A Photo day at Rockwood

kw: photography, nature, sightseeing

In May I visited Rockwood Park and Museum to scout the area for a photographic field trip (and posted on it here). Today was the field trip, with four photography students. I've put just a few more photos here, and you can click on each for a somewhat bigger version (up to 800px).

This is the house, from a bit different angle than before. I hoped to get a good picture of the other side of the house and its veranda, but it is being maintained, and there are blue tarps everywhere. This image is a panorama from three vertical images, so it is pretty wide angle, about 140°.

As luck would have it, today was the first summery day, warm and humid, that we've had this year. It has been a cool Summer so far along the mid-Atlantic. Nonetheless, we rather lackadaisically strolled about the grounds and tried out all kinds of photography. Since all the students this time are experienced in landscape photography, we spent much more time on intimate shots and even macro images.

Of course, we could not pass up the architecture. This "fruit cellar", which I can't tell from a root cellar, is not far from the main house. It could keep fruit longer just as a refrigerator can, for the same reason. Shaded by trees and built into the ground, it would stay 20°-30°F (~12°C) cooler than the house.

It seems we spent the first half hour making sure everyone could recognize poison ivy. The stuff is everywhere along the pathways outside the immediate grounds about the house. I didn't take any pictures of it; maybe I will for a future post.

Near the parking lot is "Edward's play house", now in ruins. Before the students arrived, I had my wife take this picture of me taking its picture. People have been wondering what I look like: I look like a tubby middle-aged guy, yes?

Perhaps this, or a similar shot, will be used by the Darlington folks for the promotion of future photography workshops. If you live in the West Chester/Concordville/Wilmington area, have a look at Darlington Arts Center as a place to learn music, dance, theater, and fine arts…and occasionally, photography.

The students were all interested in close-up and macro photography. These days it is pretty simple to put your camera in "flower" mode. Waiting for a live subject to "pose" is another story. In this case, it took a few minutes before this wild bee landed on a coneflower close to me, then I shot as soon as she crawled around the flower head. This is a full-resolution clip, a small part of the whole image.

It turned into quite a nature tour at one point: a few frogs and a snake, but I didn't get any usable photos of them. I was busy keeping everyone together. But there were enough insects to get another shot or two.

For example, this dragonfly kept landing on the same rock, so by keeping still a while, I got close enough for this somewhat distant shot. Again, this is a full-resolution clip from a much bigger image. To do justice to insects, I need to use a longer lens so I can photograph them without spooking them.

We were scheduled for four hours together, but the students all agreed they'd got what they came for by the three hour mark. We'd stopped and gone into the museum's ticket shop to get water, and it had begun to rain. I'm glad they liked it. It made for a pleasant day away from the office, and when I got home I had a nice, refreshing nap.