– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Delaplane Delaplane is a small rural community in Fauquier County, Virginia. The village came into being after the building of the Manassas Gap Railroad in 1852. Construction of the railroad began the previous year at the junction of the existing Orange and Alexandria Railroad at what became known as Manassas Junction. The railroad headed west towards Front Royal, through the Manassas Gap in the...
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Erosion as Art I have been reading Rick Sammon’s book “Creative Visualization for Photographers”. This book is not a technique guide in the standard form. It is designed to help the photographer produce better images through ideas that may lead to better vision. Basically, the aim is to give you a better eye for an image and then post-processing it to elevate the result from a snapshot to a great...
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Railroad Baggage Carts A couple of weeks ago we revisited the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, Maryland. Whilst I was waiting for the steam locomotive to arrive I wandered around the historic depot. No matter the main attraction that takes you to something like a tourist train station, it is always worth taking some time to slowly explore the surroundings. As I was walking along...
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Model A Ford 4-Door Convertible In the last post we took a look at creating a reasonable facsimile of the historic era represented by the preserved Western Maryland Scenic Railroad’s Baldwin Consolidation 2-8-0 Locomotive. In that particular image patience was required to achieve the desired result. Today we see the how pure luck can also play a key role in finding and creating a great image...
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Isaiah Davenport House The Isaiah Davenport House is a historic house in Savannah, Georgia. It is located on the northwest corner of Columbia Square, one of six additional squares added to the original Oglethorpe Plan in the late 1790s. This federal-style home was built in 1820 by Isaiah Davenport for his growing household as well as a means of showing his considerable building skills. Details of...
– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – San Juan Bautista Parish Church In last week’s post we looked at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Here we turn round 180 degrees to see the Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes which brought about the shrine. This 8-foot tall bronze statue still sits atop the pedestal outside San Juan...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Washington County Courthouse Washington County Courthouse in Abingdon, Virginia was built in 1869. It is the fifth building to serve as a courthouse for the county since it was established on December 7, 1776. Washington County was named for George Washington before he was elected President and is the first...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes is in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, about 25 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Pueblo was founded around 1200 by the Tewa people. The Spanish arrived in 1598 making this the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico. The Spanish conquistador, Don...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Itmann Gas Station Across the road from the Itmann Company Store, which we looked at in the last post was a small gas station. Like the Company Store this gas station is long closed. I have not been able to find out if this gas station was run by the Pocahontas Fuel Company but the location makes me believe it...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Itmann Company Store Itmann can only be described as a coal town. The town of less than 300 people is dominated by the Itmann Company Store and Office. This Classical Revival style complex constructed using local sandstone is perhaps West Virginia’s most spectacular surviving piece of coalfield architecture....
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Navajo Brave Statue I have a collection of images of statues and sculptures such as this one of a Navajo Brave outside a gallery in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona. The fun with these is to try and produce something different than a simple copy of the original piece of art. Although the expression on the face of...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Thurmond, West Virginia As we saw in last week’s post, Thurmond, West Virginia was built around the railroad and its service to the coal industry in the Appalachian Mountains of Southern West Virginia. Today we will look at how the rest of the town expanded and, just as rapidly, declined with the combined...
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– Click on the image to enlarge or purchase – Maybe Spring Is Here At Last I was going to be optimistic and just call this post Spring Is Here At Last but having been caught out a couple of times so far this year I decided to add the “Maybe”. Here in the Mid-Atlantic we have had at least two false dawns as far as spring goes where temperatures...
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