Early Autumn #2

Greene County, Virginia 

Fungi flourish on the damp forest floor after last week's rain. These are polypores, also known as bracket fungi, that I encountered during my walk last Friday. When I showed the picture above to my wife, she laughed and said that it looked like a flock of turkeys.

 The green plant here is running pine, a type of club moss that grows low to the ground. When I was a boy, running pine was a popular Christmas decoration.

Early Autumn #1

Greene County, Virginia 

Last Friday morning, I went down to the small tract of woods by the lake to see how things looked as Autumn comes on. After several days of steady rain, the morning air was damp. The ground was soaked but it wasn't raining so I was happy for a chance to get out with the camera. Here in central Virginia, the leaves are just starting to turn. A few wildflowers are still in bloom and mushrooms and fungi, encouraged by the wet conditions, dotted the forest floor.

After lunch, the rain started again, and it rained all night.

September on Point Lookout #3

Point Lookout, Maryland 

This picture was taken from the boat docked at Lake Conoy on our last night at Point Lookout. Venus is setting in the west.

There are no towns or cities near Point Lookout to light the night sky, and as darkness fell, the stars came down and touched the horizon. The evening was peaceful. A cool breeze blew in off the Chesapeake Bay and the only sound was the occasional splash of a fish breaking the surface of the water.  It was the first day of Autumn.

Have a peaceful weekend, and thanks for reading Photography In Place.

September on Point Lookout #2

Point Lookout, Maryland

September on Point Lookout

Point Lookout, Maryland 

In addition to its historic interest, (see here, and here) Point Lookout is also a place of great natural beauty. The Potomac River empties into the Chesapeake Bay on one side of Point Lookout, and on the other side of the point the Bay stretches to the horizon. Evergreen forest and marshland form an environment washed with the clear light of a late September sky.

Point Lookout - Fort Lincoln

Point Lookout, Maryland 

After the battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863, Union authorities began sending Confederate prisoners to Point Lookout for incarceration. In time more than 20,000 prisoners were housed in primitive prisoner pens with only tents for shelter. The Union Army garrison stationed at Point Lookout to guard the prisoners made their home in an earthwork fort called Fort Lincoln. Today, the earthwork walls of the fort still stand and inside are reconstructions of the buildings that were known to be on the site during the Civil War.

The enlistedman's barracks housed approximately 85 Sergeants, Corporals and Privates. The smaller building on the left is the officer's quarters.

Inside the enlistedman's barracks. Each bunk provided sleeping space for two soldiers. The small room on the right housed non-commissioned officers.

By the end of the war 52,000 Confederate prisoners had passed through Point Lookout. Exposure, disease and starvation claimed the lives of nearly 4000 prisoners. Originally they were buried in cemeteries near the camp, but in 1870 their remains were moved to a mass grave north of the park where a monument to the Confederate dead stands.

Caleb W. Jones

Cobb Island, Maryland 

The skipjack evolved in the 1890s as a distinct type of Chesapeake Bay vessel. The Caleb W. Jones was built in Reedville, Virginia in 1953 and is one of the last remaining skipjacks to dredge for oysters in the Bay. Skipjacks were designed to operate in shallow water, were inexpensive and relatively easy to build.

Workin' With the Wind by Doug Stephens (click here) is an account of a day spent aboard the Caleb W. Jones dredging for oysters,