eye for surveying a scene and finding the subject, angle and moment to capture,” she says. “One of my more difficult tasks is having to decide which of many wonderful photos will run in our limited space.”
Readers can look forward to more of Smith’s work in upcoming issues, but for now, we hope you enjoy this “best of” gallery of his past contributions. For more galleries and information on Mic Smith, visit his website.