Williamsburg is Best in Fall and Winter

 I first set foot in Williamsburg 46 years ago and have returned there often, just to walk around or photograph.  There is no other place in the USA where preservation has tried to keep the place as it once looked to Jefferson, Washington, Lafayette and other contemporaries.  Or captured the spirit of the age so well.  I believe it is a bit idealized since everything is so perfectly kept.  Perhaps the aroma of the manure of the horses carrying the tourists around, brings back a touch of reality as to how the olden days really were.

 Williamsburg is both a college and a tourist town.  You can tell the college kids because they will be jogging, riding bicycles or working as interpreters for Colonial Williamsburg…not all of them…just the young ones. The Gen-X tourists are all pushing baby strollers or yelling at kids.  Those of the golden age, chasing the tour leader, just walking around looking at maps, or waiting in line to get into one of the Taverns.  And then the photographers; always in the way messing up my images.

 Every year Colonial Williamsburg decorates for Christmas.  Competitions for awards enhance the originality and variety of the wreaths, not two are alike even if placed in the windows and doors of the same building.  In the 1970’s I used to go there and photograph the doors and made Christmas Cards with them…it was fun.  This alone is worth a visit and the best time is the week before Christmas when visitors are not numerous and parking spaces can be found.

 There also window decorations just as elaborate as those in the doors.  I should mention that these wreaths are all made with “organic materials” but do not know if they are from GMO certified farms.  Yes, the fruits, grasses and greens are real.  Lots of  expense and work has gone into fabricating these decorations.

 The enactors do add a special touch to the place.  They are all dressed in the attires of the 17^th-18^th centuries and speak in the slang of the time (wonder how they know how people sounded back them).  They just don’t talk but work as if they were really back in history…they will discuss issues related to the period but if you ask about events that occurred after their historical period, they would say they have no knowledge of such subjects.  It is worthwhile spending sometime visiting them, they are patient, courteous and really knowledgeable about the time period they represent.

 Time to move on, this is a “must visit place” thanks to the vision of John D, Rockefeller Jr and his wife Aldrich, whose interest and support preserved this historical town.  If you are short of time, an hour walk up and down the Duke of Gloucester Street will provide most of that is worth seen.

15th Annual Mattaponi Pow Wow

During the Memorial Weekend, I went to the Mattaponi Indian Pow Wow in King William County, Virginia.  The tribe was one of the six under Chief Powhatan, father of the famous Pocahontas, who married one of the Captain John Smith's officers.  The latter founded Jamestown, the first English colony near present Williamsburg.

The event started with a parade followed by a speech by the Chief, drumming, dances and exhibits regarding the Mattaponi culture.  This is the first Native American celebration that I have attended.  Their friendship and well as their food was outstanding.  I had the best "corn on the cob" ever!!!

I found photographing the event challenging.  There was a circle within which all the events took place, providing a difficult background.  Nevertheless, the images of the dancers and their attires were captured with beautiful vivid colors.

The Mattaponi have a long history of struggle in preserving their culture and lands from the English colonials as well as the Americans after the War of Independence.  During their various treaties, they were attacked during the Bacon Rebellion and the Iroquois wars.

Their official recognition as a tribe as well as ownership of their lands has been challenged since the arrival of the British but they were able to preserve them.  Thomas Jefferson defended their lands from encroachment while he was governor of Virginia.  The tribe has been recognized by the government of Virginia and has their own government.

The name of the tribe comes from the Mattaponi River, whose name was derived from the confluence of the Ma, Ta, Po and Ni rivers.  It flows into the York River. For a more regarding the Pow Wows, go to: http://virginiaindians.pwnet.org/today/pow_wows.php

HDR Images from South West Virginia.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a fairly new method of photographing a subject various times using different exposures and then overlaying/merging them into a single digital image. HDR application results in images that cover most of the light dynamic range visible to the human eye. Basically a static subject is selected and photographed with a camera in a tripod to avoid any shake of the camera will result in blurry images. Once the subject is framed and the lens manually focused, several exposures are made by using the same f stop but changing the shutter speed. The number of exposures varies and depends on the photographer’s preference and the dynamic range of the subject. I usually take 5 images for example at 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60 and 1/30 but may select from 3 to 5 of those to compress into the final image. It is possible to create a HDR image from just one photograph by changing the exposure of the images by +/- one f stop from the original. Then these images are compressed digitally into one and further manipulated in Photoshop or other image software. I use a full frame sensor camera for HDR.

The Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia offer unlimited photographic opportunities particularly in the autumn when the tree leaves change colors. I was probably 10 days late for the colorful show; it is still a great time to go. I drove around the back roads and stopped whenever I saw some scenery appropriate for HDR. I first stopped in Narrows a small town in Rt. 61 close to border with West Virginia. It has a small park where Wolf Creek is impounded creating a small lake across which there was the red barn above. I was attracted to it by its red color and the reflections in the water.

About 1000 feet downstream, the spillover for the dike that forms the lake is located.
I decided to see what results the moving water would create in the HDR image so I tried
with the results were more pleasant than expected.

That afternoon I drove to Mabry Mill in the Blue Ridge Parkway but the lighting was not
right so decided to return the next morning. I was greatly rewarded with ideal lighting conditions as seen below.

The mill goes back to the early 1900’s, started as a blacksmith shop, then a sawmill, and finally as a grist mill by 1914. This mill according to the information is the most photographed item in the Blue Ridge Parkway. Notice the difference in color between this image and the previous one; lighting conditions were the same but the images had different dynamic ranges and were processed differently. Could I repeat the process? No.

In the way back home down Rt. 8, I passed by several covered bridges near the village of Stuart and photographed 3 of them. I found Bobwhite Bridge the most attractive; it is an 80-foot truss construction bridge over the Smith River built in 1921.