The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.
The above is the opening line of the fort's Wikipedia entry. Construction began in 1672, and its core was completed in 1695.
The fort is a star-shaped structure made with coquina (ancient shells bonded together to form a sedimentary rock similar to limestone) with four flared, pointed bastions near the Matanzas Bay in St. Augustine, Fla. The distinguished angles invite photographers to seek creative, angles for compositions. (The Wikipedia entry gives a blueprint drawing that shows the shape from above.) Accenting the design are several cylindrical watchtowers.
I encountered bad lucked when I stopped at the fort to take pictures the first night we were in St. Augustine: because of the lateness of hour, I just missed getting admission to tour the inside grounds. So I resolved to concentrate on getting as many good shots as I could of the structure's exterior, and it is a very large fort to walk around.
While the first image you see below gives a helpful indication of how large the complex is, for the lead-off photo, I picked the photo you see at the top because I enjoyed the shadow of the solitary tree cast on the massive structure.
To view a larger and sharper version of any image here, just click on the photo. To see a
full gallery of images from my visit to Castillo de San Marcos, click on the link in this sentence.
Photo geek stuff: All images were taken with my Canon 6D equpped with a Tamron 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 lens (on which I was using a B+W polarizing filter) with all compositions bracketed for three exposures in two-thirds increments. All photos you see here were processed as single images.
The photo above gives you a look at two of the bastions and watchtowers and how main structure's dramatic angles distinguishes this fort. The photo below is a view from a different bastion, but I present it here because a photographer was using it as a backdrop to do portraits for a wedding client. The first photo below is a long-range shot; the second below, a closeup of the couple. The following day, while passing the fort again, I would come upon another bride and groom and their full wedding party getting out of a mini-bus and walking up toward the fort, presumably also for pictures.
The photos above and below are slightly different angles from the same two bastions and watchtowers.
A canon atop one wall (above) and a closeup of one of the watchtowers (below).
Above: A super closeup of the top of a watchtower, where two pigeons camped out for a view of the area.
Above: A view of some trees lining the outer wall near a canon.
Above: Two people walked behind me as I took this photo, and one of them told the other that the dark, vertical marks against this section of the wall's exterior represented the "cumulative residue" of multiple firing squad executions. I have no idea if that is correct, but ... it's one possible explanation, I guess.
Above: A wooden staircase leading up to a move elevated tier in the fort construction.
Above: This young man sat alone in this spot for as long as I was doing my picture-taking in that area of the fort.
Above: A shot that gives you an idea of the fort and watchtower's proximity to Matanzas Bay.
Above and below: Closeup section shots of the fort's coquina stone facade.
A mid-range perspective (above) of a patterned block along the shore of Matanzas Bay. A slightly different perspective of the same block appears below.
Above and below: Two perspectives of the same tilting tree, the one above with the fort in the background, the one below looking out toward the bay.
Above: A visitor prepares his bicycle's gear bags for departure.
Above and below: A couple of photos of the main entrance, illustrating the fort's popularity among tourists.
Above and next three below: Scenes from shore and watercraft in Matanzas Bay. In the background of the second photo below, you can see the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Next up: World Golf Village and Hall of Fame, St. Augustine, Fla.
Previous posts in this series:
Savannah at night
Savannah in daylight
The fort is a star-shaped structure made with coquina (ancient shells bonded together to form a sedimentary rock similar to limestone) with four flared, pointed bastions near the Matanzas Bay in St. Augustine, Fla. The distinguished angles invite photographers to seek creative, angles for compositions. (The Wikipedia entry gives a blueprint drawing that shows the shape from above.) Accenting the design are several cylindrical watchtowers.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete