Assateague Island, MD – Wild Horses and Windswept Beaches

Assateague Island is on Maryland’s Eastern shore, on the Atlantic Ocean – just a few miles south of Ocean City, but what a difference. There is none of the hustle and bustle of the hotels and tourist industry, instead, just a peaceful nature preserve, with pristine white sand beaches, very family friendly – and above all, there is peace and quiet.Of course, I didn’t go alone… the whole family was there, and the kids had a great time in spite of the wind and cold water.

One of the unique features of Assateague Island (and believe me, this IS unique – is the population of wild horses. Yes, genuine horses in the wild. Of course, they are correctly termed as “feral” horses, animals that were once domesticated, but which have escaped and bred in the wild over the past few hundred years.

The official record has it that these horses are descendants of domestic animals that Eastern Maryland farmers permitted to graze on the island. They apparently avoided the mainland taxes on the horses, and saved the expense of fencing them in. After all, where would they go on an Island that is little more than a sand bank?

I like to think that perhaps they were survivors from a shipwreck that made it to shore? Or even more intriguing, perhaps they were the property of pirates and salvagers that made their home on that narrow barrier island. I prefer this explanation for the horses on the island rather than the prosaic one of avoiding taxes. The horses are very handsome beasts – they are skittish of course, and it’s best not to get too close, since they can bite and kick, causing serious injury.

I observed tourists feeding and trying to approach the animals in spite of the many warnings and threats of citations and fines. People just don’t appreciate how dangerous a 2000 lb beast can be. Still, the horses frequent the grassy verge by the roads and can be spotted all over. The herd on the Maryland side of the island is estimated at about 300 beasts. The Virginia end is also a National Seashore preserve, with approximately the same number of animals.

The whole place has a magical quality to it… the clean beaches, the wildness of the Atlantic in Spring, when the water is still very cold, the horses, the twisted trees and shrubs that are hardy enough to survive the rugged conditions, and of course, the calmness of the Bay side of the island, the warm sun – all make for a perfect day trip.

The facilities on the island are primitive, but sufficient. It’s best to pack lots of cold drinks and a substantial picnic lunch. And a couple of folding chairs to lounge in. It’s also very windy in the Spring, so a windcheater type jacket is a good idea. I tried to fly my big box kite, but the wind was so strong that the line almost sliced my fingers.

I had taken my Minolta with a Phoenix 28-105mm and a Tamron 70-300mm lens, and an Olympus OM-2n with a Kiron 28-210mm super zoom – the famous cult classic lens. I had also lugged along my Spiratone 400mm f/6.3 preset lens, but did not get an occasion to use it. I had taken the zooms and the long telephoto in case I could not get near enough to get good pictures of the wild horses, but the horses were right by the roadside.

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Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Photographed with a Minolta Dynax 800si, Tamron 70-300mm lens, Fuji Superia 400 film, Circular polarizer 1/350 sec at f/13

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Photographed with a Olympus OM-2n, Kiron 28-210mm lens, Fuji Super HQ 200 film, Circular polarizer 1/125 sec at f/11

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The Beach has to be seen to be believed. In late Spring, it’s still cold and windy, so there aren’t many people around. Lots of surf fishermen though, trying for Bluefin and Sea Bass. That changes around Memorial Day and then the beach is packed all through Summer until Fall. I prefer the peace and quiet of the off-season, so our next trip will probably be late September or early October.

Dunes

Dunes

Surf Fishing

South Beach

North Beach

Photographed with a Olympus OM-2n, Kiron 28-210mm lens, Fuji Super HQ 200 film, Circular polarizer 1/125 sec at f/11

North Beach

North Beach

Bay Side, near Verrazano Bridge

Bay side, near Verrazano bridge

Photographed with a Minolta Dynax 800si, Tamron 70-300mm lens, Fuji Superia 400 film, Circular polarizer 1/350 sec at f/13

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olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2007 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

 

Catoctin Mountain – Cunningham Falls and Hunt Lake

Sunayana, Vasudev and I went back up to Cunningham Falls and Hunt Lake up in Frederick County on Sunday, March 25th. The falls are a short hike from the Lake, and we hiked up the shorter lower trail and returned by the tougher Cliff trail. We took a picnic lunch which we ate by Hunt Lake – it’s still early in the season, so there were very few people around, which was nice. I understand that it gets crowded during the summer.

Hunt creek is a clear, cold trout stream, which means that the water is of very high quality (The trout love the cold, in fact, they’d die if the stream temperature went above 68 degrees). The white sand beach out there is really fun. I had the OM-1 with a Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm lens, and a Quantaray 28mm f/2.8 that I received unexpectedly as part of a bundle of equipment I had purchased a while ago. I also had the Ricoh 500G Rangefinder.

A note on filters –
# I used a Hoya polarizer on the Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm, which got reid of the reflections and darkended the sky on the lake photographs, but the vignetting is apparent at the wide angle end. The 28-90mm Vivitar is a Komine made lens, and is a superb optic.
# Although the trees havent yet leafed out, the mosses growing on the rocks, and in the stream and the natural greenish gray rocks themselves are reflecting enough green light to cause a green tinge in the woodland photos with the Quantaray 28mm. I thought the Skylight 1a filter with its pale rose would be enough to counter the green tinge so early in the season, but I was wrong. It seems that a CC20 or CC30 filter is needed.

Ricoh 500G

Ricoh 500G

Photographed with a Ricoh 500G rangefinder, 1/250 second at f/16 on Fujicolor 200 HQ Super film

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OM-1, 28-90mm at 90mm

OM-1, 28-90mm at 28mm

Photographed with an Olympus OM-1, Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm f/2.8-3.6 lens, 1/250 second at f/11 on Fujicolor 200 HQ Super film and Hoya Polarizer. Note the vignetting due to the Polarizer on the shots at 28mm.

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OM-1, Quantaray 28mm f/2.8

OM-1, Quantaray 28mm f/2.8

OM-1, Quantaray 28mm f/2.8

OM-1, Quantaray 28mm f/2.8

Photographed with an Olympus OM-1, Quantaray 28mm f/2.8 lens at 1/250 second at f/16 (exposed for middle range) with Skylight 1A filter on Fujicolor 200 HQ Super film. An f/11 aperture or wider would have probably been better for capturing the details in the shadows.

 

Hiking the White Trail at Sugarloaf

A couple of weeks ago, Jayaram and I took off intending to explore the white trail at Sugarloaf mountain. The white trail is one of several hiking trails, and its about 3 miles around the middle of the mountain, and takes one around the eastern slope where you can see some of the largest Tulip trees and oaks, and also some of the areas that have been hit with Gypsy moth induced oak decline. This has been a persistent problem in Eastern forests, and I sincerely hope researchers come up with a viable solution to stop further losses.

Anyway, we picked a nice afternoon for the hike, when the temperature was in the mid-fifties, and hardly any wind. Perfect weather. The trail at the upper levels still had lots of snow and ice, and there was plenty of slush and wet mud to navigate in some places. The trail is poorly marked in some spots, and we had to guess at a couple of places, but we eventually made it all round in about 2 hours. I’d rate this as a moderate trail, and a walking stick is a great help in some places, although it would be easier in summer.

I was traveling light, so I had just carried the Ricoh 500G rangefinder. Here are some of the pictures. I don’t trust the meter on the Ricoh, so I used the Sunny f16 rule on all the shots.

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White Trail #1	White Trail #2 – Jayaram
White Trail #3 – AJ	White Trail #4

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White Trail #5

White Trail #6

White Trail #7 – Oak Decline

White Trail #8

White Trail #9

White Trail #10 – Strong Offices

White Trail #11 – Duckpond

White Trail #12- Duckpond

White Trail #13 – Autostitched

Photographed with a Ricoh 500G rangefinder (40mm f/2.8, 1/250 second at f/11) on Fujicolor Super HQ 200 ASA.

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More from the White Trail – these pictures were taken on another hike at Sugarloaf mountain that Sunayana and I had taken a couple of weeks earlier. This time the camera was an Olympus Trip 35. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was low, which accounts for the yellowish light.

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

White Trail – Olympus Trip 35

Photographed with an Olympus Trip 35 (40mm f/2.8, Zone focusing) Fujicolor Super HQ 200 ASA. Zone setting 3 meters and at landscape.

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text and images © 2007 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners.

 

Woodland photography – avoiding the ghastly green

If you’ve ever tried photographing a person standing in the cool-green leafy shade of a tree in summer, then you would have noticed that the picture has a definite greenish tinge from the light filtering through the canopy, or reflected off of the surrounding greenery. It’s ghastly. There’s no other way to describe it. It doesnt matter what complexion we’re dealing with here — fair or dark, the green tinge makes your subject look like a zombie that has contracted jaundice. Summer will soon be here, and with it, the lush greenery… and adventures in the great outdoors.

All right, so aren’t going to hike the Gold Mine trail at Great Falls or hike around Cunningham State Park where the high canopy cuts off ALL direct light. Perhaps we’re just shooting in our backyards. It’s usually so warm that friends and family tend to congregate in any spot that affords shelter from the fierce Maryland summer sun, which is usually a big old oak tree. If you’re like me and only carried a UV, 1A or polarizer on your lens, be prepared for the “ghastly green” and all the complaints from friends and relatives that you made them look terrible. I got so sick of this that on a couple of occasions I shot family gatherings in black & white – which led to another kind of complaint – that I am so retro. Big deal. Family is very hard to please.

Late last summer, I finally figured out the right kind of filter. Its was something that I’d never used before, and I wouldn’t even have thought of it. A Magenta filter. More specifically, a CC10M, CC20M or CC30M magenta filter. These filters hold back green, kind of like a FLD filter under fluorescent lights. The CC20M and CC30M filter can also be used for photography under mixed fluorescent lighting to cut the yellow green tinge, but their effect isn’t as pronounced as a dedicated FLD filter The CC10M or CC20M is ideal for woodland photography – complexions are restored to healthy looking colors and yellows are Yellow. Did I mention that yellows turn blue-green in the shade of green trees? What I don’t like — magenta filters tend to be expensive, so look for a decent used one.

I first got a used 72mm sized Vivitar CC30M filter, and I planned to use step down adapters for all my other lenses. Then some kind soul included a 62mm CC20M filter along with a camera outfit I bought, since they had no use for it anymore. I did the research, and apparently the FLD filter for fluorescent lighting is a fairly recent innovation. Old timey photographers back in the 70’s and early 80’s apparently used Magenta filters all the time. Anyway, I am looking forward to better woodland photography this Summer. I hike all through the year, and my pictures thus far are a wash. Maybe I’ll have better luck in 2007.

See what I mean? Ghastly green!

green tinge #1	green tinge #2
green tinge #3	green tinge #4 – the Tshirt didn’t help

Photographed with an Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens 1/250 second at f/11 on Fuji 200 film (#1 and #2) Kodak 200 film (#3 and #4)

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text and images © 2007 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners.

 

Detours: House with the Red Door

I was driving around in the countryside around Westminster last Fall when I came up on this little country road that lost itself between the trees. Intrigued, I got off the main road and drove down the country road for few miles, stopping occasionally to take a photograph of the fall colors. The paved road ended after a couple of miles, and became a gravel road which in turn ended at a cornfield, but as I approached the end of the road, I spotted this house through the trees. I stopped there for a few minutes to savor the crisp, cool air and the calm serenity of the wooded acreage. I envy the owner, what a wonderful retreat from the busy world.

I had the OM-1 fitted with a 50mm f/1.8 lens lens — which was good, since it was overcast and the light was poor. However, what little light there was shone through the beautifully colored fall leaves, and made them glow. The tall, straight trunks of the yellow poplars provided the perfect framework, and their textured bark seems to change patterns in the dim light.

I don’t think any photograph can do justice to Nature. Metal and glass lenses and chemical film emulsions are just not able to see the world as our eyes do. At best, they can reproduce an image that triggers memories for the photographer, recalling the richness of the original scene. And perhaps, fire the imaginations and inspire yearning in others who have only seen the photograph.

Door #1	Door #2
Door #3	Door #4

Door #5

Door #6

Door #7

Photographed with an OM-1, Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens, 1/125 sec at f/11 on Fuji Xtra 200 film. I probably would have got better results if I had opened up another stop.

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text and images © 2007 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners.