UNSEEN AMELIA STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEPHAN R. LEIMBERG

UNSEEN AMELIA STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEPHAN R. LEIMBERG

Look at thing from a new perspective and the beauty of our island home will reveal itself in new and dramatic ways as you discover an Amelia you’ve never seen before.

PABLO PICASSO FAMOUSLY SAID that there is only one way of looking at things, until someone shows you how to look with different eyes. All too often, we don’t see the beauty of our island home because we don’t know where or how to look. Or we don’t slow down long enough to really see.

The images that I am sharing in this article are part of a series I have been working on for several years. They can be found in the Landscapes, Seascapes, Skyscapes, and View from a Bridge galleries at UnSeenImages.com.

Through these images, I want to point out how your respect and love of Amelia can change for a number of different reasons, such as: experiencing a place by day or night; the time of day (color changes with temperature); looking in places and directions you’ve never stopped to look at before; seeing beauty and wonder where we don’t usually expect to see it (even in our local industries); by changing perspective, like looking down or up when you’ve never done that before.

I hope these images help you see and appreciate the splendor and treasure of our island like you never have before. In your wonderings—with or without a camera—ask yourself, “What if?” “What if I explore places on the island I’ve never been to before?” “What if I walk the path less traveled?”

ABOVE | This is the Historic District at night, looking toward the Port of Fernandina with a wide and high view starting from the left at the waterfront. The incredible diversity of Amelia Island can be grasped by noting that our community includes recreational boating visitors; residential neighborhoods; a thriving business district; and a vibrant commercial shipping port. The different colored lights create a scene as if a painter was creating a rich pastel, perhaps as a background for a movie. The viewer is invited to wonder what’s happening not only in the “active” welllit buildings and structures, but also in the dark and obscure parts that display just a twinkling of lights.

ABOVE| Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University in Philadelphia, wrote a world-famous book entitled, Acres of Diamonds. Its theme was about a man who searched the world for wealth only to find it in his own back yard. The book, and the presentations it inspired, was one of the first to provide positive motivational thinking and it influenced some of our country’s greatest movers and shakers. This image, made at “blue hour”, when the sun’s rays deepen and saturate blues and greens, was captured from the back of my home on the marsh. The marshes of Amelia Island are breathtaking at sunset, a simple and profound gift to its residents and a reminder that everything we could want lies at feet if we only go out to discover and enjoy it.

ABOVE | Our island is replete with history, from our incredible Amelia Island Museum of History and Fort Clinch State Park to American Beach and Fort San Carlos. There is much to be learned, and the days gone by can be – with imagination – woven into the tapestry of how we view the land we now walk upon. On many evenings, people will wander the paths surrounding this Fort Clinch canon at sunset, looking at the Amelia River, watching the shrimp and sail and power boats, with the Pippi Longstocking house and the cozy, well-restored houses of Old Town in the distance surrounding what was once a Spanish port.

ABOVE | It’s a rarity to find a well-restored and thriving “city center” today, with friendly and welcoming merchants who are happy to see you. Night or day, our city is, especially during the holiday season, bright and cheerful, a warm and inviting place for young and old, shoppers and eaters, and everyone in between. It’s a special treat for grandparents with gleeful grandchildren headed directly to our wonderful ice cream and frozen yogurt emporiums.

ABOVE | I first found Amelia Island in the 1970’s via the waterfront on my 46-foot Amel sailboat. Little did I know it would someday be my home, but I suspect that many of us here were introduced to the island in similar fashion. I wanted this image to show the scope of what was both the past and the future of the island, from the dozens of beautiful sport fishing boats in the foreground to the muscular shipping facilities in the background, the industry in the far center, and the town itself, garnished, cooled, and sheltered with our stunning trees.

ABOVE| It’s quite amazing that a place as relatively small as Amelia has a well-run and thriving private jet capable airport. It was my great fortune to meet with several of the pilots, including Bob Brown, who made it possible for me to capture the scope of our incredible Fort Clinch. I had been inside many times, and thanks to Kevin McCarthy and his wonderful boat cruises, viewed it from the river. But grasping the dimension of this edifice from the air was an entirely new and different experience. Likewise, my friend Matt Drahzal, another incredible pilot, made many other sky views possible, and the ever-creative Stan Cottle introduced me to the world of drones. But you don’t always need a plane or drone or helicopter to get dramatic views. Sometimes, shooting from a well-supported ladder or second-story window—or getting down real low—will make all the difference.

The marsh is a theme I continually return to in my photography. It’s like a wonderful maze, ever changing with the tides and time of day. At times, the marsh is totally covered with water, and we see people kayaking and paddleboarding. At other times, the tide is so low that egrets and raccoons roam the dry marsh bed searching for crabs to eat. These next two images are again from my backyard and show how different the marsh can look, depending on the time of day, the season, and the pull of the moon.

Two more marsh images, again both within walking distance of my back deck. One of my favorite poems is “Renaissance” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem speaks of the circle of life and death, with its rotting, rebirth, and redemption. Together, these two images remind me of her most soul-restoring words.