In every issue we intend to include a photographer's account of making an image. We will ask him or her why he/she made the choices he/she did—what alternatives were considered, and what constrained the range of choices. We'd like to include one or two other shots of the same scene, and learn why the featured image was preferred.

FORT MACON, NC. A century after Blackbeard went aground in Beaufort Inlet, the defenders of a new country began laying out the concentric pentagons which form Fort Macon. The fort is one of a series of brick and stone fortresses erected along the Atlantic Coast between 1808 and the 1840s. It was to guard the Beaufort inlet which led to the former capitol of New Bern. The fort was occupied by the North Carolina militia in the opening days of the Civil War, but an attack by sea and land in 1862 reduced its walls within hours and led to its surrender. For the remainder of the war it was used by the Union Navy as a coaling station.The fort was reactivated in 1942, but the gun emplacements pictured below date to the Civil War. Fort Macon is nowadays a state park, the most visited state park in the North Carolina system. On a late summer morning an hour before the arrival of the first school group I had the place to myself.

While I'm most impressed by the bravery of sailors who faced the guns of this fort—it is less than five hundred yards from the gun platforms to the center of the channel—that is a difficult feature to visualize. It really demands on-the-spot viewing to appreciate. The ranks of artillery mounts are among the fort's most impressive features, along with the quality brickwork. At the height of operations during the Civil War, the fort mounted some fifty-four cannon and heavy mortars. Twenty mounts survive on the outer ring. I began to look at the artillery mounts, searching for the defining shot.

Another factor becomes, color or black and white? In the end, I chose color as the best photograph since the red brick, green grass and blue sky and ocean all add texture to the basic repeating patterns.       

— WPW

No. 3 September 2006

There are lots of geometries available to the photographer in an old fortress, especially when the absence of people makes it easy to reveal those lines, curves and angles. A somewhat hazy day with no dramatic clouds is unfortunate, but you just have to keep your camera pointed down. The outer wall, with its gun emplacements, seemed like a surefire photographic opportunity, but it is easy to concentrate on the design and construction of the fort rather than on what might make a good image.

Below is a good view of the inner area and fort, but there is no "center" to the image photographically. The image is too busy and too vacant, all at once. Too much empty featureless sky, and too many items to attract the eye— cannon, inner fortress, moat, outer gun mounts. I also realized (later) that I should have included the full sweep of the curve in the wall on the left—that missing bit of arc is fatal.

The arcs of the gun emplacements were an obvious subject, so I moved in on them. I decide to concentrate just on the gun mounts, removing the moat and inner fortress from the view.It was impossible to get enough height to really show them. But the dark "pit" in the center was a strong feature. I cropped a lot of sky, as it was essentially featureless.

This view comes much closer to my desire, with just the hint of the inner wall showing. But it, too, was a distraction, so a few more steps to the left and I found a better angle—no hint of inner wall, just enough sky and ocean to provide a sense of place.