Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortugas NP - NAPP Editor's Pick week of 08/07/06

Dixie

This is a scene inside Fort Jefferson which is located on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida. For those who don't know, the road ends in Key West, but another 70 miles further west is located the Dry Tortugas NP. You can only get there by seaplane or boat. Economics dictated that I took the boat.

I spend a great 4 1/2 hours there and now have plans to go back this coming winter for 3 nights and four days. Yep, having fun in a tent. I met some of the volunteers and rangers who've promised to show me some of the best shots when I get back.

I was happily surprised when this image was picked as an Editor's Pick for this week on the NAPP portfolio site. Link to my NAPP Portfolio.

Suggestions and comments always welcome.

Click the image for EXIF data.

erich6

Congrats Dixie. It's a very nice shot. I really like the texture in the composition and the sense of depth from the archways.

Erich

Angelo

Dix - yet another great shot

pathfinder

Nightingale and I were at fort Jefferson about a dozen years ago. What an amazing place.

1/2 mile in diameter with walls 20 feet thick and 45 feet tall of red brick, and when they began building it in the 1840s , there was no dry land there at all - just a reef 5 feet below the water.

All the bricks were shipped in from Baltimore in sailing vessels. Do they still have the Parrot guns on top of the walls. 15 feet long, 6 feet in diameter with a 15 or 16 inch bore. They are still big guns , even today.

http://www.nps.gov/drto/

http://www.shannontech.com/ParkVision/DryTortugas/DryTortugas.html

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/geo-flor/51.htm

You will have a great time when you return, Dixie. All my photos of Ft Jefferson are snapshots stuffed in a shoe box in a closet.:cry

USAIR

Congrats well deserved
I seen that photo on the NAPP site just didn't put two and two together

Fred

leebase

Wonderful shot. Congrats.

Lee

Frog Lady

erich6 wrote:

Congrats Dixie. It's a very nice shot. I really like the texture in the composition and the sense of depth from the archways.

Erich

what erich said - I agree! I also like the way it lightens up as you move more into the arches.

C.

W.W. Webster

Dixie wrote:

Suggestions and comments always welcome.

Dixie

You've produced another stunning image, as always, and I hesitate to offer a suggestion. However, the more I look at it, the more I'm troubled by the slightly off-centre framing or cropping. Did you consider cropping to perfectly align the doorways in the centre (horizontally) of the frame? At present, they are placed just enough right of centre to be a distraction, to my eye. Do you see what I'm getting at?

thalliday

Very nice shot Dixie. Would love to see some more. About 20+ years ago my uncle was Superintendent of Everglades National Park which is the administrative site for Fort Jeff. While I was visiting from my home in Yosemite he had to go out to the fort for a couple of days on business. He was able to take the family so we spent a few nights inside the fort in Park Service quarters. It is a very interesting place. Now I'll have to go find my Kodachromes...

Sam

Dixie,

Great shot! I did try Tom's crop recomendation by sliding the D-grin window around on the monitor, and think the different crop strengthens the image.

When youy start with a great image, you have lots of crop processing options, and in the end it's just a matter of individual taste.

Sam

Dixie

Thanks to one and all for their comments.

pathfinder: according to the Ranger, the bricks came from Maine and Florida. The redder bricks came from Maine and the bricks with more yellow in them came from Florida. Myself, I don't know one brick from another. There are several cannons on top. However, did you mean diameter or circumference? There were several that were very long, but none that were 6 feet in diameter.

WWW: See some other shots below. I shot a number of the arched passage ways centered as you described. I shot the one above off center just to have a little variety.

thalliday: I would love to see the scans from the old Kodachromes if you get them scanned.

Sam: I agree about the cropping. I was going for something a little different in the one above trying to lead the eye up and to the right a little instead of dead center just to add some tension to the shot and make it different from several of the others (again - see the shots below).





...and then there were a few that I went way off center with to emphasize the angles of the walls, etc.



...and then what is an old fort without a photochopped ghost or two? Dr. Samuel Mudd's cell in the fort.