I live near the historic triangle: Jamestown (the first English settlement-1607), Colonial Williamsburg (capital of the Colony of Virginia from 1699 to 1780, and now a restored historic area) and Yorktown (the site of the last major battle of the war of independence-1781).
From the Yorktown battlefield website:
"Here at Yorktown, in the fall of 1781, General George Washington, with allied American and French forces, besieged General Charles Lord Cornwallis’s British army. On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the American Revolution."
The Yorktown victory center has artifacts and interpreters. This was one of the interpreters demonstrating a "brown bess" musket. I hadn't been to the victory center before. They said they shot off the canon at 3:00, so I was hoping for a shot of that. While waiting around, this interpreter started telling about the musket. He shot it off twice, and I wasn't quite prepared. So I waited around another half hour for him to shoot it off twice again. I got lucky that time around.
I know the smoke looks odd, but that's actually how it looks in the RAW version. For some reason, the left side looks almost fake or cartoon-like. The shot could have been even more cool -- there was actually fire coming out of the end of the musket, as well, but I was zoomed in to far, so it was cut off:
I also liked this portrait of him preparing the gun:
Unfortunately, the canon was shot directly away from the crowd, and there wasn't a good angle.
It was REALLY loud!! Imagine being those four people standing right next to it!
Oh -- here's a cool bug that landed on the back of one of the interpreters. This is the bug after I brushed him off the guy:
It really was incredible to shoot for this challenge on the site where independence was finally decided.
Thanks for the wonderful votes and comments.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 73 Avg (all users): 7.2636 Avg (commenters): 8.5556 Avg (participants): 6.6552 Avg (non-participants): 7.4815 Views since voting: 4115 Views during voting: 203 Votes: 110 Comments: 37 Favorites: 3 (view)
Beautiful image. Make that 2 beautiful images because I am not even sure which I like better, this one or the portrait of him reloading. Well done and congratulations.
Congratulations on the blue but more so on a great photograph. Love the sharpness and the colors are awesome. The complete picture is great, add to my fav's.
Fabulous shot, Wendy. You get a real sense of what it must be like to fire this thing. It looks like safety glasses should be required. Congratulations on the blue.
I love the " unfourtunatly the canon was shot away from the crowd" bit, a scene of devastation as the crowd got hewn in two by a 30lb canon ball haha. Congrats on the ribbon :)
My favorite so far. Absolutely love how you captured the smoke cloud, especially by his hat. I may have desaturated his face a bit as it seems a bit red and it would bring more impact to the other colors. But a good concept, and well executed.
The Shot Heard 'Round the World
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
