Beavertail Point, Jamestown, Rhode Island
photo by Jonathan Edwards - Corvidae Studio Photos
On May 16th, we headed down to Rhode Island to shoot the 2014 Rhode Island Air National Guard Open House, Jonathan as primary photographer, with me, as his second. Jonathan wrote a review of the show & posted some of our pictures, which you can find here. That was the plan, and we would shoot other things if there was time or the weather wasn't good on one of the two days, as rainy day panning against a grey sky is going to be extra difficult for me, as a novice to airshow shooting.
Saturday the 17th started out as rainy & miserable as predicted, so we decided to go exploring natural haunts locally in & around Jamestown, RI and hit the airshow on Sunday when the local stations were predicting better conditions. I'm a biologist and veterinarian by training and nature photography is one of my passions, which Jonathan shares. By 8:30 a.m. the skies had cleared beautifully, and we headed out to Beavertail Point State Park to see what could be seen. Jonathan and I grew up near the ocean, and living in central Canada, as beautiful as it is, doesn't always satisfy the Atlantic Canadian's soul. When we got out to the point, and saw this, something within us, got happy; very, very happy.
photo by Ann Allain - Corvidae Studio Photos
The point houses the site of the third oldest lighthouse in the USA, and the seas were vigorous but not angry, as evidenced by the many sail boats out & about.
photo by Ann Allain - Corvidae Studio Photos
This fisherman was simply too beautiful a shot not to get, me with the 18-135 mm zoom lens and Jonathan with his 300 mm.
photo by Ann Allain - Corvidae Studio Photos
He and his friends looked to be having a wonderful day at the point and I hope he caught something to take home. If he didn't I'm sure he still had a superb day because that place is simply astounding.
Glad to see the point is bouncing back from the damage they suffered from hurricane Sandy. It did make you think when you saw all the steps that had been torn away, about how powerful nature can be. The ocean is beautiful, amazing, but not always gentle; like all natural things you have to respect boundaries. Growing up in the east coast, I guess that has been driven home to us, that you don't walk on the black rocks.
Birds are wonderful and plentiful at the point, and of course wildly erratic fliers, so I am very happy I was able to capture this
photo by Ann Allain - Corvidae Studio Photos
in amongst the branches of this budding tree. We saw multiple cow birds, herring gulls, red winged black birds, as well as a cat bird and vireo we weren't able to get any shots of. The cliff swallows frolicking along the edges of the rock were incredibly fast, and against the white surf trying to get a good shot was difficult. I was concentrating so much on what I was doing I never noticed J taking this shot of me.
photo by Jonathan Edwards - Corvidae Studio Photos
We stuck to the paths, as that is the responsible thing to do and we are Canadian after all, (old joke about how to get Canadians out of the pool, “ask them”), but also because the park had multiple signs warning about deer ticks. Ticks are one of the few creatures, along with leeches, that I'm not overly fond of; guess it is good that I'm not an entomologist. Lyme disease would not be my idea of a fun souvenir, even though we likely would find any attached travelers well before the 24 hour window required for transmission of the disease. Following the rules still got us these picture of light & shade tunnels. The hydrant was just such an odd juxtaposition in the middle of the point, as it wasn't near any of the current buildings that the shot was begging to be taken.
photo by Ann Allain - Corvidae Studio Photos
When we miss the surf, we'll just have to take gander at these pictures to hold us over until our next trip to hear the roar and smell the salt. If you would like to see more of our pictures, check out our flickr pages, Jonathan's and mine.
