Bookfool's Photoblog
It really was that blue
Posted by Bookfool (Mississippi, United States) on 6 March 2009 in Miscellaneous.
From the Vicksburg National Military Park, where I walk (and am working on getting back into running). This photograph is not touched up at all -- cropped a little and that's it. I took it with my son's little point and shoot digital, which I believe is about 5 or 6 years old and pretty low resolution. I didn't want to haul the good camera along on a 3-mile walk but the subject matter was just so darn photogenic on the day I took this that there was practically no way to avoid getting a decent shot.
In the foreground at left is the Illinois Monument -- my personal favorite of the state monuments in the park. Note the tourist taking a photo from the street. People always want to photograph that thing dead-on. In the background, the little white house is known as "Shirley House". It was present during our American Civil War and is currently in very poor condition. There's a sign describing the foundation problems and planned renovations outside this frame.
Next to Shirley House, the road turns. Opposite the road (just past the far end of Shirley House) is a gully where residents of Vicksburg dug caves and set up housekeeping during the worst of the shelling, when the city was under siege. You can't see any evidence of caves at all, thanks to trees and undergrowth, but across the road on the right-hand side of this picture the trenches dug by soldiers are still visible.
Kodak CX7430 ZOOM
1/1000 second
F/5.6
34 mm (35mm equiv.)