Imagine There's An Image

Here's another image from early last Thursday morning in Eastport. In between snapping photos of the Annapolis side of Spa Creek, I spotted this gentleman serenely rowing his little punt upstream. Luckily, I had my Sigma 70-300mm lens mounted, so I zoomed out to the max and started following him in my viewfinder.

By himself, with just the waters of the creek around him, it didn't seem like much of an image. He was far enough away that even at 300mm, he only filled five percent or so of the frame. But as he passed the Annapolis Yacht Club, the water sprouted vivid reflections. Seeing him and his little punt against a background of megabuck yachts fired one of those special brain cells reserved for irony, and I fired the shutter in response.

I really like this image, but I fear it's too busy. That was my worry even as I shot it.

But as my guy continued up Spa Creek, I thought I might catch him in an open patch of water between a set of supports for the Spa Creek Drawbridge. The large concrete structures provided a dramatic, but visually simpler, context than at the Yacht Club. The early morning sun had set the water on fire with reflections of glowing amber.

All this went through my mind in an instant. Or did it? Maybe I just took what I thought was a pretty picture and am only just now deconstructing it to determine why I took it. I really don't know. In any event, it was a good catch, and I'm glad to have been, for a change, in the right place at the right time with the enough "reach" in my lens to capture it.

Maritime Republic of Eastport

I keep mentioning Eastport and referring to it as "across Spa Creek from Annapolis." Annapolitans regard Eastport as part of Annapolis, although, to quote from the website of The Maritime Republic of Eastport,

...the Maritime Republic of Eastport was founded on Super Bowl Sunday, 1998, when patriots residing on the Horn Point peninsula rose up in revolt against the snobbish suppression of "Annapolis Proper" across the harbor

The MRE does look like the part of Annapolis where all the work gets done, the part of town where an Igloo lunchbox seems more appropriate than a French waiter. Somebody's got to make and repair all those boats to fill all those marina slips to bolster Annapolis' boast of being "Sailing Capital of the World," and that job falls to Eastport. The MRE has some large boatyards just over the drawbridge, and if you walk around, you'll stumble over smaller boatyards just about everywhere.

For those ITAI readers who are vexillologically inclined, here is a web page that describes the heraldry behind the flag of the MRE. It also includes a detailed account of Revolution that created the MRE. Great reading.

Ancient Imagery of the Future - See It Now!

Doh! After relating the very nice plug I got from Hin Chau on Photoblogs.org, I forgot to give you a link to Hin's amazing website, Ancient Imagery of the Future". This handsome bloke from Down Under has an eye you wouldn't believe! Just look at this beautiful amusement-park-ride photo - in Black & White, yet! And this unusal piece of street photography. There's a lot more. Go see it. Now.

My Mistake

In yesterday's post about Canadians toppling a Saddam-like statue of President Bush, I mistakenly called them Torontonians. Well, it's possible that there were some people from Toronto there, but the affair actually took place in Ottawa.

Also, to my great dismay, it turns out that the Canadians had a model to follow for this exhibition of ignorance and poor taste - a similar event in San Francisco last April. Looks like there was one in London earlier this year as well.