Patrick J. Henderson's High Camera

Link to High Camera

I confess, as an aviation student, aerial photography sends chills up and down my spine.  To see nature, landscapes, and the world as I see it and so few others do speaks to me on my level.  As a native Virginian, there's only one name I tend to think of when it comes to aerial photography, and that's Patrick J. Henderson.  A native of Chincoteague (those who don't hail from the Mid-Atlantic will know that name from the book "Misty of Chincoteague"), Henderson loves shooting aerial landscapes of Eastern Shore towns and examples of his work can often be found for sale throughout that region to tourists, offering stunning images for buyers to take home in hotels, gift shops, and antique stores throughout this ecologically-unique part of the East Coast.

Henderson captures the legendary Chincoteague Pony Penning from a vantage point that its most likely never had throughout its illustrious history.  The Pony Penning is an annual event on the Eastern Shore, marked with a carnival throughout the tourist town where it takes place, and is attended by horse enthusiasts from all over the world.  Local lore has it that the feral ponies that reside just over a small channel from Chincoteague (on Assateague Island, which is a national park) were shipwrecked from a Spanish galleon sometime in the 1500s.  The fact that this still can't be disproved merely adds to the romance of the event and drives the prices for the pony auction into the somewhat absurd.  The "Saltwater Cowboys" round up a set number of young ponies every July, herd them over the channel to Chincoteague, round them up, and sell them at auction.  Regular destinations from there include Japan, Germany, Canada, and all over the United States.

Henderson's shots of this event need to be seen to be believed.  His camera work is solid--his exposure time captures the waves rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean perfectly (as a good Virginian, he shows them as they actually are, not as inland tourists would like to imagine them, a trick that probably could have been possible through some creative exposure timing), and his depth of field allows for a beautiful horizon line beyond Assateague Island.  The romance of the event is increased thanks to these pictures, and this event--where nature and the wild truly interacts with humanity--does need to be seen.