WBTL On flickr

Some of you may recall that a long time ago I had a photostream on flickr were I showed off my better images. Trouble was that I didn’t think that anything was good enough, so I ultimately shut it down. With WBTL’s new direction, however, I have decided to start it up again and have just completed my first upload, mainly images taken at Muskets and Memories 2011.

When you go to my flickr page you will see that it is organized into two sections, Historic and Modern. The Historic section is a set which consists of contemporary Civil War photography downloaded from various online archives and painstakingly digitally restored. Although you will see low resolution JPEGs, the original files I that am working from are high resolution TIFFs.
 
The Modern section is a collection of sets of images taken at Civil War reenactments, Civil War weekends and Civil War battlegrounds. Here you may see action shots as well as portraits and landscapes. A real mixed bag of what attracts my eye.

I hope that you will enjoy the WBTL flickr page and that you will return often. It will always be a work in progress and I hope to use it to up my photographic game. You may take a look using this link or the link under the flickr logo to the right. If you see something that you particularly like, please contact me as I can make archival quality prints up to 13”.

Muskets and Memories

 

Muskets and Memories, the largest Civil War reenactment in the Midwest, is held each year on the first weekend in August.  There are over a thousand re-enactors and hundreds of spectators over the course of the weekend.  For the 2011 edition, there were two reenactments:  The Battle of Vicksburg (Mississippi) and the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (Virginia).  Each battle featured infantry, cavalry, artillery and civilian units.  The battlefield is a faithful reconstruction of the actual landscape, including brush piles fences and earthworks.

It was very hot and humid and a couple of great guys rescued me from succumbing to heat exhaustion on Saturday afternoon.  The morning is given over to infantry, cavalry and artillery drills which are leisurely and fun to photograph.  Once the battle starts, the action is fast and furious.  You are hard pressed to decide what to shoot next.  And then it’s over.  There is always portraiture to be done afterward.  There are also special events like candlelight tours, a ball and night firings. 

The cost is $8.00 a day for adults and the proceeds benefit one of the last Grand Army of the Republic Halls left in the country.  Be sure to stop in and see the Gettysburg flag.