Friday Pictures

You know how sometimes when you lust after someone or something and when you finally obtain the object of your affection it doesn’t always quite measure up to what you imagined?

Well, for the last two or so years I’ve lusted after a particular digital SLR camera (Nikon D200), but was never able to justify the expense. Funny thing about new jobs, you sometimes get more than just new career opportunities.

Long story short, but I was able to buy the exact camera I’d been wanting and, last Saturday, I took it out for a test drive. I wanted to go somewhere pretty, but also somewhere I hadn’t been before. Since I was down Old Towne way with a friend to pick up her new Honda Fit (see, all of us are pitching in to help the economy by buying Japanese-made products) I figured I’d go for a little walk around Jones Point.

Jones Point? Where the hell is Jones Point, you ask. Well, Jones Point is the little spit of land where the new (and old) Wilson Bridges land in Virginia. OK, I admit it, I’m a bit of a bridge geek, comes from growing up the son of a bridge engineer, and I wanted to get a closer look at the new Wilson.

Jones Point, I think, is one of those secret little places in the D.C. area. You know them, places in plain sight, but places few people go. When, I ask you, was the last time you visited Teddy Roosevelt Island or the National Arboretum?

But anyway, back to my pictures. Because like any real man I believe mechanical devices have souls and feelings I’ll have to be gentle about this so as not to offend my trusty, venerable, solid and all-around dependable Nikon F3, but my new camera rocks in so many ways. I think my walk lasted maybe an hour and I took more than 150 pictures. To compare, during 10 days in Ireland I took around 1,000 on film. Funny what you can do when your camera fires up to five frames a second and you have a memory card that holds 1,300 pictures, you quickly stop caring about how many pictures you’re taking.

Without further ado, the pictures.

Did you know we have one of the only bascule bridges in the Interstate Highway system here in our area? Well, we do. The old one opened about 260 times a year stopping traffic each time. This one is 20 feet higher and only has to open about 60 or so (according to the bridge's Web site). And for those of you wondering what the hell a bascule is, it's the part of a drawbridge that goes up and down.

But wait. What is this lonely little concrete marker beside the trail as patiently as a bill waiting on the steps of the Capitol? Perhaps we should investigate.

Fancy that, it's a boundary marker between Virginia and Maryland. Down around the bend there is another one just like it and, together, they would seem to indicate the border between the North and the South is the high-water mark of the Potomac. Alas, the point where the District, Virginia and Maryland all come together is out in the middle of the river, so I don't have a picture of that (although it may actually be in the first picture).

Spiders are our friends. As long as they don't mind living outside. This one has apparently been busy getting its web site ready for summer.

There's just something about a field of soft, fuzzy pussy willows. It just draws you right in and holds your gaze.

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Hope you enjoyed the pictures 'cause you're bound to see more as the summer progresses.