Gettysburg: Sun spots and fun shots

                The battlefield at Gettysburg is a great place for a photographer. There are challenges, but there are terrific opportunities as well.

          I strongly recommend a visit and that the visitor bring along a camera.

The memorial to the Confederate soldiers and sailors.

          But I also recommend, very strongly, that the visitor do a little pre-visit reading about the battle. Even if you just read a little bit of the history, come here with a basic understanding of what happened. You’ll walk with respect and I think you’ll enjoy your visit more, too.

          After my early start, the battlefield was filling up by noon today and I headed back to the air-conditioned hotel room to download this morning’s photographs. I found a few fun shots.

          One is a sun shot at the memorial for Confederate soldiers and sailors, taken from behind the statue. This is actually a fairly simple image to capture if the sun and subject line up together. This type of shot needs more time to execute than I gave it in order to really create a good image.

The more traditional view of the same monument.

          The Confed soldier/sailor memorial (my shorthand) is on the southern end of the Confederate line that starts along Seminary Ridge. I have added a more traditional shot of the same monument.

I really like the colors in this image, the red, white
and blue popping out of the deep greens. The solid
gray of the rocks set a nice weight to the image.

          Also included in today’s blog is a small toy flag I found a few steps outside of the 20^th Maine’s line on Little Round Top. The flag stick is about six inches tall. The flag itself is a replica of one of the Confederate national flags, so it seems logical that the flag was positioned by a visitor to indicate approximately how close the fighting was in that location on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.

Ever ready to defend Little Round
Top, the statue atop the
memorial to the 83rd Pennsylvania.

          The final shot of the day was also taken from the ledge defended by the Maine men. This one shows the statue atop the memorial to the men of the 83^rd Pennsylvania as seen through the trees between the two locations. The 83^rd was the regiment directly to the right of the 20^th during the defense of Little Round Top. The flank position markers for the 83rd, which are not shown here, are also very well done.

          I hope you’ve enjoyed the blogs from Gettysburg. Thanks for reading.