Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia

I hope I won’t spoil this little spot by telling you about it. On one of our visits to Mount Vernon, we decided to meander on down the road, following the Potomac, to see where we’d get.

We stopped at a place called Fort Hunt, which is across the river from Fort Washington (you can see a map of them here). I guess at some point these two forts were used to control water traffic toward the capital, but they weren’t in use anymore. They are now parks and they are open to the public.

As we continued driving south, a little place called out to us. From the road, it only looked like a little parking lot, and perhaps we were simply looking to stretch our legs once more — or something told us to stop. We did, and as you’ll see in the photographs, it was well worth it. The shoreline of the Potomac is special there. The river flows by quietly and you get these little ripples in the water that look wonderful in the light of the late afternoon. Round little pebbles of all colors are mixed with the yellow mud and brown sand on the shore, and when the light hits all of them just right, it makes for magical little vignettes that capture your imagination.

I didn’t have GPS with me at the time, so I had to guesstimate the location 10 years after having visited it, but after spending about half a day looking at maps and satellite imagery, I believe this spot is the Collingwood Picnic Area on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Perhaps it’s changed since we visited it and these photos represent a certain moment in time when things simply came together. I don’t know. I’ll let you rediscover the place. Enjoy the photos!

Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Fort Hunt, Maryland
Collingwood Picnic Area, Virginia
Across the Potomac River from Fort Hunt, Maryland
Fort Hunt, Maryland
Fort Hunt, Maryland

Places

Summer in our garden

I promised I’d put together a gallery of photos taken in our garden last summer (that’d be the summer of 2018 for those of you who’ll be reading this in future years), and here it is.

Get ready to see 347 photos of summertime, taken between June and August of last year. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy! 😀

A two-frame focus stack
A three-frame focus stack. The little speck you see in the upper left quadrant is a tiny little insect.
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack at f2.8 🙂
A two-frame focus stack
I prefer them unpicked 🙂
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
A three-frame focus stack
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
A two-frame focus stack
An adorable little creature
A two-frame focus stack
A four-frame focus stack
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
A four-frame focus stack
A three-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
A three-frame focus stack
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
An eight-frame focus stack, taken with my Olympus PEN E-P3, the 45mm f1.8 lens and the MCON-P02 converter
One of our small cypress trees is recovering after almost drying out

Events

Photos from a recent snowstorm

I know late winter snowfalls are a hassle for most people. I know. Especially after spring seems to have arrived. Having to deal with piles of snow after dealing with it all winter long is not fun for most people.

I am not most people. I love winter. I love snow. I love the cold. And when more cold weather comes, I enjoy it. Like this recent snowstorm. I went outside and took photos in the thick of it. Came back wet, because the snow was melting as it was falling. My camera was thoroughly wet. My lens was wet. Neither of the two are waterproofed. Thank goodness they’re still working.

Remember, it’ll be warm soon enough, and before we know it, it’ll be so disgustingly warm that we’ll be sweating through our clothes and our cars’ ACs won’t be able to handle all the heat. That’s disgusting weather for me. That’s filthy weather for me. It’ll be here soon enough, unfortunately. So I’m going to relish the snowstorms while I still can.

Enjoy the photos!

This is melting snow, cradled in the curled leaf of a honeysuckle vine.
This tree is over 30 years old
During a recent snowstorm
During a recent snowstorm
Blowing in the wind of a recent snowstorm
Sitting under one of our fir trees during the snowstorm. She’d come outside to be with me as I was taking photos.

We had a beautiful night snowfall recently and even though it was after midnight, Ligia and I went out to walk through the garden. You may know these nights well if you live in a temperate climate. They tend to stick in your memory. Everything is quiet, eerily quiet. Even the sound of your own voice is muffled by the falling snow. If you’re in a town, the ambient light from houses and streetlights reflects off the blanket of white snow and shines right up to the clouds, which are near to the ground, weighed down by the water droplets that will become snow as they fall to the ground. So the whole sky typically shines a tint of yellow from the town lights, and it also reflects that light down onto the snow, lighting everything up even though there’s no moon in sight.

It was that kind of a night when we stepped out. Thick, well-defined snowflakes were slowly making their way down, stopping on branches, building up into impossible mounds on the thinnest of twigs. In the absence of a breeze, everything was frozen as if in awe, admiring the falling snow in concert. We walked through our garden, wading through the powdery white blanket, stopping to breathe the cold, refreshing winter air and to give thanks for the beauty before us.

I hope the photos reflect the atmosphere of that night. They were taken handheld with a 35mm lens at its widest aperture (f1.8) and at at a fairly high ISO (as high as 10000). That means not everything is going to be in focus and there is going to be plenty of grain. But that’s how I typically shoot: handheld, even in low light. I’m more interested in capturing the mood, the moment, than in having everything tack sharp or in setting up a tripod shot.

Events

A winter night

It was still spring (26th of May) and a soothing spring rain had just fallen over our town. Raindrops were hanging on flower petals, leaves and blades of grass. The air had been freshened up and any breeze flowing through the garden made you shudder, now that the air and the earth had cooled off. You just wanted to curl up with a nice cup of coffee — which is just what I did after I took these photos. Enjoy the gallery!