The Shot: Spiderweb

As previous posts have hinted, I've always been a water girl - rivers & oceans have always had a pull over me.  My first trip to Colorado was mind-blowing, as just about anything over 20' tall was (and to a degree, still is) a mountain to me.  


Six years after moving to North Carolina, I had the opportunity to go to Asheville for my day job.  Driving west along I-40, the undulating hills of the Piedmont eventually lead into the Appalachians; when you hit exit 94, the ridges spill out endlessly towards the horizon and it still takes my breath away every time.


The day of my return to the Triangle, I had a few hours to spare in the morning.  The Blue Ridge Parkway was but a handful of blocks from my hotel, so I stopped by the Visitor's Center and took a run through the trail loop.  The views from here were nowhere near as spectacular as I would later discover elsewhere along the Parkway, but I found myself more captivated by the flora rather than the surrounding landscapes.



It was early fall and the air was beginning to become more crisp.  The broadleaf plants of the lower elevations were fewer in population, giving way to smaller flowers and evergreens.


I walked along the path, stumbling upon patches of mountain daisies, oak vines winding their way along the edge of the trail, and a squirrel that startled me just as much as I startled him.

About two-thirds of the way down the trail, I by chance looked to my left to find a large, yet delicate spiderweb glistening in the light filtering through the trees.  Its architect had wandered elsewhere, leaving behind her handiwork.  

Despite the surrounding peaks and valleys, on that morning, it was this that held my attention:

The Sites: North Carolina Coast

Until I moved to North Carolina, I'd always lived on or near water - it was part of the landscape.  While my proximity to water has disappeared in my daily life, I've had the opportunity to spend time along the North Carolina coast and explore some of the towns along the Outer and Inner Banks.

Jutting out into the Atlantic, the Outer Banks form the first line of defense for the various Sounds that accept the waters of North Carolina's rivers and estuaries.  Along the Inner Banks, some of the first settlements in the nation dot the Albemarle Highway and Civil War Trails.

Topsail Island

Topsail Island is one of many seasonal getaways, with its beach houses for rent along the shoreline.  Situated northeast of Wilmington, its northern end nestles against Camp LeJeune.  Beach erosion - like in so many places along the barrier islands of the state - threatens to reclaim the houses with every wave.

Chowan River & Roanoke Sound, Edenton

Edenton and Elizabeth City sit along the Chowan and Pasquotank Rivers, which open out into the Roanoke and Albermarle Sounds.  The rivers here have the bluest water I have ever seen and their sleepy waterfronts attract historical tourists and locals alike.

Wright Brothers Memorial, Kitty Hawk

Kitty Hawk is home to the Wright Brothers Memorial, the site of the first powered flight on a windy December day.  Concrete markers stand in the landing places of the first four flights; the first three are relatively short and close together, while the fourth is far out in the field of the memorial.  Kitty Hawk sits just north of Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head.  To the south, NC 12 takes travelers down along a narrow strip of sand towards Cape Hatteras, where it turns west to follow the rest of the coast.


All along the coast, the waves crash incessantly into the beach.  The sound fades into the background, a steady stream of white noise that just...is.  The rhythm of the waves seems to lull the year-round residents and tourists alike into a state of relaxation.  In the summer or in the fall, the coast beckons with its history, its seafood, its recreation, and its natural beauty.

The Equipment: SLR vs. Point-and-Shoot

After the great debate of digital vs. film, the next that inevitably follows is SLR vs. point-and-shoot.

When considering which style of camera to purchase, you need to consider your photo habits.  If the bulk of your pictures come from traveling, you want to think about both quick concealment and believable cover: sometimes you need to be able to excuse yourself for innocently wandering into that closed courtyard to get that shot, but most of the time, you want to blend in and avoid making yourself a target for muggers. 

Metro arrival; Madrid, Spain

Point-and-shoots can pack a lot of punch, if you do your research and are willing to shell out a little more money (but still hundreds less than even a basic SLR setup).  I chose my camera for its combination of power and portability - for me, being able to toss my camera in my satchel, purse or pocket is much more important for the type of photography that I do.  It also behooves me as a female traveler to avoid calling attention to myself.  Smaller point-and-shoots also allow for more spontaneous shots, as the only preparation required is typically just the installation of the battery.

On the other hand, SLR cameras give you much more control over your focal length, aperture, and shutter speed.  The interchangeable lens and flash packages also enhance your editorial options.  With these options comes a loss of portability and increased prep time, though, but for studio work and purposeful projects, they can capture impeccable images.  Telephoto lenses add an entirely new dimension to nature photography, especially because shooting a bumblebee is quite different from shooting just about any wild animal larger than a goose - when it comes to most wildlife, distance is not only your friend, it's your lifeline.

Of course, great pictures can be taken by basic - even disposable - cameras and even the most advanced camera can take horrible pictures in the hands of a user who hasn't learned to use it.  The key to great pictures inevitably comes down to learning the ins and outs of your equipment.  Weigh your options and whatever your choice, invest the time into learning to use the various features on your camera. 

The Sites: Saint Petersburg

If there is a place that started it all, it was Saint Petersburg.

Walking through Russia's Imperial capital is like spending time in a life-sized pop-up book.  The architecture is breath-taking; the history is palpable; the intersection of the past and the present is incredible.

I spent a summer here, the first and longest of several trips to this massive country.  My studies focused on late nineteenth-century Russian literature, particularly on the intellectuals and revolutionaries that inspired such works as Cherneshevsky's "What is to be Done?" and Dostoevsky's "Demons," along with the memoirs of Vera Figner and other members of the People's Will and other groups set upon overthrowing the tsars.  To walk along the same streets where these events - fictional and not - occurred was the culmination of my academic experience.  

Palace Square

The Russian sky is a thing of wonder: it constantly shifts from sun to clouds and back again, making layers and a packable raincoat utter necessities.  There are days when it is stark blue, off-set against the monuments and pastel buildings; there are days when the clouds look as though they are painted into the background.

SS Peter & Paul Fortress; 2am

Traveling here in the summer means a chance to experience the White Nights.  Due to its geography and latitude, the sun doesn't entirely set here in the weeks surrounding the summer solstice, casting an etheral glow over the city and an equally eery shade over its residents (Dostoevsky plays upon this in his short story of the same name). 

Church on Spilt Blood

Amongst all the beauties of this place, perhaps the churches are the most striking.  While the Communist regime worked diligently to purge as much religion as possible from the public eye - even going so far as to convert some churches into museums of atheism - these monuments to faith still dot the city landscape in their intricately crafted glory.  The Church on Spilt Blood perches precariously on the banks of the Griboedov Canal, upon the site of the assasination of Alexander II in 1881.  It is an explosion of color and mosaic, inside and out.  Its designs against the shifting Petersburg sky captures the eye and the lens.

Piskarovskoe Memorial Cemetary

While the Imperial history is hard to escape, modern events have left their scars as well.  The 900-day Siege of Leningrad during WWII remains in the forefront of residents' minds, making May 9's Victory Day celebratations more somber than their Moscow counterparts. Piskarovskoe Cemetary houses the largest collection of unmarked graves from those who perished during the blockade.  Stars mark the mounds that hold the bodies of soldiers, while hammers & sickles mark those of civilians; civilians far outnumber the soldiers. 

Siege of Leningrad Memorial

City streets still bear the marks of bombing runs.  The Memorial on the south end of the city is a somber and stirring place.  The museum inside recounts the timeline of the siege and the immense toll taken on the city; a metronome beats endlessly, echoing Leningrad Radio's broadcasts to assure listeners within and beyond the battle lines that the heartbeat of the city beat on during this dark time. 




I have yet to return to Russia since making the shift to digital, but when I do, I imagine my fascination with this place will only deepen, trying to capture all the details of its past as it simultaneously careens towards the future.

The Sites: New York City - American Museum of Natural History

I was that child who always wanted to play school rather than anything else.  I was that child who always had her nose in a book, even at the dinner table.  I was that child who believed that the exhibits in the museums came to life at night. 

You can imagine how excited I was about the Night at the Museum movies.  You can imagine how even more excited I was to spend a day exploring the American Museum of Natural History.

Founded in 1869, the Museum has grown to encompass over 32 million specimens and artifacts, along with temporary exhibits that rotate throughout the year.  It is a place that returns you almost instantly to that state of wide-eyed wonderment and curiosity that so many of us lose when we leave childhood.

Moose diorama, AMNH

The Hall of Mammals and the other wildlife dioramas located throughout the halls are some of the finest you'll find, with their scales ranging from the two-story coral reef in the Hall of Ocean Life (also home to a life-sized replica of a blue whale) to the smaller habitats of more common creatures like skunks and coyotes.  

Quartz, AMNH

The Hall of Minerals boasts an extensive collection and display of what are literally the building blocks of our lives: elements, rocks, compounds, crystals, gems, all of the parts that make up the whole of our existence.  The obvious beauty of a rare gemstone is one thing, but the complex simplicity of a quart crystal is another thing entirely. 

Barosaurus, Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, AMNH

However, I had really come here for one main reason: the Fossil Halls.  The AMNH boats the world's largest collection of vertebrate fossils, with rooms upon rooms of prehistoric creatures soaring and towering overhead.  
The Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda welcomes visitors with its towering Barosaurs, while the exhibition halls upstairs boast sauropod after theropod after mammoth, leaving you in complete awe of these creatures that once walked upon this same planet. 

The complex also houses a planetarium, a library, the requisite gift shops and cafes...all of those things that we have come to expect from our museums, if only because it has become more difficult for us to fathom spending time learning without commercializing it in some way. It was too much to take in for just one visit.  This will be a required stop on all subsequent trips to the city for me.