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(2008-07-11)
PORT ISABEL, VA
(wypr) -
The Chesapeake Bay has long been a source of inspiration for photographers and the National Geographic Magazine has long been known for its stunning photography. In this week's edition of Chesapeake Summer, WYPR's Joel McCord visits a National Geographic Society Photo Camp at Port Isobel, Virginia. To city kids, outdoor activity often means playground basketball. So for Lottie Rainey, a student at Vivian T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy in South Baltimore, the photo camp on an island in the Chesapeake is a foreign experience.
Out here, I'm jumping in marsh fields, we're getting attacked by bugs, I'm applying sun screen everywhere I go, I been dirty for at least four, three days, something I'm not used to. So, nature is really being a part of me this weekend.
She is among 15 students from Vivian Thomas and Baltimore School for the Arts plunging into nature and photography at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, or CBF, center on an island in Tangier Sound. Kirsten Elstner, who runs the camp for the National Geographic Society, says they want to use the tools of photojournalism to mentor young people from underserved communities.
That can be children on a Native American reservation; that can be kids from inner city Baltimore, refugees in a refugee camp in Uganda.
The theme for this year's camp, one of 10 National Geographic is operating, is connecting young people with nature. And because National Geographic already does a lot of work with the Bay Foundation, this partnership seemed like a good fit, she says.
The students shot sunrises, sunsets and picturesque beach scenes. And they slipped into Tangier Island aboard the Lonnie Carol II, a CBF workboat, with their mentors.
As the boat slid past the crab shanties, the students, armed with digital cameras, fired away.
On the island, the Geographic's Sarah Galbraith coached Tiandra Johnson, another Vivian Thomas student who was lining up scenic shots on a roadside.
What do you think about getting all the four, the five signs in there? What kind of angle would you want to get with that?
Much of the photo work is new to the Vivian Thomas students, but photography is part of the curriculum at the School for the Arts. Still, Kyle Tata says, he's used to urban photography.
Really like strong angles with architecture and like a lot of almost abstract kind of stuff, so nature photography is definitely completely different than what I've been doing before.
After a morning of shooting, the students edit their work on computers as Bay photographer David Harp critiques.
That's another one of those where you have this one color and all of a sudden you have this other element. It's off center, which is good, and then you have this opposite color and bam, you're eye goes right there.
And this being a CBF facility, there's the inevitable lesson on the Chesapeake Bay from Dave Cola, manager of the Port Isobel center.
Heart of the Chesapeake Bay; ground zero, heart of the bay. And when I mentioned heart of the Chesapeake Bay yesterday I gave it some characteristics, what makes it the heart of the bay. Why can't we go to other places and consider them the heart of the bay? Raise your hand if you remember one thing that makes this the heart of the bay.
At 31 miles, this is the widest part of the bay, and it is one of the few places where grass beds, the nursery for the bay's creatures, remain healthy. Cola demonstrates by having the campers pull in a net full of soft crabs, grass shrimp, and pipe fish.
Heart of the bay everybody. Here it is; this is why. You're seeing it. This is a lot of life. Does everybody agree?
The campers line up their shots and fire away. Their best work will be exhibited at CBF headquarters in Annapolis, several venues around Baltimore, including Vivian Thomas School, and the National Geographic Society's web site.
I'm Joel McCord, reporting at Port Isobel, Virginia, for 88.1, WYPR.
The student's photos can be found at:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photocamp © Copyright 2010, wypr
