This shark attack in Ocean City, Maryland, was obviously more man-made than provoked. The corner of the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not building has a huge Great White Shark that appears to have attacked the corner of the structure. It evidently left the waters of the Atlantic Ocean during an extremely high tide and jumped high enough to crash through and become stuck in the walls of the building – with its head lunging high above people on the Ocean City Boardwalk and its tail waving toward the beach.
Shark over the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland
Ripley’s large mechanical shark slowly lunges back and forth where everyone can see it. However, I doubt many beach-goers feel threatened by this shark attack because he (she?) has be struggling to free itself of the building for many years, day and night, all year ’round.
Golden Shark in Ocean City, MD
I imagine that thousands of beach-goers get pictures of this mechanical shark attack every week during the summer season. However, few of those photos are as dramatic as these. I thought I would put mine in the mix and offer them for sale in my online photography gallery at www.BillSwartwoutPhotography.com.
Photo taken with Nikon D3200 and AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm zoom lens.
After posting these photographs of the Charles W. Cullen Bridge over the Indian River Inlet in Sussex County, Delaware, I received several “likes” on Facebook, a few comments and a couple of questions. One question that made me reflect a bit was, “What lens did you use?”
A lot of people just use the “kit” lens that comes with their “good” camera (DSLR) or whatever lens is attached to their point-n-shoot. However, for spectacular scenery you sometimes need to go as WIDE as possible. Here’s the photo…
Charles W. Cullen Bridge at Indian River Inlet, Sussex County, DE
I used one of my favorite lenses, one that I’ve had for over 10 years. It is a Sigma Lens w/ Nikon Mount, 10-20mm f:4/5.6 Wide Angle “Zoom” lens. Back when I bought it the cost was a bit more than that of the camera I used it on. I have since worn out “that” camera but the lens works just fine on my new Nikon DSLR. For this particular view of “the bridge” the zoom was set to 11.5 mm (which would be the equivalent of 17 mm on a full-frame camera). The exposure was 1/200th of a second at f7.1 for the lens opening, or f-stop. I had the ISO (film sensitivity) set to 200 to maintain as much detail in the image as possible. (No, I am not that detailed of a person. All of that information, called exif data, is stored with the image file.)
Normally for a shot like that I like to use a tripod. But look at all those rocks I walked across – and you may understand why I left the tripod in the car. LOL Plus, there was really no way I could set the tripod up where I ended up for framing the picture.
Normal lenses are called “normal” because they are used primarily for normal pictures. When shooting scenic views you should consider using the “widest” view lens you have. When I get “lens envy” and think about the next lens I want I often long for that 400 mm Nikkor with an f2.8 aperture, But being more realistic I probably never will buy one. I wouldn’t get enough use out of a lens like that to justify the purchase price.
Here’s a B&W version of the above Indian River Bridge…same image…different editing.
Black and White version of the Indian River Bridge
This bridge has photographers always taking pictures at night. The blue lighting makes it look almost magical. I, of course have some of them, too. But don’t overlook the varying light conditions that can occur at any time of day or night. You just have to “see” what the possibilities hold for you.
There is no better place to shoot flags (as in “with a camera”) than at the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner, Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland. Remember that just a little more than 200 years ago the British were actually shooting at our flag – with big guns (cannons).
When I visit in Baltimore I often go for a walk at Fort McHenry. This particular day had one of those “postcard” skies, with fair-weather cumulus clouds against a bright blue background; so I went to Fort McHenry for a couple hours…with my camera bag, of course. Today I actually got to photograph two American Flags flying over the Fort at the same time and on the same flagpole. Read why below the photograph…
If you bring an American flag or buy a flag in the Ft. McHenry Gift Shop – a ranger will “run it up” the flagpole, let it fly in the breeze for a short while and then bring it down. You will then be a proud and patriotic owner because you have a flag that actually flew over Fort McHenry. They will even provide a certificate of authenticity for your flag stating that it flew over Fort McHenry. How cool is that?
