by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Jun 29, 2013 | Photo Tours, Photo Workshops, Tangier Island, Travel, Wildlife
Black Skimmer with fish flying over beach.
TANGIER ISLAND Photo Workshop
See Website for details (Schedule) & Photo Gallery: www.ospreyphoto.com
21-31 May 2015
In the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, just south of the Maryland line, is Tangier Island, VA. It is actually a series of small islands connected by narrow wooden bridges spanning marshes and tidal creeks. Tangier is a charming community and home to waterman who make their living, as did their ancestors, crabbing, fishing, and oystering. At dawn, we will photograph the waterman as they motor out to their crab shanties to gather supplies for the day. From a boat I charted, we will be able to capture images of the offshore structures and crabbers as they work.
Workboat at Sunset
We will also explore the beach, tidal creeks, and wetlands in search of wildlife – ducks, herons, skimmers, pelicans, and osprey which nest in large numbers nearby. Includes golf cart transportation, 2 nights at B&B, and image critiques.
Sunrise Tangier Island
Tangier Island Description
Just south of the Maryland line, in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, lies Tangier Island, VA. Covering approximately 1.2 square miles, Tangier Island is actually a series of small islands connected by a series of narrow wooden bridges spanning marshes and tidal creeks.
Dunlin. Visit the island during the spring.
Tangier is a charming community of waterman and shop owners, often referred to as the soft crab capital of the world. Many born on the island speak a unique dialect of English dating back to the language used by those who settled the island from Cornwall England. For visitors, animated conversations between islanders can be somewhat difficult to understand. Inhabitants make their living as did their ancestors for more than 400 years by crabbing, fishing, and oystering. Each day well before dawn, the waterman depart the island for their off shore docks and crab shanties to retrieve their crab pots, soft crab scrapes, floats, and other gear required to harvest the blue crabs which are abundant near the island. After hours on the water, they return to off load their catch for shipment back to the mainland and to tend to their soft crab shedding tanks. It is a difficult life, with long days at the mercy of the weather and seas.
Wildlife is plentiful in the marshes, creeks, beaches, and waters surrounding the island. Ducks, geese, herons, rails, shorebirds, terns, and pelicans take advantage of the abundant food supply and shelter.
To the delight of photographers, there is a healthy population of ospreys with many nesting on nearby structures and soaring overhead.
Isolated from the mainland, Tangier can only be reached by boat or small plane. Golf carts replace cars as the primary mode of transportation on the island since the streets are narrow and barely wide enough for 2 carts to pass. It’s a peaceful community with friendly people and no traffic lights or violent crime. There are no banks, arcades, and only 2 bed and breakfast accommodations. Bring cash since not all establishments accept credit cards. Cell phone connection difficult. Limited Wi-Fi.
Tangier Island is worth a visit for a rare opportunity to photograph a unique way of life that is slowly disappearing. Potential subjects include work boats, offshore crab shanties & docks, working waterman, an active waterfront, birds, beaches, and lots more. Best times to visit – mid April to early Oct. Favorite B&B – Bay View Inn (photo below).
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | May 14, 2013 | Digital Cameras, Nature, Photo Technique, Wildlife
Heading upstairs at a friend’s house, I looked out the large window facing the backyard and spotted two squirrels rolling around in a ball on the grass. I was fascinated by their antics but was skeptical that I could get shots of the action. I took a chance and I ran back downstairs and grabbed my Nikon D4 camera fitted with the newer 80-400 mm lens. To avoid detection and disturbing the action, I had to shoot from inside through glass, a technique that typically results in less than satisfactory results. Luckily the pane was clear and recently cleaned. I removed the lens shade and moved the lens face close to the window to avoid reflections. Since the squirrels were in moderate shade, I had to increase my ISO to 1250, an ISO easily handled by the D4. See the results here and in a small album on Facebook.com/ospreyphotoworkshops
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Mar 24, 2013 | Digital Cameras, Editing Software, Photo Editing
Lexi
Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 is a great software program for organizing and editing digital images and runs on both PC and MAC computers. Priced at under $ 64.00 on Amazon, it is far more affordable than its big brother Adobe Photoshop CS6, costing relatively $600.00. Despite its inexpensive price, Elements is a very powerful program, intuitive and is easy to use. It even has some of the sophisticated editing tools found in CS such as masks, layers, and selections. It is designed to meet the needs of most amateur photographers whereas Photoshop CS is more complex and more suitable for graphic artists and pro photographers. Elements consists of two modules – the Organizer & Editor. With the organizer, you can import images into your computer, rank them, and arrange them in a way that you can easily retrieve the images at a later date using file names, captions, keywords, file size, camera, locations, events, people’s names, and much more. With the Editing module, you can enhance your images producing photographs suitable for display. You can crop; straighten; sharpen; correct color casts; reduce noise, remove dust specks; cover distractions; add text; soften wrinkles; and adjust exposure, color saturation, and contrast. You can prepare images for printing, e-mail, and posting on the web plus to create cards, calendars and slide shows. For those with little experience editing, Elements provides “Guided Edits” that take you step-by-step thru the editing process including creating more complex effects such as vignettes. For little money, the Elements provides a great introduction to the editing process. Why not display your images at home and in the office and share memories with friends and family in e-mails and on Facebook and the web?
Look for my Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, Basic Editing Class in August in White Marsh, MD. Class size limited to 6. For the best price for the program, check out www.Amazon.com
by Osprey Photo Workshops & Tours | Mar 2, 2013 | Assateague, Chicoteague, horses, Wildlife
Assateague Island’s Wild Horses & the famous Chincoteague Ponies.
Most likely not the romantic notion that the horses are escapees from a shipwrecked Spanish Galion is not true. They are most likely descendants of domestic animals transported to Assateague Island in the 1600s to graze on marsh grasses, enabling their owners to avoid fencing laws and taxes on livestock. Sturdy animals, they are able to withstand the island’s heat, mosquitos, winds, salt spray, storms, and relatively poor food supply.
There are two separate herds, one in Maryland & one in Virginia on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. They are kept apart by a fence at the MD line. The herds have divided themselves into bands of 2 to 12 animals, each occupying their own home range. The MD herd is managed by the National Park Service and the horses have been left in a relatively wild state. The wild horses attract visitors to Assateague Island National Seashore, a favorite sighting amongst visitors. The herd size is controlled by using birth control. The southern herd is located on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and is owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Dept. They are visited by a veterinarian periodically, vaccinated, and provided with food when supplies of short. They are allow to graze on the National Wildlife Refuge by special permit and their numbers are limited to 150 in order to protect critical wildlife habitat and to avoid disturbing nesting birds such as the piping plover. Each year at the end of July, during the festival called “pony penning”, the horses are rounded up by the fire department’s “salt water cowboys” and swim from Assateague to Chincoteague Island where young foals are sold at auction, proceeds benefiting the Volunteer Fire Dept.
It’s a joy to watch the horses interact, but this is best done at a distance. Each year people get bitten or kicked when they approach too closely. Despite their friendly, docile appearance, they are still wild animals, not to be trusted. See my face book page (facebook.com/ospreyphotoworkshops) for a series of images of these magnificent animals.
Join me in a photo workshop on Assateague Island National Seashore, April 19-21, 2013. For info, contact Christina Hulslander 443-614-3547 or the Assateague Island Alliance at assateagueislandalliance@gmail.com. Check facebook.com/ospreyphotoworkshops for more images and details.
