Areas of photographic interests in Virginia

[mo_kenny]

I am going to Virginia beach in Virginia from Michigan by road in a

few days.

Can anybody share with me areas of photographic interests?

(Landscape). Preferably in Virginia.

 

Mo Kenny

[john_kasaian1]

Shenandoah Valley if you're in the area! Cheers!

[chris_patti1]

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway are two famous roads that wind through the Blue Ridge Mountains and are very scenic. They meet near Charlottesville where the original buildings of the University of Virginia, built by Jefferson, are worth a look.<div></div>

[eschrad]

The Shenandoah National Park along with the Blue Ridge Parkway and

Skyline Drive are excellent places for mountain scenics. Charlottesville,

located along I-64, is a place I highly recommend. First of all, there is Thomas

Jefferson's home, Monticello, which sits atop a mountain, offering nice views

of the valley and city below. The house itself is also quite nice to photograph

and there are beautiful gardens. In the town of Charlottesville is "Mr.

Jefferson's University", and my alma mater, the University of Virginia. The

Lawn and the Academical Village is Jefferson's orginial design for the

University and is quite photogenic. I think it is particularly beautiful at night

with the dark blue sky above and the glow of the lights in the buildings below.

(When school is in session, you may also encounter a few students partaking

in the age-old tradition of streaking the Lawn!) The centerpiece of the Lawn,

the Rotunda, is quite beautiful inside and out. Also, the majority of the

gardens behind the Pavilion buildings along the Lawn are open to the public.

They are all different and some offer beautiful picture-taking opportunities.

The serpentine walls that enclose these gardens are noteable for being only

one-brick thick, yet are very strong and sturdy because of the serpentine

structure.

 

Continuing down I-64, you will pass through the capital city of Richmond (my

home town). If you like cityscapes, there are places where you can get nice

shots of the skyline with the river in the foreground from the south side of the

city, but it may take some work to find them (I don't know the key places

myself, but others have found them.) The James River can be photogenic...

there is a park down along the river where there are rapids and people like to

go out on the rocks that are in the river at this point. However, I haven't been

there since I was a kid, so I am afraid I am not much help here. If interested,

get yourself a Richmond map and scope out the parks that are located along

the river. If you like large old houses and tree-lined streets and monuments,

Monument Boulevard in Richmond is the place for you. Maymont Park also

has a historic home on the grounds, but is known for its gardens. There are

manicured Italian gardens with fountains and statues and such and then

further down the hill from the Italian gardens is a very beautiful Japanese

garden, complete with waterfall and a pond with stepping stones and

bridges... very photogenic. Also, downtown is the old Shockoe Slip district

where old tobabcco warehouses have been turned into office buildings and

trendy apartments and restaurants and shops. The streets are still

cobblestoned though. There is also a fountain where the police horses come

to drink. Below the slip is the Canal Walk. A nice park has been created

along the old Kanawha Canal Locks. You can also take a boat tour down the

canal. A particularly interesting place is the Triple Cross, where the interstate

roadways, railways, and the canal waterways cross... three different passages

for three different modes of transportation all cross each other here.

 

Continuing down I-64, you will pass through Williamsburg. Colonial

Williamsburg offers a plethora of photo opportunities with all of the colonial

buildings and homes and gardens and all of the people in period costume.

The College of William & Mary is located here (This is where Thomas

Jefferson went to college... a fact which they like to flaunt. Univ. of Va. alums

like to counter that by saying that he must not have thought it was that great

since he went on to create his own University later on!) A short ways down

the road from Williamsburg is Jamestown, the first permanent settlement of

the British colonists (1607). Jamestown was established at the mouth of the

James River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay... the James is VERY

wide here. Much, much wider than in Richmond. You can stand right on the

banks of the James at the Jamestown settlement and take pictures of the river

and the occasional ship. Across the river from Williamsburg and Jamestown

is Yorktown, where there are several preserved battlefields from, I believe,

both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. (You will come across several

battlefield sites throughtout Virginia... these can be interesting landscap

pictures. Especially if you find a nic cannon to put in the foreground or

something.

 

Virginia Beach itself is very touristy with more Salt Water Taffy and crappy t-

shirt stores than you can shake a stick at. But, if you cross the Chesapeake

Bay via the Bay Bridge-Tunnel (which is quite a fun drive) then you will find

yourself over on the Eastern Shore. I love the Eastern Shore... it's full of

quaint little fishing villages and beautiful beaches. Things are much slower

over here than on the mainland. You have your choice of shooting bay side

(sound side) or ocean side as the Eastern Shore is only a few miles wide.

The best thing on the shore are the islands of Chincoteague and Assateague.

These are located toward the northeast end of the peninsula, close to the

Delaware border. The wild ponies live on Assateague Island and every year

they swim across to Chincoteague, an event that is very popular (I think this

happens in the fall). I don't think anyone lives on Assateague, but

Chincoteague is a cute little town... Very weathered and beachy. There are

wildlife refuges in this area. Great place for beach/ocean/sand dune shots.

 

If you go to the Eastern Shore after your time in Va Beach, you can just make

your way up the shore and then go back to Michigan via the northern route

through Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Makes for a nice circular trip

route if you hit all of these places (don't know how long you are planning to be

on this trip). By the way, Va Beach is about 45 minutes (depending on where

you're headed in Va Beach and tunnel traffic) from Williamsburg... W-burg is

about an hour east of Richmond, and Richmond is about 65-70 minutes east

of Charlottesville. If your time is more limited, I would recommend devoting

your time to seeing some of the Mountains by taking the Skyline Drive south

along the range toward Charlottesville and maybe seeing Shenandoah

National Park and, if you can, try to visit the University of Virginia. It won't take

long to visit the Lawn in the summertime. Then I would judt drive straight on

to Va Beach. If you have time while in Va Beach, you can easily get over to

Williamsburg and/or Jamestown for a daytrip. Then after your time at the

Beach, definitely try to hit the Eastern Shore and go home via that route.

Richmond is nice, but photographic opportunities can be a little more difficult

to discover. Also, the city is not the easiest place to try to get around (street

names change when the cross the county/city boundary and some streets

stop and start willy-nilly all over the city). Nothing is in any kind of grid format

as it seems to be very inflluenced by the river's path.

 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful trip! Enjoy Virginia!

[brian_ellis3]

If you like smaller waterfalls and the rocks, streams, and landscape surrounding them, Shenandoah National Park has five or six trails to different areas like that. They're easily found from the Park trail maps and guides. The trails aren't overly strenuous and range in length from maybe a mile to two miles each way. You should leave very early in the morning so that you're there in the best light. I usually started out when it was still almost dark which would put me at most of the falls around sun rise or a little later. You have about an hour of good photography that way. The morning is about the only time to do them since if you try to catch them late in the day you'd be hiking back in the dark. At the head of one of the trails there was a great field of corn lillies but I don't know what their blooming season is. I stayed in an inexpensive little motel about five miles outside the town of Luray called the Hill Side Motel.

[donald_brewster]

Of course I didn't save it, but the Washington Post sometime in the last year did a nice travel spread on waterfalls in Virginia -- many in the Blue Ridge mountains. The Shenandoah Valley and the area around Charlottesville are particularly scenic in my view. Lots of nice scenery along the Potomac River near Great Falls.

[daniel flather]

With a good eye and imagination there will be a place to stop every few hundred feet.

[Troll]

Harper's Ferry, West (by Gawd) Virginia. Scenic, historic, and photogenic.

[joe austin]

If you are going to VA beach and you want more wild, less commercial beach photos the outer banks is worth the hour trip. The beaches there are less populated, beautiful dunes and wild life.

[kkeller]

Probably too late, but in actually in VaB, go to Seahore State Park off Shore Drive. Very scenic beach and beach side wood trails, and swamp lake complete with spanish moss (looks like you're in Fla.). Also, Back Bay and Knotts Island--very scenic sound/wood/orchard sights--also with wild ponies and swarms of mosquitoes. Get a civil war sight map--lots of battle fields and very old cemeteries (check out St. Paul's Church in Downtown Norfolk, Revolutionary war). Botanical Gardens in Norfolk and the Norfolk Zoo are huge suprises if you haven't been there. I second strongly the outer banks, Eastern Shore (Walker Evans used to take pictures there) and Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown/Lee's Battle of the Peninisula).