Baltimore 2

The Renaissance Baltimore harborplace is a huge hotel, and my room happens to be on the top floor, exactly kitty corner from the elevator. It must be a quarter mile to just walk to or from the elevator. That leaves plenty of time to make friends along the way. Yesterday, I kept running into what I can only describe as a very stylish young man. At one point we rode the elevator down together, and I learned that he is a jockey, participating in the Preakness this week at Pimlico . Xavier suggested that I drive out to the Timonium Fairgrounds , where the horses for sale were being housed and shown. This is a different event and a different location than the race itself.

I thought this sounded like a unique opportunity, so I drove the 15 miles this morning to check it out. I am completely ignorant of anything to do with horses or horse racing. What I do know comes from the Seabiscuit movie from 20 years ago, and whatever happens to make the news headlines. So I really had no idea what to expect. The buying and selling of horses takes place over a few days and has several phases. I learned that the show races had taken place yesterday. Too bad, that would have been exciting. Because of that, however, today was a quieter day. The horses were being groomed and walked around to show prospective buyers. Tomorrow is the auction, which could be quite exciting as well.

The horse people could not have been nicer or more welcoming. Obviously I made sure to not interfere in their work, but they were pretty chill about having me around and welcomed the photographs. The downside of that is I had to work quickly to catch them before they started posing. I did make clear that I was not the media and my photographs would not be widely circulated but that is what they are used to for publicity. The bright sunny day was not my friend, but I was able to find at least some shade in the stables and tried to work with that when I could. I ended up making some quiet portraits of the trainers and groomers with their animals. It is clear that it is a very close relationship and they really care for the horses. This year has been particularly brutal for triple crown horse deaths, and that must be on everyone’s minds.

After exhausting the available opportunities, I went back to my room to download and start editing before venturing out again later in the afternoon. Now that the days are long, that seems a reasonable itinerary when possible.

It was a mild sunny afternoon and, while not ideal for photography, the populace was out in droves to enjoy the pleasant weather. This is a very vibrant city. I walked down one street parallel to the harbor which led into the city. Restaurants and shops were open and doing a brisk business. I returned to the Inner Harbor where the Baltimore Wine Village was in full swing. Actually, it was packed. I ran into Oscar, Carla and Jeff, all local residents, who were out enjoying the festivities. I chatted with them for a while and took a number of photos of Oscar and Carla playing a game where one tries to toss a bean bag into a hole in a box. A variation on a theme, I guess, and much facilitated by a glass of wine.

Tomorrow I leave Baltimore to explore Easton, a small town across the bridge on the eastern peninsula.

Additional images are available in the Gallery.