Mystic Seaport #2

Mystic, Connecticut

Mystic Seaport

Mystic, Connecticut 

Another photo from an 1989 visit to Mystic Seaport Museum. I believe that the masts in the background belong to the 1841 whale-ship Charles W. Morgan.

Mystic waterfront

Mystic Seaport - Mystic Connecticut 

This picture is from old negatives dated September, 1989.

Saturday morning

9:21 am - The rain is starting to fall 

Bracing for hurricane Sandy, although it looks like the worst of the storm will be passing to the east of us here at the foot of the Blue Ridge.

The first hurricane that I remember was hurricane Hazel, a category four storm that made landfall near the North Carolina/South Carolina border on the morning of October 15, 1954. I went to school that morning, but we were sent home early in the day as the storm approached. That afternoon, I watched as the wind completely destroyed a barn in a nearby field, and after that Mother and I went to the neighbor's basement to ride out the storm. Later in the afternoon, the winds died down and I went outside in the eerie eye of the storm, and then the wind returned and the storm raged into the night. The storm was frightening and exciting and we ate in a restaurant because there was no electricity. I remember it all quite vividly.

Over 1200 people lost their life in Hurricane Hazel.

Autumn leaves

Greene County, Virginia 

¶  For your Friday reading pleasure 100 Ideas That Changed Photography

"While it may seem that a new photo technology is born every day, photography is still what we make it, not what it makes us."

¶  With a storm heading up the east coast, this might just be the last weekend to catch the fall colors here in Virginia. I am going to try to get out and get some pictures before the storm, which is supposed to bring wind and possibly snow, arrives to strip the autumn leaves from the trees. Hope you enjoy your weekend and thanks for reading Photography In Place.

Barn and gate

Greene County, Virginia 

Photographer photographed

Brookhaven, Mississippi 

While I was taking pictures of this building on the main street in Brookhaven, I noticed that I was being observed and photographed from the upper windows. "Just who is that old man in the street and why is he taking pictures of this building?"

Barely visible in the left-hand window there is a dog watching as well. As I walked away, I heard tapping on the glass as if someone were trying to get my attention, but when I turned around, there was no one there.

Fall is in the air

Greene County, Virginia 

Farmland and mountains

Cross Keys, Virginia 

Third Sunday - October 2012

Holy Trinity Church - Wolftown, Virginia 

Barber shop

Remington, Virginia

Richmond Balance

Richmond, Virginia

Greyhound

Charlottesville, Virginia

Red apron

Brookhaven, Mississippi 

Valentino's

Richmond, Virginia 

Adirondack Beach Chair

Colton's Point - St Mary's County, Maryland 

Spotted this chair along the Potomac River waterfront on Colton's Point a couple of weeks ago and was struck by this nautical interpretation of the traditional chair that came from the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondack Chair was designed by Thomas Lee in 1903 while he was vacationing in the Adirondacks. There are many variations on the basic design, but I have never seen another with sailboats on the seat back.

It's October, and beach-going season is over for another year (unless you are living in the southern hemisphere). Hope you have a great weekend and can enjoy a few more warm days before cold weather arrives.

And as always, thanks for reading Photography In Place.

Arrow Beer

Colton's Point - St. Mary's County, Maryland 

The Globe Brewing Company, located in Baltimore, Maryland, was founded in 1748 and produced Arrow Beer up until the early 1960s. Colton's Point is on the Maryland shore of the Potomac River. Read more about it in the Coltons Point Times.

Down by the lake - #3

Greene County, Virginia

Down by the lake - #2

Greene County, Virginia

Down by the lake - #1

Greene County, Virginia

Last Friday morning I took a walk to see what's doing at the lake. I found an extraordinary profusion of colorful wildflowers and weeds, perhaps brought out by the recent rains we have had after a long, hot summer.

Saturday morning

Wooley Bears

The wooley bears are crossing the road. Every year, in the early Autumn, wooley bears cross the road. I don't know why they do it. I don't even know why they are called wooley bears, for they are not wooley and certainly don't resemble bears. I used to think that "wooley bear" was a name made up by my mother for my childish enjoyment but later I learned that wooley bear is a common term for the brown and reddish banded caterpillar, the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth.

Mother told me that by observing the width of the stripes on the wooley bear, the severity of the coming winter could be foretold. If the reddish band was wide, it meant that the winter would be mild, or maybe it was the other way round. I thought she made that up too, but it turns out she knew what she was talking about, as usual. In 1948, Dr. C.H. Curran, the curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York began to study wooley bears to try to see if there was any scientific basis for this bit of wooley bear folklore. Over the course of eight years he collected hundreds of wooley bears, measured their bands, and attempted to correlate his findings with the winter weather. The results were inconclusive. Mother could have told him that.

Why do wooley bears cross the road? I don't know, and if you do, don't tell me. We meed a little mystery from time to time and  I would just as soon sit here on a cool October Saturday morning and ponder on it for a while. Mother would say "pay attention; you might learn something."

Falling . . .

Greene County, Virginia 

Here's a question for you: what does this picture have in common with the picture in yesterdays post?

At first glance, one might think that this is either an extraordinarily lucky shot, or a Photoshop trick. It is neither. What I saw in my viewfinder is just what you see here.

If you answered that the common element in today's picture and yesterday's is spiders, you are correct. Look closely and you will see that the leaf is hanging on a single strand of cobweb. I took several pictures of this leaf as it twisted and turned in the breeze, an autumn ritual suspended. For all I know, it might still be falling.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading Photography in Place.

Spider web

Greene County, Virginia 

Early Autumn

Greene County, Virginia 

Dogwood berries

Greene County, Virginia 

The trees are starting to turn here in central Virginia and in a couple of weeks autumn color should be nearing its peak. The dogwoods are among the first of the trees to start showing color, and the bright red berries of the flowering dogwoods add to the show. This picture was taken this past Friday morning.

Stargazer

Cobb Island, Maryland 

Earlier in September I made what is most likely to be the last river trip of the season. Our destination for the weekend was St Clements and Cobb Island, both located on the Maryland shore of the Potomac, not too far from where the river empties into the Chesapeake Bay. I spotted Stargazer Saturday afternoon and returned for this photograph later in the evening when the sun was low in the sky. There is little in this scene that would have seemed out of place to a Potomac River waterman fifty or seventy-five years ago.