THE 30TH OF THE FIFTH

DRY TORTUGAS!

OK, sports fans...............On my second cup of Pike Place Roast and a Jimmy Buffett CD.

  It's time to waste away again!!

Does it get any better than that?

I mean anybody that can make the song "Lets get drunk and screw" into a national hit is my kinda guy...or at least in my imagination.

A hundred years ago in 1997 I had the opportunity to go to florida for the express purpose of photographing the lighthouses for a book publisher.  All they needed were the photos.

It took me eleven days, three of which in airplanes flying "Low and slow".  I started in Jacksonville at Amelia Island and did the East Coast to Key West and then North to and West to Pensacola.  I cannot begin to tell you how many miles I drove, but it was a lot.  It was September and all the "Professionals" told me not to go because of hurricane season.  Well, no storms but some of the best afternoon skys any photographer could ask for.

Had I been born in the Mid 1800's, I think that the Keys of Florida would have been my destination in life.  Back then only those that needed to lose themselves ended up in the keys.  And God forbid, if you were real bad you might end up in Fort Jefferson on the Dry Tortugas.  More than likely you would end up in Key West where that just left you alone.

It's only a short sea plane ride from Key West to the Tortugas.  The water is crystal clear and along the way one can see all the sharks and turtles you want.  Coral reef's hold the mistakes the a hundred years of mariners made and the wrecks are all over the place.  A cooler full of drinks, cheese, crackers, snorkel, mask and flippers and your day at Fort Jefferson is complete.  It is a one day treat that not too many of my friends in the mortal man ledger have made.

OK Jimmy, now I'm ready for that "Cheeseburger in Paradise"!

MEMORIAL DAY 2012

In consideration and awe of those folks who have so bravely fought for our country and beliefs.....I thank you and your family's for your service.  Our flag wraps your deeds and our beliefs for all time.  The American experiment is so much more than just an experiment as it is called by our self centered media and self serving professional politicians.  It is a way of life that has worked for over 200 years, supported by our military, their sacrifices and families.  Memorial day is so much more than mere sound bites for the spinners.  It is a time to reflect and realize just how blessed we all are. 

Change that ...... I don't think so!

Yesterday on this blog, I made yet another mistake.  Rare-----but when I do, I admit them.  The photograph taken of the lighthouse on South East Block island was actually made in 1992, already corrected, and not 1972.  My astute daughter was quick to pick out the error.  I thought I had taken the date off the slide and simply made the mistakes of old men in promptly forgetting what I had seen and fudging in what my addled brain assumed was the correct date.  So, tell all your friends that read this thing that the old man screwed up again.  Then have a great day doing what's really important. 

Happy Memorial day Monday all.

Twenty year celebration

A TWENTY YEAR CELEBRATION

I made this image in 1992,  the year I stopped using the smokes.  I remember that I kept the Marlboro man in business single handidly for at least 18 years.  Well it seemed that way at least.  I think I was up to three packs a day and could not complete a whole sentence on the telephone without coughing.  At today's prices I just could not imagine the cost of that addiction.  And I could never understand how other people could react to the smoke I was putting out.  Just their problem I figured.  Today, I have an appreciation for that attitude, but try to keep it under control by simply walking away from a situation where someone is still smoking.  I'm sure not going to change the world!  But if you're doin it, you need to quit and or don't start.......it's not cool and it will kill ya.  Now booze on the other hand..........well that's another story.

Remember to click on the photo for a better resolution.

Block Island Lighthouse South East

It was 1972 and the lighthouse had not yet been moved away from the cliffs and the whole scene was simply breath taking.  This is the South East light on Rhode Island's famed Block Island.  I spent the better part of a week walking the cliffs of this island alone because I knew my demeanor was ten times worse than normal.  And my normal is probably a little worse than the rest of the world.  I really did not want to leave a wife and two kids murdered on those cliffs, but my withdrawal sure did lead to some dark thoughts.  And my wife was withdrawing form cigs as well.  She went cold turkey and I used the patch.  She snuck out behind the barn and I did not.  We both quit but it was an interesting week to say the least.  Talk about adding fuel to the flames, but all ended well!

The 25th of the fifth

Thank you to our vets of all the generations.

Little Round Top ... Gettysburg, Pa. 

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

The 24th of the 5th

A Backyard Update

Just thought I would update on the jungle and the Obama Apocalypse Garden.

With a long weekend coming up, there will be fence work and expansion of the patio.  The patio is growing and will likely expand until the money runs out or I die of exhaustion whichever comes first.

It does look nice, but will probably double in size.  The process is designed to provide us space to enjoy where we don't have to constantly step in "Dog Bombs".

   I actually suggested doing the whole *^*&^* yard.

The OA garden is mostly green.  We have had a few green beans and some onion but still too early for some of the other stuff like tomatoes and spuds.  Spinach just won't grow.  The wildflower border seems to be working and I have not had to spray anything for bugs.....strange!

The pole beans are doing what they are good at doing.  Climbing! 

I have to admit that the screens I have put in for the tomatoes and pole beans are doing very well.  These are the screens I used for years to take to shows and hang photographs.  Times do change!

I do think that I made more money selling the photographs than I have saved in vegetable costs.

 These beans are about six inches long and they look like they might grow to at least a foot.  Let's see, that's about three beans per meal.  Maybe I will save some money.

Tomorrow we'll tackle the old sock drawer!

The 23rd of the fifth

The more things change the more they remain the same.

I don't know if my luck has changed or not, but the black cat is still here.  Becoming "Garage kitty".  First named her "India"...you know India ink.  Man am I slick.  Not good though...too formal.  Now called "Inky", but because he's an urban kitty maybe "Inkster".   Depends upon my mood but she responds better to just plain kitty.  More precisely "Here kitty, here's your food"!

Just to show I can shoot in black and white, I'll include this neon day lily in the post today.  Nice to photograph something that's grown in your own garden.

If you would like a copy of the flower to hang on your wall, just email.  If you would like a copy of "Inky", I'll UPS her right over and you can take your own.  

The 17th of the 5th

JUST A RAINY MORNING

Grab your coffee, sit back, turn on the volume and enjoy the sounds of an early morning rain. 

The 16th of the fifth

Places one finds!

If you look hard enough..................you see things.

While looking for lighthouses to photograph in Maine....I found this old boathouse at Burnt Coat Harbor.  Just the name of the place is enough to conjure up all sorts of "Back woods, bay side images in the mind".  Let alone the fog which just made all those mental images just that much more real.  And then there was the old oil shed for the lighthouse.

Can you feel the quiet?  The dampness of the air and the darkness of the surrounding pines.  Solitude!  Imagine having to work on the lighthouse under four feet of snow or ringing the fog bell by hand  because the mechanism had broken down just after you got to sleep.  Or trekking out to this small building that housed the lamp oil in the dead of a pitch black night.  The oil was kept separated from the tower and keeper's dwelling to lessen chances of damaging fires.  Neat stuff!

The 15th of the 5th

LOST AND FOUND AND LOST

This blog is becoming the lost and found department of our neighborhood.  "India", my name for this cat, is back  or maybe didn't leave.  She is beautiful, friendly and scared to death.

If you click on the photo, you get a better resolution.  This cat is totally black with medium long hair.  Is very shy but once she overcomes that she is totally a house cat.  Probably a young cat but can hide in a second.  If any of my neighbors know who owns her, please contact me.  Email for a phone number.  We really don't want to keep her but will not have her put down.  She obviously has been cared for by someone, so come on people.

Got another "It's a yellow flower Mon"! in the Obama Oblivion garden yesterday and the real veggies seem to be coming along.  I think I got a late start but everything is green and no sign of plant eating bugs yet.  Already have had some onions and green beans and there are more beans waiting out there.  Waiting for the IRS to come asking for their share or the Dept. of Agriculture to shut me down because of no inspections.  If they do, I'll offer them stewed squirrel and get another ticket for baiting them with my bird feeders.

I really don't care what the name of it is, but if anyone knows please drop me a comment.

The 14th of the fifth

Just an update...........Again!

To begin with, the black is in the house .... Again!

I am afraid he just might get kept!

Spent the week end working in the Jungle.

It's a good thing because it has rained since late Sunday afternoon and that makes the rutabaga's grow.

The patio is growing.

If my back holds out and we don't have an earthquake in the mean time, I think it will continue to grow at least as far at the table.  It does make a great place to sit and read and we don't have to stumble over dog crap which grows in the grass area.

We got the first bloom on the wild flower border to the Obama Victory Garden...er Apocalypse Garden that is.  I have no idea what kind of flower it is.  Yellow flower Mon!  That's another story.

And the roof on the bird feeder is coming along.  Again not real sure the name of the flowers growing there, but the Red Belly Woodpecker sure loves to root around the plants.

Finally, last night I found that my 200 mm lens is all messed up.  We had a Humming bird moth visiting just at dusk.  I did manage to get one image that was almost in focus.  Neat bug, just  annoying that I couldn't get a better shot.

So that was the week end.  Now you know I have no life, but it was fun!

The 13th of the fifth

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

the 12th of the fifth

BEATIN THE DRUM

I can't remember exactly how my old college drinking song went.  Something about "I been standing on this corner......beating this drum......Salvation Army, salvation army".  That's the way it started any way.  See I did learn something from those eight years.

Well, I have been beating the drum on Fine Art America, Face Book, Twitter and here for about a year now and thought it time to report in.

The statistic aren't fabulous but the best I have been able to create on the web in a lot of years messing around with photographic art sales. 

In the past year we have had 13,136 visits to this blog to read the drivel I put out and look at some of my photographs.  That is rewarding and I hope that this blog has taken the place of such entertainment sources as NBC, CBS and ABC news.  It is fun to write but a bit of a chore when I have nothing to say, like today.

The Fine Art America site is even more of a surprise  to me.  I have had almost 30,000 visitors to look at my art work.  Five hundred and eighty four lost souls have actually taken the time to write comments about my work.  And sales have been more than I ever expected when I joined.  I credit that to people having more money than brains.  At least in my case. 

Some of you are doubtless annoyed by my Facebook and Twitter activity.  But it drives business to the site and I make a sale, on average, for every 700 hits or visits to my stuff on FAA. 

 I have been in sales all my life and have found that it is a numbers game based good service and an outstanding product that fulfills the needs of the victims....err customers. 

If you are just getting into sales or marketing, just graduating from college, or even pedaling burgers at Mickey Dee's......the preceding sentence is all you need to know about being a success in sales. 

 I believe that the people at FAA supply good product based on the artist's work.  After all there are almost 100,000 artists on that site.  Somebody's judgement must be right!  I don't know how many visitors each day, but it has to be in the millions world wide.  If you're an artist and want to participate I think there is a tab on the upper right of this page which will get you over there to join.  It's easy to get started but work to keep it promoted. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll come up with something a little more sage for this spot, but for the mean time have a great week end.  My sock draw needs attention!

the 11th of the fifth of the 12th

ONCE UPON A TIME

In Virginia along rural road 175 east, there used to be a old waterman who kept his boat right along the road's edge.  The boat was in reasonably good shape but the dock, if you could call it that, was in great need of repair.  The entire package reminded me of.....

  "This is my business and I am doing my best"!

 There was no place to park a car along the busy two lane causeway and I am not sure how the owner commuted each day to and from his boat and job.  I do know how I backed up tourist traffic to take the photograph.  After years of passing by, I just had to bite the bullet and pull over to snap a few quick images.

I am not sure that strong work ethic is much around anymore.  I know the boat and dock has gone the way of most relics.  But the independent attitude of doing hard work and scraping out a living from your surroundings may be gone.  While there are still family farms in this country, the big corporate farms make the most money.  And even if you are successful at your small business, the state, federal and local taxes eat much of the profits.  EPA, in my mind an illegal organization, controls most of the way we do or are not allowed to do business anymore.  Mom and Pop shops struggle just to pay rent to landlords with delusions of grander.

And so it is, when I see the remains of a man's life, I am struck by the struggle.  I am struck by the independence which made this great country.  And I am struck by the dwindling numbers of folks who depended upon that independence and the hard work.  They are the one who created the world's greatest country.  The World's greatest economy.  They are the givers and not the takers.

The 10th of the fifth

UPDATE

Remember to double click the photos for better resolution and click on the highlighted words for the FAA link.

Well, the black cat has left the building.  Apparently along with Elvis.  We had the Animal Control people stop by to check the animal and it seems it was in great shape, good fine coat, not sick and more importantly not feral nor pregnant.  Just scared to death for some reason.  It decided all on it's own to leave the garage and go somewhere.....hopefully to it's home.  We had two calls asking questions but no one laying claim to the beast.  All's well that ends well, I guess.

The Victory garden is going just fine despite potential rulings from Washington, DC regarding the legality of growing vegetables in a small urban garden to sustain the body and soul during hard economic and political times.  I am sure that somewhere in the Dept. of Agriculture or Health and Human Services, there is a rule saying that we cannot have our own gardens.  If it isn't there, it's coming.  It's my bounty and keep your grubby hands and taxes off it!

I will be making a short trip north during the first ten days of June for the graduation of my first grand daughter from high school.  I didn't realize that I was that old yet.  This is a pretty special young lady who will all too soon be off to college in New England, embarking on a whole new life.  I wish here all the luck in the world and pray that God looks over her as she furthers her education.  The objective of course is to become smarter than her parents and grand parents.  I think that she already has that one met re: her grandfather.

We had a nice rainy day yesterday and everything looks green and clean this morning.  Little cooler too, so some outdoor chores may have to be done.  Feeders are full and the birds are happy.  The perpetual squirrel hunt continues with a few of their backsides stung with BB's.  Seems all they learn is to run when the door opens and don't associate pain with being on the bird feeder.  Just when the door opens.  Hard to get anything but a running shot.  Of course the dog wants to go first, and that screws up the hunt as well.  Good practice for when the Federal Reserve tells us we all need to eat squirrel stew.  Tastes just like bad Chinese take out.  Comic relief anyway. 

The 8th of the fifth

The Art of Looking!

My early professional life, and some would say the only productive part of that life, was spent in greater downtown and mid-town New York City.  Some twenty five years.

There it was  I developed the "Art of Looking".

  Hey, if you can't find it in the Big Apple it just doesn't exist.  I remember the first time we took our son to see the town.  First thing he saw was a guy sleeping in rags on a subway grate.  It was warm there.  My son just could not reason why this man was laying on the sidewalk asleep.  It was one of the first teaching opportunities I had with him.  "Ya wanna end up like that guy on the sidewalk?  So do your homework already!"

I would spend my lunch hours just wandering the streets and looking.  "People watching" we used to call it.
  Like talking with hookers just to see how low a price you could weasel.  Just talking!

 Just to perfect the art of negotiation.

It is amazing what goes on in a big city, or small for that matter if you look hard enough.  Unfortunately all this was before I even picked up a camera.  I also have always had a problem taking candid shots of people out on the streets.  Invasion of their privacy type of thing and it makes me nervous.  Would not have made a good Paparazzi.  But occasionally we run over some stuff that makes some sense in a urban setting sort of way.

It doesn't matter if the location be New York or a vacation or tourist town, like Camden, Maine or a small village on the Eastern shore of Maryland.

Medium cities like Charlotte, NC offer all sorts of opportunities for the eye.

And of course New York and Chicago size cities are just mecca for the "Eyes wide open" type.

I guess I have been lucky.  Been a lot of places and seen a lot of things.  All I have to do is remember to stop, look and listen.  Even so, sometimes wondrous things are found in my own own back yard.

I relate the story about the photographer in upstate New York at an art fair.  Had some of the most fantastic photographic prints of storms out over the great plains.  I was mesmerized!  And like most amateurs, I asked the worn old question we photographers always get...."How did you do that"?

Boy did he simplify my life with his answer.

"Simple.  You had to be there"!

And now I would add.  "With eyes wide open"!

The 7th of the 5th

OH NO!

As most of my readers are very astute and have great memories, it will come to no one's surprise when I say that I live in a kennel.  Or a facsimile of such.  Two dogs and two birds.........is enough.

Well, we have a new "Garage Kitten". 

It showed up over the week end and will not leave.  Of course I don't know what one would expect when food and drink is left on the floor, because the poor thing just looks so miserable.  Jeeeeeeeez.

If anyone in the neighborhood recognizes this mutt....please come and pick it up before it has kittens itself.  I suspect that's the plan.  Nice warm, protected and now humans actually feed me.  So where else would I drop my kids off to play?  Has anyone else ever heard of the phrase..."Burlap bag, a brick and the river"?

I guess I am just kidding.  I wouldn't do that.  But the next time the bird craps on my shoulder, I will give it some thought.

On top of that it is a totally black cat.  Now I know where all my luck is coming from lately.  Memo to self, don't bother with the Lottery this week.

The third of the fifth

JUST FOR YOU!

My gift to all the ladies out there!  Love ya!  Particularly my daughter and grand daughters.

A little lavender and yellow.

Some dogwood and shadows.

Most beginning photographers love to shoot flowers and I must admit, I still do.  Their easy to find and they don't move much.  You can pick your lighting situations with a little planning or a mirror to cast highlights.

The rose and dogwood can be found in our yard.  The lavender and yellow is at the Riverbanks Zoo gardens here in South Carolina.  I could go over there every day as it is only about four miles away and a great place to walk, shoot and just have fun.  Don't do it enough.

It's a miracle.  Either the spell check isn't working or I actually spelt everything write the first time around.

The second of the fifth...an apolitical day!

Skipper, Skipper----how does your garden grow?

Why with blue bells, cockle shells and a great big *^&#  weed right in the middle.

Just an update.  This was the Preppers garden on 4/1/12

Just goes to show ya.  Seven years at an agriculture college and all I remember is --- you plant it and come back in thirty days and it's grown.



Sort of a time lapse series for those of you with a public school education.  I see the Catawba flowers are falling and that's going to present another problem.  They get ugly and sticky and impossible to remove which means I might not get back to the plants for another month and need to hose off the patio.

Just a broader view showing the jungle sized postage stamp which is the back yard.  Hey, from a thousand miles up it looks pretty good.  I know with the birds it's build it and they will come.  How about moles....if I built the garden with they come.  More protein for the prepper!  Maybe mole with a Catawba glaze?  Now I gotta find a recipe for weed soup!  You all have a great day waiting for the apocalypse!

Happy International Working Class Holiday!

That's happy May Day!

But then you folks with public school educations knew that, right?

For me just give me the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and I'll go to work today.

I finally got him.

This is one of the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak that have visited us this spring.  We so far have had two males and a rather drab female.  I had never seen one of these guys and cannot emphasize the colorful markings.  That red is really bright.  They are a little smaller than a robin and seem to love our black oil sunflower.

Last night I had the chance to do a little fishing.  What a shocker huh?  Five ounce fly rod and an olive woolly bugger with a gold head.  And this striper succumbed to my wily ways.

He hit about four feet from shore and immediately took off about sixty feet of fly line.  Almost to the backing before I could stop him.  I can imagine what a twenty pounder might be like on this rod, just a thrill.  These fish are sluggers.  No fancy jumps like a salmon, small mouth bass or tarpon.  They feed voraciously when on, but can be very selective.  They stop feeding when full, unlike bluefish that gorge themselves, throw up and continue killing.  This is the fish of my youth on the Chesapeake Bay and it's nice to see another one, albeit of the land locked type.