The 26th of Feb.

EDISTO BEACH OAT FIELDS

A rocking chair was abandoned in face of an oncoming storm from the ocean side.  Even the oats are giving way and showing wind direction.  Foreboding clouds and all.  I just love beach storms.  This is the barrier island of Edisto in South Carolina.

The 24th of the second

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Portland Head Lighthouse
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The Charleston Lighthouses
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Barnegat Lighthouse
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The 23rd of the second

It looks like we had spring yesterday for about an hour and half. 

 Today we'll get to the eighties and you know what spring does to an old man's heart.  Makes him want to go out and do yard work.  No, I don't think so.  About the time I get the Rutabaga's planted we'll get another frost.  But this good weather does bring my mind back to some of the beaches around here.

This is Hunting Island State Park.  It is really a treasure and never seems to be overstocked with people.  And that to me makes it nice.  There are miles of beach to walk and tons of photo ops.

The ever present pelicans.

And along the way there is "The Field of Shrimpers"

2 22 12 OR THE TWENTYTOOTH OF THE TWELF!

Spring seems to be coming already!

76 degrees!

The yellow Jessamine is blooming.

The pests are starting to get ahead of the weed spray!

The crocus are croaking!

There is still a pansy or three around!

And somewhere, some village is missing their idiots!

Missy n McGee

The 21st of the second

Two sales yesterday.  Things are happening of Fine Art America!

And this one is becoming my "Mad Bluebird", only on a much smaller scale.

I guess I need to say it.  These are copyright pieces and cannot be lifted or used for any purpose whatsoever.  Not for print.  Not for publication.  Not for the net.  If you have a need, please email me.

The 20th of the 2nd

I ran across this in the files and thought that I would post it as it does bring back memories. 

Remember to click on the photo for a better resolution of the image.

Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Refuge is the place.  About seven or eight years ago when the tundra swans were there in number.  Now, most of them now end up in North Carolina and not so much Maryland any more.  They make an annual trip from Alaska and Canada down here to winter.  Quite a site and a beautiful bird.  That's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Annapolis, MD in the background.  Here is a link to a great Nat Geo video of the migration process of these big birds.  Sorry for the google advertisements you have to go through to see the vid, but it is worth it.

The 19th

Of shows and work.

It's raining hard again this morning as the first cup of Pike Place Roast rests between the gnarly fingers of my left hand.  Gnarly fingers.....when did I get them?  Guess they go well with the turkey necks under my elbows. 

Yesterday, I went to the wildlife show in Charleston.  SEWE.  That's Southeast Wildlife Exhibition, pronounced ceee-weee.  Lots of wildlife in most of the venues from photography, painting, sculpture, and any other form of art that you can imagine.  I simply wanted to visit with some of my old friends from past shows like the Easton Waterfowl from which I retired last year.

This is an old photo of the show hall at Easton.  Charley Bear's booth is front and center and we had a long talk yesterday.  He is doing well and still schlepping all that stuff around.  He puts his photographs on tiles from which he makes wall hangings, coasters, and other types of kitchen appliances.  He still remember when I gave him that moniker of selling "Kitchen Wares"....we had some good laughs.  He has some new work that just is outstanding. 

Stopped and talked a long time with John Orehovec, and old time friend and wonderful nature photographer.  He is still as cantankerous as he always was which is why we both get along so well.  He is at the point I was a couple of years ago.  Time to move on even though he is one of the best pure wildlife photographers in the country.

Other friends I found were Jim Campion and his wife.  Dick Petrie was also showing.  Both of these have been friendly competitors over the years and both accomplished photographers in their own right.  None of the above folks do any digital work on their photos.  It shows when compared with the newcomers to the scene.  Digital art has become a huge part of photography and is here to stay.  Five years ago we all look askance at refining a photo with the computer but today is is an absolute necessity if you want to compete.

That having said, a new comer to the show in Charleston is Mathew Spaulding.  He has two black and white images that are all photography.  Both time exposures and both absolutely "Art".  This guy is going to make a mark for himself.  One image was of an old dock, simple, flat water, and very calming.  The other is one of the best image I have ever seen made of the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine.

All told, it was a great trip down memory lane and a peek into what the future of our art holds.

THE 16TH DAY OF LEAP MONTH

NEGLECTED

Yep, we get an extra day this year/month.  Leap year!  For those of you with only a public, government school, education that means there are 29 days in Feb.  Only happens every four years.  And those that are born on that day get to celebrate their birthdays only once every four years.  So when you're a hundred, in fact you're only 25.  Boy wish the body could weather that easily.  But it did get me thinking a bit of what is and what was.

This family cemetery is on a little road on the central Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Somewhere between the communities of Kingstown and Crumpton.  It was a foggy morning and I was on my way to the Crumpton auction, which will be the subject of another blog. 

The forgotten resting place of a number of forgotten souls lies on a little knoll  in the middle of what alternatively is a corn or soybean field.  Well off the road and surrounded by a rusted and falling old fence.  The stones are so weathered as to not even show an inscription. 

Obviously, the descendants of these folks are long gone as well given the overgrown nature of the place.  The fog adds a foreboding sense of just what the place is.  How long ago were flowers brought to adorn a headstone.  Or the weeds and brush cleared away.  Could that headstone been the head of a family or the black sheep renegade of the family.  Or maybe a child taken way too early.  They were obviously loved when they passed as the location was elevated away from flooding rains and enclosed with what could only have been expensive fencing back in the day.  All kinds of questions come up when one puts his or her back to the old oak tree in the center giving thought to what is and isn't.  The tree outliving generations of questions.

These were not folks who were famous people in the early history of the country.  Such as Tench Tilghman, an Eastern Shore icon of the early wars of this country and one of Washington's revolutionary buddies.  He is buried in a well maintained  cemetery near Oxford, MD.  Hell, he even had an island named after him.  Not so these folks.  Just farm folk most likely laid to rest in a field on their farm by their family and mourned by only a few within a twenty mile radius.

Frankly, I prefer the headstone used to advertise a funeral home in Chestertown, MD a few years ago.  Seems more today as it were.

THE 15TH OF THE 2ND

ISLAND RETREAT

Happy Valentine's day 2012

A great wish for you to be my Valentine to Emily, Elizabeth, Isabelle and Ben.  Love you all!

Yup, they're all Grand Kids!

Now how about some beaches in the great state of Maine...

Up here, you don't get to lay out on the beach unless you're a Harbor Seal!

West Quoddy.

Remember for a better resolution just click or double click on a photo.

A view of Penobscot Bay.

Pemaquid Point.

I can just feel the air.  Crisp!  Clear!  A faint smell of salt.

A tricky Arcadian Cove on Mt. Desert Island.

And that's why they call it the Rocky Coast of Maine! 

Happy Valentines day to everyone!

THE 13TH OF THE SECOND OF TWELVE

That inch and one eighth of the coast line of New Hampshire....US.

I am not sure that when one thinks in his heart of hearts, little Valentine's day lingo there, about New Hampshire ..... that he thinks of the Atlantic Coast.

At least I don't for the most part.  My thoughts are more inland usually.  Mount Washington, Lake Winnepasaukee, Wolfeboro, Meredith and a ton of other places.  Generally, not ocean.  But look on a map.  It's there!  From Portsmouth south the Salisbury.

Mostly Rocky.  Mostly exposed to the elements.  Often fogged in.  The water is always COLD.  Hey, it's up north.  They have about an hour and a quarter of summertime.  Just foolin with ya!  But you get the picture. 

Speaking of pictures, here is one of the Rye Beach area just south of Portsmouth.

On one side of the famous US RT. 1A are turn of the last century old homes with manicured lawns and gardens. On the other side is the above! What a way to wake up every morning.

Did I mention rocky and foggy? 

Just think of the tenacity it took to weather the storms, high water, fog, cold and lack of good soil jut to get to that age!

The 12th of the second....second edition

Sales announcement!

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The 12th of the second

AMAZING!

What's wrong with you guys...........Hallmark day is only a couple days away.  Easier to buy than to suffer, believe me!  OK, I know a photograph is not very romantic but to me it is and for you it's easy and quick.

It actually got below thirty degrees here in the wilds of central, urban, South Carolina last night.  Perhaps some of the mosquito and fly larva got freeze dried.

No, we didn't have snow last night just cold.  This image was from a couple of years ago and did present a good photo op.  This is the state house where they still fly the confederate flag somewhere.  I think it's on a separate pole out in front and not on the top where it used to be.  God I love political correctness!  Below is a view of town from the steps of the State House.

  Warming up today and the sun is bright but it's not supposed to get to the seventies till mid week.

  I have started to walk the riverwalk again and they are making some changes down there and I might be able to get to the river with less struggle this spring.  Hope so, feel the need to fish again.

This shot is on the Columbia side of the river and still, in my humble opinion, one of the best ways to spend tax payers dollars.  At least here the low live's who refuse to work and live off the taxpayers have a place to sleep.  Under the bridges that is.  OK, little sour there.  It's a commentary on our lives and times and not specifically on Columbia.  I guess all our towns have their share of trolls.

 

We have two of these walks amounting to about seven and a half miles.  They are absolutely great!  They are patrolled and pretty safe with decent scenery and some photo ops from time to time. 

 Need to stop babbling here now.  Have to check the Power Ball numbers and see if I won the 350 million.  Isn't that obscene or what?  But a discussion better left for another time.  Have a great Sunday all.

The 11th of the second

ISOLATION AND DESOLATION

~

SNOW IN THE MID ATLANTIC TODAY....TIME TO GO TO THE CAPE COD BEACHES.

I guess, given the topography of the East Coast, that the Cape Cod area of Mass. is one of the last large stretches of sand before you get to the "Real" rocky coasts of  New England.  And there is a lot of sand on the Cape.

The dunes just outside of Provincetown are huge.  I mean North African type huge.  It was a struggle for me to just walk to the top of one.  Course I was old and frail when I tried it, but just sayin!  I am sorry there is no scale in this photo, but the trees in the foreground are sizable.  Plus, of course all this is forty miles out to sea so they create their own weather out there.

  There is more sand in the Nauset Beach area around Orleans and some years ago there were still a few of the old beach shacks hidden in the dunes.

This photo is probably 40 years old and I am sure that the place is now gone, but Nauset is one of the really cool places to adventure and explore. This shack was the end of a long hike, probably carrying all the water and food the owners would need for however long their planned stay.

Salt marsh is what the Cape is all about if one is not on the ocean side.  It's about a two and half mile walk out to Race Point and the old light house seen here in the distant.  The walking is easy for the most part, and one can get a real feel for the land without any other humans in sight.  I've said it before and will repeat it here, humans can mess up a free lunch when it comes to the solitude that nature provides.  That's just for me though, and you may be different.  If I want to hear a bunch of parrots jabbering around the next turn, I'll go to the South American jungles to photograph them.  I don't need them on my local nature walks.  OK, no more ranting!

There are so many places and ways that I have found some isolation and yes even desolation on the cape.  Does the term "Loner" come to mind?

Stage Harbor Lighthouse is on a beach about two miles from the nearest road.  Just my kinda place.  Lighthouse, sand and crisp, green, cold water swirling around a point of sand.  Had to be fish lurking there just waiting to be caught.  Not, and I tried.  One of the things I noticed about the Cape lighthouses, versus other areas of the East Coast is that they have removed the light rooms from most of the towers.  I am not sure why that is so, except to say that weather and wind might be a factor.  And the fact that there are no keepers to maintain the places.  Just an interesting aside. 

Speaking of lighthouse, there are some thirteen or so lights on the cape.  Here, the Cape Cod light awash with spring flowers.  This is one of the few towers in the country that was physically moved.  Erosion of the cliff upon which it stood neccessitated the move a half mile inland.  The other light on the cape that was moved was the Nauset tower.  One on Block Island in Rhode Island was moved and of course the biggie was Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. 

There are spots in Mass. where the beginning of the rocky shores of New England can be witnessed.  It's just that the rocks are a little smaller the further south one travells.  The Old Scituate lighthouse in, where else, Scituate is found in a rocky cove. 

It must have been a morning like the one pictured above when the British were coming ashore during the Revolution.  Legend has it that the two daughters of the keeper of the light took up fife and drum and started to play.  The British, upon hearing the music, beat a hasty retreat as they feared an army hidden within the fog.  The girls then became local heros.

If you click or double click on the first photograph, you will find a view of the photographs which offers a better rendition of each.

THE TENTH OF THE SECOND

I have taken part of the new ad for Fine Art America and you will see one of my images of the Barnegat Lighthouse on the attached video. 

Don't blink.......it's at 1.08 on the ad.

http://www.facebook.com/fineartamerica?sk=app_253100634768308

They told us that it is a part of a utube and TV production.  Neat.  If you are an artist this is one of the best venue's I have found on the web.  Click on the link upper right and join us.

Second month, eighth day

SOME NEW JERSEY BEACHES

I grew up in New Jersey.  About two hundred years ago.  Well, maybe not that long ago but it sure seems so.  We lived in a little bedroom town in central jersey called Westfield.  Everybody commuted to New York City every day.  At least that seemed so as well.  I went to Westfield Senior High School and was released in 1958.  Worked part time in a sporting goods store for five years and played a little baseball for the high school team.  Long story short I am fairly familiar with the Jersey shore.  Long before "Snooky".

There are such places as The Highlands and Sandy Hook, Manasquan, Point Pleasant, Lavallete, Long Beach Island (LBI), Atlantic City, Wildwood and Cape May.  I mean these places are legendary.  The only problem for we kids was The Parkway!  The Garden State Parkway runs north to south the entire length of the state.  On Fridays and Sundays in the summer it is the longest parking lot man ever created.  With the possible exception of the Long Island Expressway at commuting time.  But for the most part everybody lives with it.

Island Beach State Park was only one of the beaches we all sought.

Believe it or not some of my class mates still look Hot!  This was in 2010 when a bunch of all got together to lie to each other.  Not really, but was fun.

New Jersey is often thought of as an industrial waste land.  But as you can see here, it is quite the contrary.  Beach to the east farmland to the west and mountains to the north.  All you need to do is get off the New Jersey Turnpike to see what the Garden in Garden State is all about.

And in this state the "Twin Towers" in NYC are never forgotten.  I found this on a deserted beach in South Jersey.  Somebody just wanted to leave a comment.  Sweet!

A little farther south we find the beaches of North Wildwood and Wildwood.  This view is from the tower room of the Hereford inlet lighthouse.  You can see some of the Victorian gardens in the foreground.  If you ever get to the area, this lighthouse is a must see stop.

The seventh of the second

IT'S GOTTA BE COLD SOMEWHERE.............SO..

Lets go to a couple of Florida beaches.

Or maybe the golf course on the East Coast around Hammock Beach!

The Captain evidently didn't think it was a beach.  The Florida Straits.

While the beach is tiny is is really nice and warm.  Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.  Another name I love because it just rolls off the tongue....has some mystery about it....Dry Tortugas!

Check some of the photo categories on the right with just a double click.

THE SIXTH OF THE SECOND

MORE BEACH FUN

Hunting Island, SC

Early morning here and 45 degrees.  Made it to 77 yesterday and was delightful.  Of course we won't kill any mosquito's or flies over the winter that way.  Need some good old frozen ground for that.

  I have no idea how a dog knows that you've been up till the wee small hours (one am) and wakes up at 5:30 am barking at some intruder, other dog, cat or a sound four miles off that disturbs her.  Generally, she is just barking back-up to some neighbor dog who has seen the same apparition.  But, you gotta check it out just in case.  Might as well make the Pike Place Roast and let the caffeine do the rest of the wake up routine. 

As you can see I have made some additions to the blog.  Again.  All just for you my dear readers.  On the right you can click or double click (whatever it takes) on some categories of Fine Art America.  You will get a chance to see some really good artwork in addition to my own. They tell me my stuff will show up in the third or fourth row of each category, but the fact of the matter is that the reader will get to easily see a ton of other art as well.  Trying to make the blog a one stop shop, shop.  Now all I need is some guy hanging over a shopping cart with a plumber's crack and make that the banner instead of "Lookin In".  Not gonna happen.

It was so nice yesterday that I went to Loews and bought some lime for the lawn.  God, that stuff has gotten expensive.  Used to be you could get a hundred pounds for four bucks.  Now it's forty pounds for sixteen.  And Washington says there is no inflation.  If you believe that I got another community organizer to sell ya.  All this effort and expense just to make the green stuff grow.  Then you gotta get the mower out and cut it twice a week.  Who cares from a hundred miles up anyway?

Congratulations to the NY Giants who played a great football game, Clint Eastwood who made a fantastic commercial and Madona who evidently has become a classic entertainer without taking her clothes off  (Recently anyway).  I understand, but didn't see it, that she flipped somebody the bird during the show but hey she would....wouldn't she?  Still rather be on a beach.

South Carolina beaches seem to be a little wider than up north.  A little less slope and with maybe a little less erosion apparent.  Certainly less people than lets say Sandy Hook in New Jersey where you got to stake out your postage sized part of the sand on Thursday night for the up-coming weekend cause there are so many people.  But then that's the Jersey Shore and a whole nother thing.

Myrtle beach is popular, but then that's because it's a major city, got the golf courses, and entertainment galore.  I'd rather go to Hunting Island or Edisto beach and just rock my time away.

I think that I'll call this one "Sea Gull"

The fourth of the second

FORGET ABOUT YOUR GROUNDHOGS!

I always said that a ground hog was only good for turning vegetable matter into protein.  Let alone prognosticating the weather.  I once had a vegetable garden and the little critter obliterated a row of green beans in about two hours. 

But here is the "Real Deal".  A friend of mine in Florida said yesterday that the robins were staging in her yard and getting all ready for their trip north.  Well, there here.  A couple of dozen of the red breasted characters were cleaning up the yard. 

Now if I could only get them to eat leaves, I would 'nt have to rake!  Fat chance, they seem to have this attitude about them.

The seem to be particularly incensed when you interrupt their bath.  Like some people I know! 

So my friends up north, bear with it.  This non winter will be coming to an end all too soon.  Then we'll have to deal with AC bills, flies and mosquito's.  Oh, and remember if you put a dozen or so pennies in a plastic bag full of water and hang it by a door..............you won't have to deal with the flies.  Course, cleaning up the dog poop in the yard also helps. 

Oh, and my Superbowl pick will be 97-95 with Brady making the last basket in OT.  Pass the wings please!

The third of the second of twelve

More beach and no snow!

I guess that when it comes to beaches, the OB or outer banks come to most people's mind.  It sure does to mine.  Great waves, fine sand and free travel.  I love it when you let the air out of the tires on arrival, and hate to have to pump them up again to leave.  On and off the beach constantly. 

I had a friend who lived in Rodanthe, NC.  A good photographer who once worked for the Washington Post as their sports photog.  Closest human being I ever knew to a true beach bum.  Dick Darcey!  Bless him and Rip.  He had a shop on the main highway of the outer banks...The artery that always washes over during heavy storms.  The infamous Rt. 12.  He sold anything from carvings, driftwood he collected,  his own photos and works of others.  A true character who always signed his work and mail as "D squared".  You know, those of you educated in the public government school system,...that's D with a little two to the upper right.  We showed together at the Easton Waterfowl Festival for about twelve years, always going out for raw oysters for lunch.  The sales each day would take care of themselves, but he always took the time to smell the roses.

He lived somewhere between the "Upper end" of the banks at Duck and the lover more rural Hatteras Village.  I, for one prefer the area around the Hatteras light at Buxton.  Cape Point is the spot that sports more shipwrecks than the entire banks.  And here's the reason.

Not the angler, but the waves.  Standing at the point from which I took this photo, one can look to sea and witness such wave action all the way to the horizon.  I can do justice in a photograph, but suffice to say if you ever have the chance you must witness Cape Point.

Part of the charm of the North Carolina shore is the wave action.  Of course it all depends upon weather and for me of course the lighting.

Curl, blue green water and great beaches.

And a nice breeze off the shore provides the appropriate spray.

Sleep well D Squared!