"LOOKIN IN": November 2010

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The 23rd day of the 11th month of the year of the Camellia

On The Road Again

Off to Chicago for t-bird day.

Going to the airport ha ha--- ha ha!

Going to be groped ha ha--ha ha!

Hope it's a girl ha ha---ha ha!

They're coming to get me Ha Ha--ha ha!

But I'll take signs of affection any way I can get it.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The 22nd day of the 11th month of the year of the Camellia

FRIDAY NIGHT, SATURDAY MORNING

There was (or supposed to be) the best day/night on Friday to watch the Leonid Meteor Shower. Well actually Saturday morning. A very COLD, early Saturday morning. The reports said the meteors could be seen best just after moon set and before dawn but this could have been just another Internet hoax.

I had forgotten from my hunting days just how exciting it was to get out of a warm bed at 2:00 AM on a COLD morning to go outside (probably under dressed) to do anything. Let alone standing next to a tripod with a camera set on bulb for time exposure, and hoping that a meteor would come by.

We had pulled off the road into a farmer's hay field. A couple of houses across the road and very light traffic on the road proper. It was too COLD for other cars. My fear was that a trooper would come along and wonder what those two idiots were doing in the middle of a field at about 3:30 AM. Well, a local prison cell would have been warmer.

We drove about a half hour west of Columbia in order to get away from all the light pollution and thank the lord we had a compass built into the car. We never would have found East left to our own devices. As you can see from the photo above, the sky was pretty barren with no streaks of molten rock hurtling towards, around, or past earth. Oh, did I say it was COLD?

Then when I got home and opened all the photos ........Yahoooooooooooooooo!

Two very COLD streaks of light across the top of the photo. I hope you can see them. Meteors? Must be. The only things moving in the eastern sky that I could identify.

But then again.

They must have been the telephone wires I had not seen earlier because it was too darn COLD!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The 21st day of the 11th month of the year of the Camellia

"I GOT ALOT OF SPLAININ TO DO, LUCY!"

It has been some time since I have regaled you with my meaningless but poignant prose. I spent a week in Maryland doing the Easton Waterfowl Festival along with about a dozen of my closest photo colleagues.

Got back to home base late Tuesday and am now just getting the car unloaded, clothes washed (yes I did change clothes up there), inventory stored, and body rested. The last part seems to take longer with each show.

For the economists amongst us, we as a group improved our sales by almost a hundred percent over last year with two less photographers. I myself by almost three times and yet this was not my best show of the year in total dollars. Could the mid-term elections have loosened some wallets and attitudes in anticipation of an attitudinal change in Washington? I sure as hell hope so! Nuff rant. All I can say is "God Bless" the green tree frog!

I am blessed with two wonderful kids, who were raised "Right" by their mother, and four grand kids who are being raised "Right" by their parents. I like to think that I had something to do with that too, other than a dip in the gene pool. My daughter and daughter in law visited the show with three of the grands and I hope they were not totally bored by all the beautiful art.

Looking carefully at the photo, I now know why the only images of me are hanging in a post office somewhere. The boy on the right will probably grow into some kind of genius, the girl on the right somewhere in the fashion world an the princess in the middle just that. A princess somewhere. The lady in the Middle is DIL and the one on the right is D. I have no idea who the old guy on the left is. Hardly recognize him.

A simple shot of the who room with my booth up on stage right.

I had time to do some shooting and visiting after the show which ended Sunday a week ago, so Monday and Tuesday past were devoted to some revisiting of old spots to take pictures.

The Canada Geese had arrived of course and sections of the area were still in peak color. This bunch were feeding in front a a woods that seemed to be just vibrant. This is typical "Eastern Shore" of the Chesapeake. Farmers leave some corn uncut in the fields and the winter wheat has grown just enough to provide some species with luscious green lawns on which to munch.

The fall colors can also be used to accentuate another icon. This hand carved statue of a "Waterman" can be found in Rock Hall, Md. It was taken on Tuesday in a steady rain and hence the rain hat was of enhanced importance. This little town (where I grew up in summers) was once was mecca on the Chesapeake for the commercial fishermen or watermen. Now it is primarily a sailing town, but still small in size with population somewhere around two thousand.

I guess that willow trees are the last to turn in the fall. This one could have been enhanced only by a strong wind which might have made the branches sway on the horizontal. Without the wind, a rural pond side image suggests serenity in the waning weeks of summer.

There is a reason this image is called "Six Point". This is a horse farm as the fencing confirms. The field to the left are soybeans yet to be harvested. At the end of the fence on the right, one can see (or might not) just the top of the head of a six point buck deer which ran across the road in front of me. By the time I got there, got the window down, the camera up and focused....all I could see was the top of the antlers. Hard to see but they are there.

Critters seem to move around more during the daylight hours on rainy days as opposed to sunny, bright days. I guess they figure if they're going to be miserable and wet, they might as well be looking for something to eat. The deer above and below were out of the woods around noon each day. The doe below serves to confirm that white tailed deer are edge type critters. Preferring to hang out on those spots between feeding fields and deep woods. They do go to the deep woods during hunting seasons for more protection, but left to their own devices it is the edges they love.

There are some things on the shore that seem to be a little older than me and a little more worn out. I guess that is why they say that you can never go back. But some of the old places just seem to acquire a different mood about them given the aging. Sort of like a fine wine .... or maybe just sour grapes. I wonder what the history is here?

I did make it to the bay, or at least a river connected to the bay. This is the Chester River at Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The place is rife with little spots that photograph well. They just leave one with a good feeling and awe at what the creator has done without the hand of man.

Along the way there are many roads we may take, but some seem to lend the promise of greater anticipation as one creeps along. When it is raining, the sound of footsteps are absorbed by the damp under footing. Like one is walking on a bed of moss. On a dry day it would sound like your walking on a bowl of corn flakes. Each step opens a different vista to the walker's eye and anticipation grows. Particularly if the woods are damp and quiet. I guess that is the basis of the old saying "Anticipation is 90% of satisfaction".

What is at the end of that road anyway? Well, dear reader I leave that to you as I didn't walk that one because it was on private property belonging to Chesapeake Farms.

I could have found a herd of deer, or a flock of turkeys. Or something as simple as an old dead snag.

Or something that the hand of man and Photoshop did manipulate, to effect your judgement as to the view and interpretation at hand.

But hey, that's life isn't it?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The 9th day of the 11th month of the year of the Camellia

On the road early in the morning, see you all this weekend.

http://www.waterfowlfestival.org/

For all of my friends on the bay, I will be bringing the following images to mention only a few.

"Tonger's Sunrise" was made some years ago on the Chester River. I captured these two oyster tongers just as the sun was rising. The image will be framed in a hand made, signed, and dated, walnut frame.

Some time ago, I spent a day on the water photographing watermen seeding oyster beds. The Wilma Lee was just entering the Chester River from the narrows when I let her chase us down. This is one of the last of the famed Chesapeake Bay skipjacks to actually work on the bay.

The "Cranky Crab" loves Easton and has been there many years. I took his photo on a rainy day on a dock in a little suburb of Rock Hall, MD......called Gratitude.

The "Cranky Crab" is a quintessential image of the "Eastern Shore", as is the photograph of the Hooper Straight Lighthouse, in a foggy snow, and behind the Rosie Parks skipjack....is also all about the Eastern Shore.

A lone bateau in a calm backwater, just off the Chesapeake, depicts not only the feeling of the bay but the necessities of life on the bay. These were at one time the workhorse of the bay's watermen.

This piece is in a hand made, signed, and dated, bird's eye maple frame.

I of course have images of most of the notable lighthouses on the east coast an have visited 2/3 rds of the 223 lights from Maine to Florida. So please stop by the booth at the Easton Waterfowl Festival, in Easton Maryland on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Lookin forward to seein ya!

Go back to yeasterday's blog for links to the Festival.

I'll be on the road tomorrow, so you will have to watch CNN, ABC, NBC, or CBS for your laughs.

Monday, November 8, 2010

The 8th day of the 11th month of the year of the Camellia

Of course the Frog will be there!

Accompanied this year for the first time, the "Elegant Helper"

An old favorite returns after a long hiatus......."Figure Eight"

Finally, for today there will be the "Snow Tree" shown for the first time ever in sepia and in a signed and dated , walnut frame.

See you all there on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Talbot County Historical Society Building in Easton, Maryland. We will be celebrating the shows 40th and my 21st.

The Easton Waterfowl Festival