Cape May

Just processed a few more from Cape May, a charming sea side town in New Jersey, the first seaside resort community.

In the same year that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, a Dutch captain, Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, explored the Delaware River and named the peninsula Cape Mey, after himself, in 1620. The spelling was later changed to Cape May. Over a century later in 1761 Cape May became the first seashore resort in America.

The most distinctive feature about Cape May is its Victorian heritage, carefully retained in several hundred beautifully manicured houses throughout the city. The Victorian Era occurred from 1837 to 1901 when queen Victoria ruled over England. The impact of her reign was felt throughout the world and in Cape May which was then considered to be among the top vacation resorts in the United States.

Cape May has enjoyed a major renaissance in the last decade. Many Victorian structures adorned with carved barge boards, ornate verandas and crowned dormers, have been restored. Most of the homes, hotels, shops and other buildings were constructed in the late 1800's at the prime of the Victorian era. Today small gingerbread houses stand beside magnificent Victorian showplaces.

An important milestone was reached in the Bicentennial Year of 1976 when Cape May was officially designated a National Historic Landmark City, only one of five in the nation. That designation requires that the community must retain all structures in their original form and design and will insure that Cape May will remain within the architectural guidelines of the Victorian period.

Cape May is a real life picture postcard of the past. Info supplied by Capenet.com

Catching a Wave

Its a cloudy day here and I am catching up on some home owner chores. I decided to make a triptych with three shots I made of one the surfers after the storm on Tuesday. These images were made with a 300mm 2.8 lens mounted on the Nikon D2X, so effectively a 450mm at 2.8, I was getting shutter speeds at 1/1500 sec and up depending on the light with 9 frames per second. I knew I wanted to stop the action of the waves and the surfers so I needed a real fast shutter speed.

When I was working on the triptych, I was curious about the origins of the triptych and found this on Wikipedia:

The triptych form arises from early Christian art, and was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the English Celtic churches in the west. Renaissance painters and sculptors such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form.
From the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were often in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two examples by Rubens, and Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can also see the form echoed by the structure of many ecclesiastical stained glass windows. Although most famous as a altarpiece form, triptychs outside that context have been created, most prominently by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann, and Francis Bacon.

Interesting!

South Bethany Beach Takes a Hit!

This is for my friends, Lisa and John who check my blog for updates on the beach. Lisa and John are neighbors at the beach, but live in Kentucky most of the time! As soon as the rain stopped I grabbed my camera and headed for the beach. I knew there must have been pretty bad damage to the dunes the Army Corps of Engineers had designed and built a year and a half ago, when they added 250 feet of beach and the 16foot dune. When I saw the red tape across the walkway, so you could not access the beach at all i knew there was some bad damage. For the entire length of Ocean Drive the beach had eroded away so that you could not get down to the shore. Our section of the beach has a 12 foot drop off, from the top of the dune.

So I found my way around through the Fenwick Island Park. After a little time on the beach capturing the damage and some clearing light, I headed to Bethany Beach and made a couple shots there. I saw the surfers a few blocks north and headed up there to see if there was anything interesting going on. I spent an hour and a half making some images of the surfers. Then got hungry and drove up to Rehoboth for lunch. Silver Lake had over run its shores. The sun broke out after 1:00 and it was a beautiful afternoon in the low 70's!

Cape May~Lewes Ferry

These are a few shots from the second deck on the ferry I took Monday to get to Cape May. It was very windy and the seas were a little rough, I was shooting hand held with the 70-200 2.8. It was still pretty hard to get a shot, between the vibration of the engine, the wind, the waves and me, but I like these. Looks like the rain will let up this afternoon and I am anxious to get out to the beach and see how it looks after taking the brunt of several storms over the last few weeks.

Just a few more from Loch Raven

Oh, its a real rainy, blustery day here at the beach, with one more low front spinning off shore.
Its a good day for catching up on the computer. Finished the handouts for my Beginner 2 class at Hopkins, which starts next week. Sent those off to be copied, via You send it, that's a great service for large files that won't transmit via e-mails. Jeff Wolk introduced me to that service. Its not free, but it solves a problem with large files, and works great! Cleaning up the desktop, I found a few more files from Loch Raven, which I developed but did not post. Windy Day is a multiple exposure, Falling leaves is a swipe, of the same exact tree,which shows how different techniques can render very different images of the same subject, if it lends itself to those techniques, I think these both work as interesting impressionist images. Fall Colors is also a multiple exposure of a larger landscape, I wasn't sure if I really liked that one or not as it is a very subtle impression, but I liked the colors and the way they blended creating a soft texture. Now I think I'll go shopping at the outlets! ; -)

CAPE MAY

Today was my first day at the beach. I met Jack and Shirley Kramer at the Lewes departure point of the Cape May Ferry. We walked around town for quite a while making images of the grand old wooden houses, had lunch at the soda fountain counter, that was fun, and then headed out to the Cape May Light House park. I only had an hour before I had to get back on the ferry as the last crossing was scheduled at 6:00. I headed out to the beach and Jack and Shirley headed to check into their hotel. It was a very nice day, and I was glad I finally met them.

Love Trees, Hate Trees

After a short walk on a trail in the Loch Raven Watershed, amazed at the beauty of fall leaves after an overnight rain, I returned home and started some laundry to pack for the beach. I ran one load and went down to put it in the dryer when I saw the wash tubs were backed up! Uh Oh! After a few minutes in denial, I called Action Plumbing. They routed the main line two years ago. Well, it was the main and it was full or tree roots! That's the hate part, from the very old Willow Oak tree on the front lawn. What a pain, the plumber had to actually take the office toilet out to get to the drain, as a result of some not too thoughtful, renovations in the office years ago the clean out was placed in a very difficult to get to location. . Well a couple hours later I was scrubbing floors and moving furniture around in the office. The good thing is it never overflowed!
So I am late leaving for the beach. Made some images on the walk this morning, when I was loving trees!

Loch Raven

Just a few more from yesterdays shoot at Loch Raven.

Fall is Here!

Today the morning light was soft and overcast, and I decided to go in search of fall color. I headed to the fishing center at Loch Raven to see if I could find some colorful reflections in the cove, but it was closed, so I drove on through Loch Raven. I made a couple shots along the main drive and headed through the reservoir toward the dam, where I found some beautiful trees along the banks.

I love impressionist paintings and photography, so I played with some swipes and multiple exposures because the colors were wonderful, with the greening water in the back ground fading out to just a color splash. I took some straight shots too but, sooo love the look of the impressions, the straight shots look blah! I did some in camera overlays as well, and layered some multiple exposures with some swipes.

Baltimore Conservatory

Spent the morning with a great group of students, shooting inside the Howard Rawlings Conservatory. It's always fun to see how others explore their subjects. I made a few images after the group left.

The Susquehanna Shoot for tomorrow is a rain out : - ( I was really looking forward to getting up there and capturing some fall colors along the water with the group who had signed up, but it is just going to be too rainy! This must be what its like in Seattle in the winter!

I might head down to the National Aquarium and check out The Jellies show and scout for a possible workshop there with Penn. in February, 2010.

Adirondacks

Getting ready for the field workshop tomorrow with the students from JHU. Looks like we will be heading to the conservatory for some inside shooting given the weather. Sunday we had to delay the start of our Fall in Susquehanna workshop with Penn until 11:00 in hopes that the rain might be gone. I think I will still get out early as there might be some snow showers.

Just found out that Two of my images placed in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Calendar Contest. We also had one more Baltimore Camera Club Member place first in a category: Steve Demo.

Adirondacks

Loved this line of Birch on the hillside by Lower Cascade Lake. Used the 70-200 at 200 to fill the frame.

Finger Lakes Fall Tour 2010

I was thinking about doing a Fall Wine and Waterfalls tour October 6, 7, and 8 2010, in the Finger Lakes Region... for $595.00 per person.

The possibilities are:

Shoot the waterfalls in Watkins Glenn, make a day trip to Taughannock State Park for some shooting and the falls, Head to Buttermilk State Park for some more hiking and falls. Shoot some old barns and wineries. Enjoy some wine Tastings along the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, and the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.
Dine at Suzanne's Gourmet Restaurant, The Red Knute and lodge at The Fox and The Grapes, in Lodi.
While there you may see the Amish working in their fields and visit the Amish market, or make a shopping trip to downtown Watkins Glen. One morning we can shoot the abandoned antique store just down the lane from The Fox and The Grapes. Capture the fall beauty of the birch in the Finger Lakes National Forest. Learn shooting tips in the field. You would certainly take home some great wine, lots of images and fun memories....Its only five hours travel from Baltimore.

What do you think? Might there be any takers? Lodging is not included. We could accommodate six couples, at the B & B. Jim Pelligrini, the owner, is an exceptional host and prepares one heck of a breakfast, oh and did I mention he is an officiant, in case anyone wants to elope? If we get more than six couples Jim will find lodging close by at another B&B. Twelve Photo Participants Max, no fee for no-participating spouses or friends.
So let me know if anyone out there would sign up for this tour.