The 23rd of the 8th

One mind lost...if found please return to the nearest homeless shelter.

 

After not doing a show in two years I have agreed to attend the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge at the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse on the weekend of Oct. 20, 21 at

Anglesea, NJ.  North Wildwood.

 

It will be great to see some old friends and be on the beach again.

  

 

More info and propaganda as we get closer.

 

the 20th of the 8th

In the "I need a life" category.

Whilst crawling on ma belly on Saturday, looking for critters to photograph of course, it dawned upon me that I needed to mow the lawn.  This too falls into the category of time moving too fast.  I mean I just did it a day or so ago...or was it maybe it was a week ago?  Who can keep track of time anyway.  Still one of those imponderables.  I mean if a deaf person goes to court, why is it still called a hearing.  Just baffles me.

So out comes the implement from Hell!

This kinda reminds me of the chain saw I use once a year.  Get it out of the garage, which still doesn't have a place for the two bikes, gas and oil it up and then try to start it.  First pull.....you wish.  Outboard motors are the same thing.  Pull......pull.......pull....swear.....pull......pull.........rest.....swear.....pull...then it's now what I am calling "Getting lucky"....it starts.  Times do change.

Once the grass has been chopped to a reasonable height, then one needs to get out the weed wacker.  That stuff growing along the edge of the gardens needs to be gone.  The first thing you notice is that you haven't but on your safety glasses as a speck of dirt or worse has lodged itself in your eye.  That happens about the same moment the cord has caught around something that certainly wasn't there when you first started.  Sigh !!!

But I was successful.  Does anyone want a photograph of a fire ant hill.  I found it after being bitten three or four times.  And you all thought photography was easy.

THE 18TH OF THE 8TH

Schools start next week in most places.

  School...Really?

Does it seem to you that time seems to be moving faster these days?

That's sorta like asking if you can cry under water.

Maybe Bill Gates and Apple have teamed up and are conspiring on some kind of time machine.  Maybe they are running marketing tests that we all don't know about.  That must be it.  At least that's my story and I am sticking to it.

But it does seem my days go by with the speed of light.  Well wait a minute, when you think about it they really do.

I thought it was just spring!

And the snow melt was still going on.

I mean like yesterday!

But pretty soon it'll time to go chasing the fall colors somewhere.

And God, it's already after ten in the morning.  A minute ago it was only seven!

It was only yesterday when my daughter was crawling up to a wall outlet and reaching with all that curiosity a small child can muster.  I was right behind her sneaking up unseen and as she reached I screamed unseen but certainly heard.  She must have jumped two feet....but never tried to touch another.  Last week she took her daughter off to college.  When did all that happen?

Well, it's time for another cup of Pike Place Roast....or is it my third?  I guess my bladder will tell me.

THE 17TH OF THE 8TH

St. Augustine Lighthouse

One of my favorite lighthouses is the one in St. Augustine, Florida first lit in 1874.  Not only is the light there, but there is also the Alligator Farm and a large fort called Castillo de San Marcos  built in 1695.  So lots of stuff to visit. 

One of the best parts of visiting this light is that it is tucked away amidst a bunch of old southern oak trees. 

The Keeper's house and museum just oozes southern charm and gives a traveler a welcome break from  summer heat.  The first light of any kind built on Anastasia Island was a wooden lookout tower built in 1586 by the Spanish.

The light is located just a short walk away from the Alligator farm, which is where I have gone a number of time to photograph the nesting wading birds.  So trading back and forth between the two places is one of the better places in Florida to photograph.

The 15th of the 8th

OK, so I am crazy!

I only fell off the bike once getting this shot!

This is called "His and Her stupidity"!

See, when the apocalypse comes, we have transportation.  Or gas prices get over $5 per gallon.  Wait, that may be the apocalypse. 

We are going to exercise!

Now all I have to do is find the room in the garage to hang these beauties up for the next ten years or so.

The 14th of the 8th

A different kind of search.

Just like lakes, salt water fishing leaves one very few clues as to where the finny creatures hang out.

Where are the fish in all that chaos?  Are there any fish in that mess and can I reach them?

Well, all I can tell you is that there are a few special and renowned salt water places in this world that require the risking life and limb to fish. 

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Montauk at the lighthouse on Long Island, NY.

Block Island in Rhode Island.

Cape Cod, MA.

The Chesapeake Bay

I am not proficient at saltwater fishing by any means.  Probably have done more fresh water angling in this life.  But as far as the ocean and bays are concerned....Time and Tide, Time and Tide, Time and Tide.  That seems to be the secret.

  It's sorta like when a client asks...."How did you ever get that photograph"? 

"Just had to be there"!

Monday the 13th...That's good luck.

More Picastory Anticipation!

Amazing when you have a big body of water....there are no rocks visible to seek the finny sporters.  At least spots that are apparent.  But, reading the water is a whole different thing.

Where do you go to fish....there's so much to cover.

A couple of years ago, I tried to document where we caught fish on our annual trek to the Big Lake in New Hampshire.  I took an ariel image from the Internet, took our trip logs over 42 years, and plotted where the fish were mostly caught. Then because we trolled for land lock salmon, I made a track(white line) showing where we were most successful.  This is a cool way to figure out where to fish....all it takes is 42 years.

This is only a small part of Lake Winnepasaukee, and those large bodies of land on the left are islands.  The small island is a classic.  Lots of choices and if you look closely I have marked the starting point as "House" on the right middle.

One of the easiest decisions is when to go fishing and when to play cards.  This looks like a "Deal" day!  When the wind blows like this out of the Northeast, Suicide is not an option.

But when this is the "Anticipation"!

And this the "Satisfaction"!

Awwwwwww...let's go fishin!

The 12th of the 8th

Anticipation...Satisfaction

As some of you know, I have this great affinity for the water.  Fishing has been a life long past time, starting with an old metal bait casting rod, on an Eastern Pennsylvania trout stream, at the age of about nine, with a grandfather called "Bull Daddies".

I have no idea---but  know you will ask.  Where does anyone get a nick name?  He was my mother's father and she had six brothers, so it could have come from anywhere.

The photo above of the Congaree River in South Carolina, suggests all kinds of mysteries in her depths.  In actuality, there are snakes galore, gators from time to time, bass, brim, and lord knows what else.  Not too further upstream there are supposed to be record sized trout.  Never fished up there....see snakes in the second sentence.  Beautiful spot, deep water, and I forgot to mention catfish and strippers.

A trout fisherman is also called a "Reader of streams".  That is, he or she must look at the water and guess what lies below by the activity on the surface.  The natural life under submerged rocks or floating on the surface will also suggest what the fish prefer to eat that day.  The current tells us where the trout will lie.  In the slack water, between or amongst faster food laden riffs.  Perhaps in the easy current bubbling beside a submerged branch.  It's pretty much and educated guess wrapped in huge hidden anticipation.

Often times the anticipation is born of experience but more often than not it is a result of a new experience.  A three mile walk on a almost undefined trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire leads to a small mountain pond that just has to have a huge pool of resident trout.

Just the pure mystery of what lies beneath the glassy surface makes the long hike worthwhile.  The lake could be barren of aquatic life, but no never mind.  The mind conjures up the four pound brook trout rising to small black midges on the surface, when reality shows the fish to be but of eight inches in length.

Big water again in New Hampshire.  Trout water swollen with snow runoff.  Fog and a misty rain gives an almost guarantee of jumping trout on the end of a pound and half leader.  Anticipation!  Someone once told me that satisfaction is about ninety percent anticipation.  Not so sure about that, but those types of scenes do get me to mending old equipment and thinking about gone fishin.

THE 10TH OF THE 8TH

Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida

 

http://www.nps.gov/foma/index.htm

The Ninth of the Eighth

A favorite destination.

Where else but Assateague Island in Virginia.  For many years I would make the three hour ride from my Maryland Eastern Shore home,  even for day trips just to photograph the natural surroundings, wildlife and wild ponies.  It's a barrier island just East of Chincoteague and has one of the best beaches on the east coast.

But of course there is also a lighthouse on the island.  Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse near the Maryland/Virginia border in 1831.  The proposed light was to be about half way between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays and designed to warn ships away from the barrier islands and the shoals that ran offshore from them.  Built in 1833, the light itself proved too weak to accomplish the purpose, but nothing was done until the late 1850’s. The Lighthouse Board concentrated efforts in the late 1850’s to upgrade the southern coastal lighthouses and correct existing deficiencies.  The Assateague Island lighthouse was upgraded as a result of those efforts.  The Civil War intervened however, and repairs were not completed until October 1867.  Improvements were made with the addition of a huge first order Fresnel lens, which made the light visible up to 19 miles at sea.

This is an image made sometime in the 1950's and used on one of the many postcards sold at the gift shops throughout the island.  By 1966, the light hadn't changed too much.

By the late 1980's the light had been painted and I started photographing the tower in the red and white paint job.  The new paint made the whole thing stand out as a unique day mark along the shore.

The Island of Chincoteague is blessed with the normal tourist trap type places, but the best restaurant in my estimation is the Village.  I can almost taste the oysters now.  The place is still small town beach community but there are now big chain motels to be had.  The place still, however, retains it's identity despite a robust vacation crowd.

The 8th of the 8th

Breakthrough prints now available on FAA

We can now print our images on metal and the prices aren't all that bad.  Please check out the link above.

Some suggestions!

"Barny"

"Grumpy"

"Steel Rise"

Those are just a few of my images, to see the rest go to my site.  This is really a breakthrough offering.  If you have any thoughts of purchasing any wall art, you need to go to my site and then to the general FAA site listed here.  Just a little excited about it.

The 5th of the 8th

The home of ideological morons!

I should entitle this image "The Hanging Tree"!

We send people to the Senate to do "The Peoples Work". 

Peoples....... like in you and I.

Are you really proud to say......"My leader is harry reid, and look at all the good he's doing for the People?"

  Really?

  Lets see.....no balanced budget in four years.  Hell, no budget at all (can you spell illegal?).

Sixteen Trillion (whatever that is) in dept and no plan to deal with it.

A two thousand page bill that they had to pass, in the dark of night at the last minute, just to be able to read...because they didn't know what was in it.

  And this is somehow good for "The Peoples".

And do you really think that the government (small g intended) built that little business down on the corner?  That the owner who sweats 24/7/360 just to put his kids through school, pay his bills, and put food on the table (after huge taxes) didn't do it?

  Are you kidding me...stop playing word games and get to work like the guy on the corner.

   Who do you think your BS'in. Simple.... he did... the govt. didn't. We were the ones who helped by providing the services we all enjoy, not just him, with OUR tax dollars, OUR ingenuity, and in November again OUR votes.

Don't play with my head about chicken sandwiches....I don't care about your sexual orientation, so stay out of my face. Forget about tax forms going back to forever...we didn't see college transcripts,birth certs,relationships with felons and religious freaks. So stop with the political drama and start talking about what's important.

Like...........

National Debt

Tax Reform

Tort Reform

Immigration Reform

Real Health Care Reform

Budget Reform

Or We'll be talking about "Reform School" for our grand kids.

And, I don't care what you have behind your name.  Neither the d or the r are in capital letters anymore, despite them being in the Capital.

  The "Peoples" need to change this stuff or there's a Gulag coming to a neighborhood near you.

Just sayin!

The 4th of the 8th

I always get lost there!

Places with names like Hampton Roads, which is really not a road.  Newport News which is really not a newspaper.  Portsmouth which should really be in New Hampshire and not Virginia, but I guess there are at least two.  Virginia Beach, known locally as Ginny Beach.  Hampton which is not "The Hamptons" of Long Island.  Different family I guess.  Road signs which say north when they really go south.  East when they go West.  Chesapeake which is about a ton of miles away from "The" Chesapeake.  Then ya got the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, the James River and Norfolk.  All rather confusing even to the lady that squawks from that little box on my dash board. 

But somewhere across from the famous Navy Yards, on a little spit of land just north east of Interstate 64 lies Fort Monroe and a rather sedate lighthouse called Old Point Comfort.

  New Point Comfort lies about thirty miles north just above Mobjack Bay and is nothing more than a stone tower on a pile of rip rap.

So, the Old light of the same name seems to be a bit more interesting, seen here in a 1906 post card.

It had not changed to much by 1930, but we did get to see the Naval fleet cruising by.

My image made in the early 2000's shows the light tower painted green.  I somehow was capable of finding the place which is a great part of photographing these items of marine history and they actually allowed me on the base.  Unlike Cape Canaveral where I never got past the front gate. (Three times)  I guess my reputation preceded me.

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse

The touring public can view this bay side sentinel, located at Fort Monroe, at the entrance to Hampton Roads.  Completed in 1802 this stone tower is the second oldest lighthouse on the Bay.  The lighthouse was briefly captured by the British in 1812 and was used as a watchtower.  The preservation of this light is partly due to the care taken by its keepers, but also because it was built far enough from the water as to not be scared by erosion.

This stone tower is 54 feet high and exhibits a red flashing light powered by a photoelectric cell, as are most of the lights on the bay.  A fog bell clangs every ten seconds in foul weather, but has been moved 200 yards away from the tower.

Now for folks like me that are Atlas Road Map challenged, here are some driving instructions.   

From Interstate 64 in Hampton VA, take Rt. 351 (Pembroke Ave.) east until you reach Mercury Blvd., where you will go south.  Follow Mercury Blvd. until it becomes South Water Street and you enter Fort Monroe.  The light is located on the south shore of Fort Monroe.

If that doesn't work, just get off of Rt. 64 and look for signs to "Kansas".

The second of August

Well now that we have eaten a chicken sandwich for Freedom, time to get back to some more serious stuff.  Like that which is related to photography.  But first, in the interest of "More" fairness, I would urge congress to immediately pass a bill exempting our Olympic medal winners from taxes on their metals.  This year is the first I have heard of this happening, but a gold medal can cost the winner close to $9,000 in taxes.  We seem to be one of the only countries to do this.  Frankly, I think that it is appalling.  OK, nuff ranting.

Did some listing of some new prints on FAA yesterday, so please go take a look.  I am getting ready for the huge after summer rush of consumer spending for new wall art that I know you people are waiting to do.  Consumer spending is down, but I know you all are just biding your time and as soon as the kids are sequestered back at school you're going to let loose.  Just a couple of the new listings which I think are nice and would look great on any wall.  And just remember that hangings in clusters of three make a nice accent in any room.  I remind you that if you click on one of the photographs in the blogs, an image of better resolution is presented to you.

These can all be found for sale in the Butterfly gallery of my Fine Art America site.  You can purchase them there in any number of different formats from a plain print to an elaborate framed piece.  Whether you buy anything or not, it's kinda fun putting together packages with the different matting and framing they offer.  And there are around 100,000 artist listed there.  It's quite an experience to visit, browse, look at the contests, and even (God forbid) buy.

The first of the eighth

Checked out the local Chic-fill-a today at noon just out of curiosity.  Highways and parking lots were packed.

I can see tomorrow's financial headlines now.

"Biggest one day jump in revenues in history"

Ahhhh, capitalism....just can't beat it!