Come Away With Me

by Judy

I know, I know.  In my last post I talked about the joy of coming home, but now I'm ready to take off again, and I want to bring you along. 

This past summer I visited a special place that I want to share with you.  While on vacation, my family and I dragged ourselves away from our beautiful beach in Ocean City, Maryland to visit Assateague Island. 

Assateague Island is a 37 mile long barrier island that is located off the DelMarVa coast (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia coast).  The Northern 2/3rds of the Island are in Maryland, and the Southern 1/3rd of the Island is in Virginia.  On this island, with its beautiful white sand beaches, salt marshes and pine forests, live up to 150 feral horses.  

Some people believe that the horses arrived on this island when a Spanish Galleon ship sank offshore in the 1600's. Others believe that early Colonial settlers brought their horses to the island to graze and to avoid paying taxes on them. In 2013, a Spanish ship wreck was discovered in the waters off of Assateague, which lend credit to the first theory, and in my opinion, is by far the more 'romantic' theory of the two!

If you read Marguerite Henry's "Misty of Chincoteague" as a child, then you read about the horses of Assateague. Chincoteague is an island on the Virginia side near Assateague Island.  As part of the population management, each summer there is a Pony Swim. Some of the horses on the island are rounded up and swim across the Assateague Channel to Chincoteague Island where they are sold in auction.  If I visit again, I'd love to photograph the horses as they swim across the channel!

The horses enjoy the marsh and sand dune grasses, rosehips, bayberry twigs, and persimmons. They wander all around the island.  They can be seen feeding near the marshes, strolling the beach, or sleeping under the shade of a big pine tree.  They may walk right beside you, without seeming to even notice you!  

The dune, marsh and forest habitats also provide feeding and nesting for shorebirds, songbirds, raptors and water fowl.  

This is a special place. These horses have learned to survive severe storms, intense heat, abundant mosquito's, and a sometimes limited food supply.  As visitors to this island, one must remember to give the horses all the space they need to be "wild."  Keep your distance, no feeding, and no attempting to pet the horses!  

Assateague Island is carefully managed by both The National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Visiting a place like Assateague can be a great learning experience, and certainly a great way to see survival of the fittest up close and personal.  At the same time, the more visitor's places like Assateague have, the more danger of damaging the important habitats, and disrupting nature at its best. 

The National Park Service, along with the Fish and Wildlife Service, ask that all visitors to the island tread lightly and respect the horses and other wild life on the island.

 

I love visiting unique and special places like this island and I know that the world is full of wonderful gems like this! What are the little gems near your home?  Is there a unique and special place that you enjoy visiting? We'd love if you'd share some photos with us on our Facebook page or our flickr group.  Add a link, or some information about the place. Who knows, one of your little gems may inspire one of us to visit!

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

-Kahlil Gibran-

Stories Through a Glass Window

by Carol

Since our Focus On You theme this month is Glass, I thought I would say a few words about a photography subject I have long enjoyed playing with - stained glass windows. If you have ever tried photographing stained glass - you quickly found out it's not for sissies! The challenges encountered are many!  The overly bright light streaming through the windows, while standing in a darkened church wreaks havoc with exposure. The fact that you are taking the shot from below, and at a distance makes alignment a factor, and distortion very  likely.  Often historical buildings and churches forbid the use of tripods, creating a real issue when you are trying to overcome the darkness. The sheer size of many of the windows is overwhelming. How do you choose what to include to give the viewer the appreciation for the size of the overall window, yet the intricacy of the detail? All of this must often be accomplished while respecting the people who are in these places for prayer and contemplation. Please don't ever lose awareness that there may be people in the pews praying for grace during a life crisis - and certainly getting your shot should not EVER encroach on the dignity and privacy of those moments.

And yet these windows can be incredible subjects. They are full of color and history. They are intricate examples of the most delicate of arts, representing hours and sometimes years of artistic creation. They are lessons in symbolic story-telling. They are studies in symmetry and pattern. So lets explore some ground rules for capturing their essence.

First lets deal with finding the best place to stand. Professional window photographers use scaffolding or ladders to get level with the window and reduce the distortion, but you can achieve decent results by getting as far back from the window as you can, and using a telephoto zoom lens. It's best to look for a spot that lines you up with the center of the window. Even so, you may have to play in post-processing with straightening your vertical lines. You can use a wide-angle lens, but chances are that you won't get the full window in anyway without great distortion.

Of course, it is preferable to use a tripod. With the surrounding darkness, long exposures most certainly would be beneficial, and hand-held shots are tough! If tripods are banned, see if you can support your camera on a post or pew. If the camera is in a steady enough spot, use a remote shutter release, so that the added vibration of you pushing the shutter button doesn't add to the difficulty. At the very least, lean back against a wall, steady those elbows against your body , and release your breath.

As for exposure. if you have the choice, it simplifies things to shoot on on overcast day, or in the early morning or evening to reduce the brightness of the sun. When you are aiming to highlight the glass itself, and you don't mind if it is floating in a black background, you can under-expose by a few stops. But if you want to include the frame or building structure as well as the window, your task is harder.  I find it is best to use a small aperture with f-stops of  f16 or f-22, at least. Use center-weighted or spot  metering and expose for the mid-tone colors - usually the yellow, gold or red. This assures that everything from the bottom to the top of a large window will be in focus. If however, you are focusing on a small area within the design, using matrix metering works and shots can be successful with even a 50 mm prime lens to work with. Just remain aware of what the camera is using to meter and work around it's demands. Camera exposure meters are easily fooled if we aren't paying attention. Of course you can always bracket, particularly if you are on a tripod. Take one exposed for the surrounding frame and one exposed for the bright window, and combine them later. Don't be afraid of doing something different - black and white photos of stained glass compositions can be stunning! And playing with the symmetry with twisty filters can yield some great abstracts!

Finally - be alert to what your artistic goal is in this particular exposure. Are you trying to highlight the story within the window. Is color exploration your goal? Are you after the patterns? Are you making abstracts? Are you using the window like a mandala to communicate peace and contemplation? I love exploring all of these possibilities, and my travel companions usually have to drag me away from the world's gorgeous cathedrals so I don't miss the rest of the country!

Give it a shot in a local church or in your future travels, and post your results in our gallery hash-tagged glass. You may find yourself in our Friday Focus On You gallery!