Maryland, MD
Maryland is a state located on the Atlantic
Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United
States of America.
It
is comparable in size to the European country of
Belgium. According to the most recent
information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau,
as of August 2007, Maryland is now the
wealthiest state in the United States, with a
median household income of $65,144, ahead of New
Jersey which had previously held that title.
It
was the seventh state to ratify the United
States Constitution and bears two nicknames, the
Old Line State and the Free State.
Its
history as a border state has led it to exhibit
characteristics of both the Northern and
Southern regions of the United States. As a
general rule, the rural areas of Maryland, such
as Western, Southern, and Eastern Maryland, are
more Southern in culture, while
densely-populated Central Maryland — areas in
the Baltimore and the Washington Beltway Regions
— exhibit more Northern characteristics.
Maryland is a life sciences hub with over 350
biotechnology firms, making it the third-largest
such cluster in the nation.
Institutions and agencies located throughout
Maryland include University System of Maryland,
Johns Hopkins University, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
and the National Institutes of Health.
Geography
Maryland possesses a great variety of
topography, hence its nickname, "America in
Miniature."
It
ranges from sandy dunes dotted with seagrass in
the east, to low marshlands teeming with water
snakes and large bald cypress near the bay, to
gently rolling hills of oak forest in the
Piedmont Region, and mountain pine groves in the
west.
Maryland is bounded on the north by
Pennsylvania, on the west by West Virginia, on
the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, and
on the south, across the Potomac River, by West
Virginia and Virginia.
The
mid-portion of this border is interrupted on the
Maryland side by Washington, DC, which sits on
land originally part of Maryland.
The
Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state, and the
counties east of the bay are known collectively
as the Eastern Shore. Most of the state's
waterways are part of the Chesapeake Bay
watershed, with the exception of a portion of
Garrett County drained by the Youghiogheny
River, as part of the watershed of the
Mississippi River, the eastern half of Worcester
County, which drains into Maryland's Atlantic
Coastal Bays, and a small portion of the state's
northeast corner which drains into the Delaware
River watershed.
So
prominent is the Chesapeake in Maryland's
geography and economic life that there has been
periodic agitation to change the state's
official nickname to the "Bay State," a name
currently used by Massachusetts.
The
highest point in Maryland is Hoye Crest on
Backbone Mountain, which is in the southwest
corner of Garrett County, near the border with
West Virginia and near the headwaters of the
North Branch of the Potomac River. In western
Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the
state, is a point at which the state is only
about 1 mile (2 km) wide.
This
geographical curiosity, which makes Maryland the
narrowest state, is located near the small town
of Hancock, and results from Maryland's northern
and southern boundaries being marked by the
Mason-Dixon Line and the north-arching Potomac
River, respectively.
Much
of the Baltimore-Washington corridor lies in the
rolling hills of the Appalachian Piedmont. A
quirk of Maryland's geography is that the state
contains no natural lakes.
During the last Ice Age, glaciers did not reach
as far south as Maryland, and therefore did not
carve out deep natural lakes as exist in
northern states.
There are numerous man-made lakes, the largest
being Deep Creek Lake, a reservoir in Garrett
County.
This article is licensed under
the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "Maryland".
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Looking at Photography from the Inside
by
Terry Daniels
Photography is a science and an art that originated
in the 1800s. The word photograph means "drawing
with light."
There are many terms involved with photography that
are the keys to understanding the full spectrum of
the industry. We will discuss some of those elements
and how they add to a picture.
One
word is focus, and it refers to the adjustment that
enhances a desired subject within the realm of the
lens. It is usually a convergence point where the
light rays originate to form a point on the object.
Another term is known as aperture. Aperture is the
adjustment of the lens opening, measured as
f-number, which controls the amount of light passing
through the lens.
It
has an effect on depth of field and diffraction
because the higher the f-number, the smaller the
opening and less light enters the picture. This
creates a greater depth in the photo and an
increased diffraction blur.
The
focal length divided by the f-number gives the
effective aperture diameter which translates as the
spectrum of your picture. From the left to the
right, what your photo captures is controlled by the
aperture.
Another term is referred to as shutter speed which
is the adjustment of the speed of the shutter to
control the amount of time during which the imaging
medium is exposed to light during each exposure. It
is often expressed as either a fraction of seconds
or as an angle when dealing with mechanical
shutters.
The
shutter speed is used to control the amount of light
striking the image plane. Faster speeds decrease
both the amount of light and the amount of image
blurring from motion of the subject and/or camera.
The
slower the shutter, the more light has time to
transfer and the fewer pictures you can capture. The
quicker shutters will allow you to process images
faster and take in more as a result.
White balance is a phrase that refers to electric
compensation for the color temperature associated
with a given set of lighting conditions on digital
cameras. This ensures that the white light is
registered on the imaging chip and that the colors
in the frame will appear natural, once developed.
On a
mechanical device, film-based cameras, this function
occurs by the use of the operator's choice of film
stock or with color correction filters. Also, using
white balance to register natural coloration of
images, photographers usually choose to employ white
balance to aesthetic end.
Basically, the color temperature is made warmer by
using white balance. This will enhance the color
scheme and increase the aesthetic quality of your
picture.
Metering is the next term, and it is the measurement
of exposure where highlights and shadows are exposed
according to the photographer's control. Today, most
meter and set exposures are automatically adjusted
by the cameras.
Before the automatic metering system that exists
today, the correct exposure was found with the use
of a separate light metering device or by the
photographer's knowledge and experience of gauging
all settings correctly.
The
amount of light is put into a usable aperture and
shutter speed, the meter needs to adjust for the
sensitivity of the film or sensor to light. The film
speed or ISO sensitivity are set on the meter to
attain the appropriate amount of light.
The
ISO speed is used to communicate to the camera the
film speed of the selected film. ISO speeds are used
with modern digital cameras as an indication of the
system's gain from light to numerical output and to
control the automated exposure system.
This
is a very technical term which many are thankful
most automatic cameras can control on their own.
However, then we can simply adjust the ISO speed
which will do the rest of the work for us if we
understand how to translate it.
The
higher the ISO number, the greater the film
sensitivity will be to light. The lower ISO numbers
will make the film less sensitive to light.
An
accurate combination of ISO speed, aperture and
shutter speed will produce an image that is neither
too dark nor too light. Thus, the correct exposure
will exist as indicated by a centered meter
displayed on the camera.
A
great tool used today is an autofocus point where
the imaging frame is set by the camera itself. The
technology is only increasing in photography, making
it more and more possible for people to enhance
their captured images to capture memories and
treasured moments.
About the Author
Terry Daniels has been taking profession photographs
for the last 25 years and has written hundreds of
articles relating to photography. He recommends
Kansas City
wedding photographers.
Contact Info
Terry Daniels
TerryDaniels09@gmail.com
http://www.rvrphotography.com/
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