What Still Lies Ahead /  by Todd Henson

What Still Lies Ahead

Some scenes may lead one to stop and ponder, perhaps to contemplate one’s life, where you’ve been and what still lies ahead. But with life it’s always a little too far to see, either fading into the distance or hidden beyond a turn not yet taken. And perhaps that’s for the best, that we can’t know the future with certainty until it’s become the past. Embrace the unknown. Live with a sense of wonder and anticipation, with the hope and possibility that some of the best of our life may still lie ahead.

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Grace Memorial Church, Port Republic, Virginia /  by Todd Henson

Grace Memorial Church in Port Republic, Virginia, as viewed from their gravel parking lot

My father and I happened by this church while on a road trip elsewhere and on our way back decided to stop and capture some photographs. A storm was headed our way but you can hardly tell as it was coming from the other direction. We left just a few minutes before the rain began to fall.

An angled view showing Grace Memorial Church and their original church bell displayed in the foreground

I wasn’t able to find much historical information about this church, but they did have their original church bell on display in the church yard. The sign there indicated the bell had been purchased at a local auction and was thought to be the Lynnwood School bell. It required a new cradle so the new owner took the bell back to the foundry that had built it which was still in business, McShane Foundry, in Baltimore, Maryland. According to the foundry records this was actually the original church bell and dated from 1889.

The original church bell of Grace Memorial Church

Apparently there used to be an historical marker in the center of the gravel parking lot of the church about the Port Republic Battlefield, marking a battle of the US Civil War that occurred at this location. But it was destroyed in 2006 by a tractor-trailer attempting to turn around in the parking lot. So the marker was rebuilt and relocated just off the other side of the road from the church.

The historical marker says that on June 9, 1862, Confederate General T. J. “Stonewall Jackson” defeated General J. Shield’s vanguard advancing from Elkton under General R. O. Tyler. It says there were 4500 Federals, of which 551 were killed, wounded, or missing, and 450 were captured. There were 6000 Confederates, of which 804 were killed or wounded.

What was once the location of a battle of the US Civil War is now home to a practicing Episcopal church, one whose original church bell was created 27 years after the battle.

Grace Memorial Episcopal Church, Port Republic, Virginia

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Obscura /  by Todd Henson

Obscura is an Inverted Worlds image born of inverting a photograph on itself in various ways and seeing what happens. For these images I don’t feel any need to retain any semblance of reality, though in some of them I do. This one is more abstract than many of the others I’ve done, beginning as clouds in the sky and turning into whatever it is this has turned into. 

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