ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
Off to the Big Lake. Maybe Maine as well, Jersey to photograph some of the lighthouses that they have repainted, and certainly to Delaware/Maryland.
Chow!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
The 23rd day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
FIRST RULE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Sort of like "KISS"
"Keep it simple stupid" I wish I always did, I would have alot more good images.
But------always take the camera with you. Unless you are good at using a hammer and coal chiesel on a slab of rock.....you need the camera if your going to be a photographer.
Yesterday I had the second day of the resurection of the old green beast. My car! The old Ford SUV with 303,389 miles. Get up in the morning, give her a kiss, and she will run forever. Of course standard injections of oil will also help. Sound familiar?
Needed the struts on the front end replaced and was forced..........forced I say......... to do something with my time. So I chose to take photographs. These two are the mechanic, Richard (a new found gem), grinding off the struts which had over time 1) broken, and b) frozen with rust.
I got some other decent shots which will be just fine to use as stock. Amazing what you find in an automotive repair shop if you really look.
I have a small show tomorrow locally and then on to the big lake next week. More on that to come
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The 22nd day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
ANOTHER BACKYARD BUDDY
They always look like this just when you raise the camera to your eye, look through the view finder, and see bare branch. This time I got lucky and the expression in still inquisitive.
A tufted Titmouse
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The 21st day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST!
He's watchin----------You just never know where!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The 20th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
AMERICANA
Happy Birthday to Izabelle...........my rocking and rollin Granddaughter. She's going to be 26, has boyfriends and other stuff.
I have no idea why Americana attracts me. I sent off a bunch of slides a few years back to a stock company, hoping to get some of them placed, and sold to some unsuspecting souls. "Sorry, but American doesn't sell!"
Well ever since then, I have been selling it---so I guess that's why I am attracted to it.
Now here's a new hobby for you!
Water Tanks!
Most small to medium towns, cities, metropolis's have them. But this one is just great. Here in Columbia, SC and I'll bet the water from that tank tastes just yummy!
Now you gotta note, the gangland grafitti (still haven't found the spell check here).
Gang grafitti has become Americana!
What happened when I was napping?
I guess I am just old fashioned. I can understand some of the older, gentler signs a little better. But some of the artwork on trains and water tanks is just amazing.
How do you do a water tower without being arrested----Huh?
This is more my speed!
OBTW, She's only seven!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The 18th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
What I would have done if I had been born rich instead of pretty!
If I had the forsight and the $3000 back when these were plentiful, but you're in high school and all you can think of is a chopped down 51 Ford.
This Austin Healey 3000 MK III was at a car rally at the club on Lake Murray yesterday.
Woulda-----Coulda-----Shoulda!
Friday, April 16, 2010
The sixteenth day of the fourrh month of the year of the Camellia
I took our visiting house guests to the zoo the other day and was most impressed with some of the critters they had there. The RiverBanks zoo http://www.riverbanks.org/ really quite nice for a small city zoo. There are some nice examples of wildlife in situations that do lend themselves to photography. The photos are obviously not taken in the wild, but to me it is the animal which is important.
CAIMAN
LION BUDS
A KISS FROM MOM
EAST AFRICAN CROWNED CRANE
CODE PINK-LOOKIN IN
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The blackest of the 15th days of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
It just seemed appropriate to me that on this "TAX" day we could reflect on the a true patriot who actually fought FOR all the rights upon which this country was founded!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The 14th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
NICE DAY
I spent the afternoon at the club on Lake Murray. Caught a few fish on a Wooley Bugger (that's a fishing fly and not the other kind).
Saw three Bald Eagles, one immature.
A pair of Eastern Blue Birds.
and
Mother Goose!
Monday, April 12, 2010
The 12th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
I spent about twenty years working in New York City and saw my share of pigeons. The kind shown in todays photograph as well as those who stopped to play three card monty on the streets.
Never really thought much about the bird as they were everywhere. On the streets where one tripped over them. In the parks where old people (Now I am one) fed them. On window sills of large buildings where they nested, cooed, and deficated. I always said the only good thing about a pigeon was a Perigrin Falcon, which feeds upon them.
The last trip north was interrupted by a ride on the Cape May/Lewis Ferry accross the Delaware Bay. From the top viewing section of the boat, one could see things from a different perspective. I was about fifty feet above the water and almost eye level with the pigeons flying from the front to the back of the boat. They never left the boat for long because that was were the food was. It made a great platform for flight shots and it is remarkable the colors of the bird I missed when tripping over them in New York. The irredescant colors of the neck and the bright red eyes are just extroadinary.
Never really thought much about the bird as they were everywhere. On the streets where one tripped over them. In the parks where old people (Now I am one) fed them. On window sills of large buildings where they nested, cooed, and deficated. I always said the only good thing about a pigeon was a Perigrin Falcon, which feeds upon them.
The last trip north was interrupted by a ride on the Cape May/Lewis Ferry accross the Delaware Bay. From the top viewing section of the boat, one could see things from a different perspective. I was about fifty feet above the water and almost eye level with the pigeons flying from the front to the back of the boat. They never left the boat for long because that was were the food was. It made a great platform for flight shots and it is remarkable the colors of the bird I missed when tripping over them in New York. The irredescant colors of the neck and the bright red eyes are just extroadinary.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The eleventh day of the fourth month of the seventieth year
LA DOLCE VITA!
OK, so I'm seventy!
Seventy"
SEVENTY?
SEVENTY?
Given gifts and a cake from my honey!
Had breakfast at the "Original Pancake House" (?), consisting of three pigs in a blanket and two eggs with Starbucks coffee!
I'll double up on the Cholesterol meds.
Found that I have to refill five (5) of my perscriptions all at once and I don't care what your co-pay is, it will still be a bunch of money. Screw O'bama care!
Talked with both my kids, God bless um!
Tooks some photos of the flowers around the house in bloom. (Nice job Sheri)
Got rear ended on the way to the shopping mall.
Expecting family guests for the rest of the week.
One of my best buddies just sent me WWII pictures............Jeeeeeeeeez!
Let's see that was II, right........Yeah.
One of my best buddies just sent me WWII pictures............Jeeeeeeeeez!
Let's see that was II, right........Yeah.
And it is only ten after two in the afternoon.
It cannot get any better than this.
LA DOLCE VITA!
I may write some more after my nap!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The tenth day of the third month of the year of the Camellia
In a couple weeks, I will be headed to the big lake in New Hampshire to join up with my fishing crew on our annual jaunt for wild fish, great food and drink, sometimes not so great cards at the poker table, but all the, while wonderful comraderie. If you have been following my blog, you will recognize this as just another chapter in the experience.
The first salmon fishing trip three of us took was one very cold experience if memory serves. The cast of characters were Dr.’s senior, junior, and I. We used fly rods with of floating, sinking, or lead core fly lines, long leaders of six pound weight, and tandem streamers to attract old Salmo. A fly line is about 90 feet long and we experts attach another 10 to 15 feet of light six pound monofilament in front of the fly. Then we sit, stand, and sometimes lie down in a boat and drag our irresistible creations from dawn to dusk. Of course as we got older the mid-day obligatory nap shortened our man hours each day. As the years past however, no one on the lake spent more man hours per fish than we, when we were there.
I was probably one of the last of the three to land one of these northern fish, but I will never forget my first strike and the immediate “Oh Shit”, as the fish dropped the fly and returned to the depths. It was as if something wanted to take the rod out of my hands in a micro second of rod bending, splash, and epic jump. The involuntary verbal reaction has stood the test of time and is uttered repeatedly trip after trip……time and time again. It simply means a fish has been lost and not caught. And our frustration is voiced in that coarse expletive. It’s strange, it’s automatic, it’s well…….it’s just Oh Shit! The salmon, I am sure, has a different reaction to that moment. Of course they have a brain the size of a pencil eraser and their reaction is all reflex and probably not thought out. At that point our massive brains seem to approach size of the other end of the pencil and we react out of reflex as well.
Other terms which were initiated on these trips and carried on through the years were such utterances as “Boat Goat”, “Goat”, “Boat Ride Bell”, and the latest term, christened in 2009, was the “House Magpie”. It always seemed that each year a story, or mostly a joke, was shortened to a word or two, and repeated all week long at appropriate times accompanied with nonsensical laughter. Other comments as “Baseball been bery, bery good to me”, referring to a type of poker game that “Boat Ride Bell” coined. It reminds me of the old story about the jokes which were reduced to simple numbers by a group of old men who repeated them to each other so often that all they had to do was to say Number 3 or number 4. They would all would be reduced to hysterics each time. When a newcomer to the group tried it, nobody even cracked a smile. Perplexed, he asked why? And he was told that he evidently he “Just couldn’t tell a joke”! Well, that’s us!
Those first years were marked with the presence of Dr. Frank, Sr. and his long line, spinning road. He figured, and perhaps rightly so, that the further behind the boat his presentation; the less disturbed the fish would be, and the more likely he would be to catch one. Of course we purist experts scolded him about his aversion to the amateur behavior with a “Spinning Rod” and not a fly rod. He never relented. He caught a few like that, but we teased him unmercifully about the long line. Comparing his technique to that of the tuna trawlers found on the high seas of the north Atlantic. Some years later I personally proved the long line technique to be no better than just a few feet behind the boat.
There were a number of fond memories of the good doctor, his card playing, the cocktails, and how he fit right into our “Younger” crowd. One trip up from New Jersey, he was driving and we thought that we would be found dead in the back seat of his big Lincoln Towne Car. He managed to pass a New Hampshire native who was just doing the speed limit and not harming anyone. Solid yellow line and Doc passes the fellow, deep on a curving road, in a fairly secluded pine woods. He has long since past, but also still has not lived down that bit of NASCAR trickery.
There were also mornings, and evenings for that matter, when the water on the guides of the fishing rods would freeze solid. The rods would have to be banged against the boat to break the ice free. Thank God for all the adult anti-freeze we had on hand. We were still cold, but didn’t notice it as much.
Over the years, there have been trips where chain saws, hammers and saws, and paint brushes were amongst the fishing gear. At times even golf clubs were thrown into the back of a Suburban, pick up or SUV. The amount of fishing gear became less in volume as the years progressed. After all when you are young, there’s no telling just what lure, line, or fishing rod you might need. But those early years with Abe’s father were special. After he retired to Florida, he would be the first to call on the evening of the first day of our trips. Always anxious to find out how we did and who was winning at the poker table. He was a nice man who left a lot of fond memories and not just for his immediate family, but his extended family as well.
That extended family has evolved into six people who can abide each other’s company for more than three days.....only once a year. They are Abe, myself, Paul, Bill, John, and Dave. These may be the men who are the history makers, but we sure as hell are not photogenic. Dave missed this trip.
BEGINNINGS
The first salmon fishing trip three of us took was one very cold experience if memory serves. The cast of characters were Dr.’s senior, junior, and I. We used fly rods with of floating, sinking, or lead core fly lines, long leaders of six pound weight, and tandem streamers to attract old Salmo. A fly line is about 90 feet long and we experts attach another 10 to 15 feet of light six pound monofilament in front of the fly. Then we sit, stand, and sometimes lie down in a boat and drag our irresistible creations from dawn to dusk. Of course as we got older the mid-day obligatory nap shortened our man hours each day. As the years past however, no one on the lake spent more man hours per fish than we, when we were there.
I was probably one of the last of the three to land one of these northern fish, but I will never forget my first strike and the immediate “Oh Shit”, as the fish dropped the fly and returned to the depths. It was as if something wanted to take the rod out of my hands in a micro second of rod bending, splash, and epic jump. The involuntary verbal reaction has stood the test of time and is uttered repeatedly trip after trip……time and time again. It simply means a fish has been lost and not caught. And our frustration is voiced in that coarse expletive. It’s strange, it’s automatic, it’s well…….it’s just Oh Shit! The salmon, I am sure, has a different reaction to that moment. Of course they have a brain the size of a pencil eraser and their reaction is all reflex and probably not thought out. At that point our massive brains seem to approach size of the other end of the pencil and we react out of reflex as well.
Other terms which were initiated on these trips and carried on through the years were such utterances as “Boat Goat”, “Goat”, “Boat Ride Bell”, and the latest term, christened in 2009, was the “House Magpie”. It always seemed that each year a story, or mostly a joke, was shortened to a word or two, and repeated all week long at appropriate times accompanied with nonsensical laughter. Other comments as “Baseball been bery, bery good to me”, referring to a type of poker game that “Boat Ride Bell” coined. It reminds me of the old story about the jokes which were reduced to simple numbers by a group of old men who repeated them to each other so often that all they had to do was to say Number 3 or number 4. They would all would be reduced to hysterics each time. When a newcomer to the group tried it, nobody even cracked a smile. Perplexed, he asked why? And he was told that he evidently he “Just couldn’t tell a joke”! Well, that’s us!
Those first years were marked with the presence of Dr. Frank, Sr. and his long line, spinning road. He figured, and perhaps rightly so, that the further behind the boat his presentation; the less disturbed the fish would be, and the more likely he would be to catch one. Of course we purist experts scolded him about his aversion to the amateur behavior with a “Spinning Rod” and not a fly rod. He never relented. He caught a few like that, but we teased him unmercifully about the long line. Comparing his technique to that of the tuna trawlers found on the high seas of the north Atlantic. Some years later I personally proved the long line technique to be no better than just a few feet behind the boat.
There were a number of fond memories of the good doctor, his card playing, the cocktails, and how he fit right into our “Younger” crowd. One trip up from New Jersey, he was driving and we thought that we would be found dead in the back seat of his big Lincoln Towne Car. He managed to pass a New Hampshire native who was just doing the speed limit and not harming anyone. Solid yellow line and Doc passes the fellow, deep on a curving road, in a fairly secluded pine woods. He has long since past, but also still has not lived down that bit of NASCAR trickery.
There were also mornings, and evenings for that matter, when the water on the guides of the fishing rods would freeze solid. The rods would have to be banged against the boat to break the ice free. Thank God for all the adult anti-freeze we had on hand. We were still cold, but didn’t notice it as much.
Over the years, there have been trips where chain saws, hammers and saws, and paint brushes were amongst the fishing gear. At times even golf clubs were thrown into the back of a Suburban, pick up or SUV. The amount of fishing gear became less in volume as the years progressed. After all when you are young, there’s no telling just what lure, line, or fishing rod you might need. But those early years with Abe’s father were special. After he retired to Florida, he would be the first to call on the evening of the first day of our trips. Always anxious to find out how we did and who was winning at the poker table. He was a nice man who left a lot of fond memories and not just for his immediate family, but his extended family as well.
That extended family has evolved into six people who can abide each other’s company for more than three days.....only once a year. They are Abe, myself, Paul, Bill, John, and Dave. These may be the men who are the history makers, but we sure as hell are not photogenic. Dave missed this trip.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The 9th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
WHAT A LITTLE WATER WILL DO!
It has been hot and dry for about two weeks here in SC. While working around the gardens here at home, I sprayed a plant with a fine mist just to see what would happen. It did not take five minutes before two green anoles..................lizards............show themselves. It must have been the first drinks they had in two weeks, judging from their actions.
Photo ops are simply what you make of them.
A rainy, cloudy, day without wind on the big lake in New Hampshire. Just the kind of day we like to fish, but must wait till at least the 28th of this month. I will be headed north for the 41st year of this gathering of aging cronies. This could be the first of the last year, but we have to wait and see. Hope for a lot of photographs and whatever fish we happen to stumble over. If you would like to know more about this outing, please go back in the archives.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The 7th day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
DISRESPECT
I guess that I am just getting old and chrochety! (Still haven't found the spell check) Our Easter trip to DC was fun and the family meeting was wonderful. We had a fabulous dinner at a place called Fogo De Chao, a chain in major cities and something else special. If you have a chance to go to one of these places, please enjoy because it is beyond wonderful.
The cherry blossoms were out, and maybe a little over the hill, but it was wall to wall people and one could not have made a decent image to appropriately show the majesty of the place. In fact, just the opposite.
Easter Morning 10:00 AM
I guess that the park service has been so defunded that, even with almost 10% umemployment, they cannot keep up with the crowds. A sad commentary on the capital of the free world. No Easter bonnets here! I guess our funds are busy elsewhere, like electing congressmen.
Friday, April 2, 2010
The second day of the fourth month of the year of the Camellia
BUDDY
I am not real sure why I have a real fondness for beagles. This is "Buddy" one of the eleven dogs that live within four houses of us. Yup, we live in a kennel!
You gotta love that face!
This is a nice guy and reminds me of my boyhood friend "Pal". Same breed only with a little Hienz 57 thrown in. When I was 8 or 9 years old we were inseparable. Roaming on my grandparents farm. And he could run rabbits----which the breed was meant to do. They have an expression second only to a blood hound. Sweet!
I will be travelling Friday through Monday or maybe Tuesday. Going to the "Belly of the Beast"----- DC---- to photograph cherry blossoms and not tea bags. I am told they are in full blossom (the cherry blossoms) and we're going to meet my son and family. Taking the Grandson to the Smithsonian, and he is just about like it's Christmas Eve. Any way, you all are going to have to do something else while I am gone. I can't afford a lap top cause you all are not buying enough, so you're on your own. Maybe visit my website or one of the profit centers-----you know----just for laughs.
Today, I will be at a bass fishing tournament. Photographing Lake Murray here in central South Carolina and the lucky guy(s) that bring in the big ones. It is amazing the number of large bass those guys catch. For the first time in two years it looks like we will have warm weather and no cold front moving through. I expect the largest to go about 8 pounds. These are largemouth bass. At the end of the month I will be trying my own luck on Landlock salmon in the big lake in New Hampshire. Probably catch some small mouth bass too.
They won't be anywhere as big as the ones caught tomorrow.
Cya in a few days and remember to keep telling your friends about that nut photographer, his blog, and retail stores.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The day of Fools of the 4th month of the year of the Camellia
HAPPY DAY OF FOOLS!
Go out and see who you can catch!
Only once in my life can I admit that my staff caught me on this April Fools Day.
I must admit to usually not knowing what day it is, and when I get busy I am concentrating on what I am doing and not what other people around me do. When I worked in Downtown Manhattan a hundred years ago, my secretary gave me a message to call Mr. Beahr at a certain phone number. I was busy...what can I say. Of course the number was for the Bronx Zoo!
A friend asked me the other night whether I had a good photo of the Gervais St. Bridge here in Columbia. I had to admit that I was probably the only artist in South Carolina who had not published an image of that bridge.
It seems that every small town, city, mega-center has their own Icon. In the case of Columbia, one of the sites to see is the bridge. So here it is and from an angle I have not seen out on the street before. Taken from the up stream side and showing the capitol in the background. It has the good light of the magic hour as well.
Even little town, such as Chestertown Maryland, population around 4,000 has an icon. In their case it is the fountain in the town center. It has been painted by so many artists that I think they use a roller to get the job done.
And of course in Washington, it's got to be the Washington Monument.
Now I will tell you that I took all these photographs out of magazines and scanned them into my computer to put on here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)