The Angel of the Confederacy

You often forget when you live in our country that just about 150 years ago our country was involved in a deep civil war. I think in many respects the North was immortalized and in many respects the South was forgotten by many.  I don't think that this is a function of their bravery, or their heroics in battle, but rather what their cause is so often associated with. I am not trying to get into a debate over the root cause of the Civil War I am simply attempting to get people to remember that just because the South was fighting for something you may or may not believe in, those boys did not have much of a choice when their country called. Living in Maryland we get an interesting perspective as we were a swing state in the Civil War, and live in the direct area of many famous battles. While down town there is a larger statue to commemorate the Union I did not know about this until it was literally right on top of me. But nestled in the art district of Baltimore I found this angel and I was even more surprised that this was a memorial that sought to immortalize the Confederacy. I guess I liked it even more because to me this screamed to not forget that in both sides of the bloodiest war in American history men fought and died and while you may not agree with their morals, you have to respect their resolve. I really like this statue. 

Life and Death - The Chincoteague Conundrum

Ahh the story behind this photo. I was spending the weekend with my new in-laws at Chincoteague Island, Maryland and I had really been trying to take some pictures all weekend and I just hadn’t gotten a chance. Finally the skies cleared up, and my camera was actually on me and so the wife and I went out on bike looking for good lighting and shots. I had been watching these birds here near the bridge all weekend. They tilt their head to the side and wait and watch for the fish and when they finally get the fish in their sites they attack. I guess the most amazing part for me is that they are not a small animal by any means but they are so much faster than the fish. I knew I needed to capture the motion on when photographing these birds so I adjusted my shutter speed to be high at 1/1000. Turned out well I love the fish in his mouth jumping for its life as the bird tosses him back in his pallet. I think I took about 20 photos of this guy before I was able to get one or two I really like. I have another I just have not decided if I am going to post it. Well shortly after taking this pictures it began to sprinkle and when I looked up the skies had turned to black. We rode as fast as we could to a local Dairy Queen got some Ice Cream and waited out the storm. What a day!  

Update: Since I am importing this from my old blog I guess I get to update people on some interesting information. My mother was redesigning her bathroom as I was going through my Iphoto library she saw this shot, she had to have it! She blew it up and its hanging in there. It was the first piece of my work that actually was printed and framed, needless to say I was very excited.

I also decided to go head and post the second photo with this post, so here it is. Yet again, really high shutter speed to get the water just dripping.