4 DEC 13

SHORT SHOOT

It's warmed up a bit here, fifty seven, this morning and so I have wanted to venture out away from the big glass eye to the world on my desk called "The Puter". 

 Yesterday I visited the Columbia Hydro-electric plant built in 1895 and wide open for all to see.  Kinda interesting in as much as the equipment is huge and not the kind of stuff one uses a pair of pliers to adjust.

Not your garden style, under the sink fix if something goes wrong project.  I am amazed that the usual sign of our times, graffiti, was not present as the place is wide open each day.  So somebody is doing something right.  

I guess I sound a little bitter from time to time when it comes to the public purposefully damaging property that is open to the public for educational purposes.  Maybe I am!

  And then there is this business about gangs of thugs playing this "Knock out" game.  What Game?  It's criminal!  But then again when we have leaders who are basically criminal.  Is it any wonder? 

Wow, how did I get from Hydro-electric to Hydro-rant in a twentieth of a second?

  You can't even hold a camera steady for a twentieth of a second and make a good photo.  So how can I make a point in such a short time.

Well, maybe I did.  For all the good it does.

Have a fantastic day all!

30 November 13

I spent Thursday and Friday pushing christmas trees for out local neighborhood to place in each front yard.  The understanding is that they have to put only white lights on each tree and in theory each street is lined with these things.  We have sold over 300 trees, the benefit for which goes to the local museum.  I spent most of the time in a tractor trailer moving six foot trees around.  I am tired, but a good tired.  Or as we say on the Eastern Shore…I'm tared!

I have three promotions up on Fine Art America for the next five days.  20x24 images of three top lighthouses, Barnegat, Race Point and Hatteras.  You can save up to $70 on these canvas prints ready to hang and delivered before Christmas.  Here are the links and get er done.

http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=131688

http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=131714

http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=131715

28 November 2013

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

At risk of saying that I am giving everyone the bird…..this is my photo of a real wild turkey who probably made it through Thanksgiving.  I made the image some time ago on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

I am thankful for……..

Two of the greatest adult kids and four of the most fantastic grand kids any parent could want.

An ex who probably had more to do with the above than I.

A loving companion who despite all of my short comings, still loves me for some unknown reason.

The opportunity to make my passion my semi livelihood.

To have been born in a country that is free and where anyone who actually wants to work can prosper, despite the restraints of wrong headed governments from time to time.

To live in a giving country who always responds to the needs of others in distress.

And to have good friends and in some cases loving friends.

And to you all I am grateful for the opportunity to give thanks for you all and those who have passed on and live in our memories.

Finally, I thank God for the opportunity to make all the mistakes I have and probably will in the knowledge that He will allow me to continue to love him.

26 November 13

USED TO BE

When my father, god rest and thank you Dad, wanted water for our first place on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, he went out in the side yard and drove a point six feet down and we had water from the ground for 30 years.  That is, until the city made him join the city water (tax) system, we did just fine.  Of course our ancestors just went over to the spring, stream or lake to get their water.  Heck, at the Big Lake in New Hampshire they still use lake water to manage.  But when you live in a city and go from this--------------

To this ----

This ain't enough!

Now folks, the city is not at fault!  Old water lines break.  Just a fact of life (number 7,122,074 that is).  Or as they say "Stuff happens".  Hey it's a family blog too!

We were only out of water for about 18 hours, but it served as a wake up call for this old, half blind photographer.  What would have been our plight had it been a week…or two weeks….ummmmm?

First the city was going from one Wally World to another buying up all the bottle water they could find to hand out to residents.  Not a problem there.  That's just doing their job.  But it also helped all the "Milk, eggs and toilet paper" crowd to panic and have to drive further to get their water substitutes.  Speaking of that…note to self…check on beer, wine and liquor sales in the area for confirmation re: substitute product.

I guess people for the most part, are brighter than I.  Nah!  But!  Most of the stores had experienced their own "Runs" on the bottled water shelves by the time I woke up to the fact that our toilets take three gallons of water each.  I mean, I can go out in the back yard with the dogs….but the other half, well that's whole nother story right there.  And that's just for one flush.  I kept thinking of all those poor folks on the Jersey and New York shore after Sandy.

  Then it finally sunk into this thick skull.

  Maybe emergency preparation is not so stupid after all.

25 NOVEMBER 13

HOME SWEET HOME

Some of you have wondered just what I do all day when I am not on here peddling photos.  Well, it is apparent from the photograph that keeping up the old homestead takes a lot of time.

This morning we woke up to no water and temperatures below freezing.  Body functions and bathing have been suspended temporarily until the government wonders can fix a water line break.  Thank God we have that big old pump out behind the shed.  But nothing to prime it with,  except some of that designer bottled water that we bought at Trader Joe's a few months ago.  

I think that the decorating I have done for Thanksgiving has gone well.  I mean it was a touch of genius putting the 55 gallon water drum right by the front door.  Considering the water situation, I should have put it under one of the drain spouts on the house to collect the rain.  Oh, wait a minute we don't have down spouts. 

The table next to the tank is used for cleaning fish and other wildlife we are able to collect.  You know, semi-fresh road kill.  I think that's what's on the menu for Thursday.  With our air conditioning like it is, I just have to pass the freshly cleaned critters through the kitchen window to the right.

How do you like the big piece of lumber on the right holding up the front wall?  The house leans a little bit without it.  And it's a good thing I cleaned off the front porch…..this way the family has a place to sit come Thursday.  

Well, that's it for today.  Got to slap on some deodorant and after shave to make myself at least a little presentable until they get the water back on.

Good thing that Face Book thingy doesn't have a scratch and sniff button!

22 November 13

Remembering JFK!

I was in the office of the Dean of Agriculture at Penn State when a professor stuck his head in the office to say that the unthinkable had happened!

Remember where you were?

--------------------------------

GOD AND OLD WOOD!

Seems lately I have been taking photographs of old and dilapidated buildings that once held meaning, life and joy to someone a long time ago.

The St. Simon Church in Peak, South Carolina is one such spot.  It can be found in a rural community in Newbury county on a dirt one lane road.  I am guessing in it's day there was a whole lotta prayin gone on there.  Built in 1900, it was still an active church into the 1920's.  Now, you gotta know that Peak isn't even on Yahoo maps or my South Carolina 60 map page Atlas Book of the area.  And that is the Large Scale edition, so this half blind photographer can read the fine print.  I did remember seeing a road sign off Rte. 26 north out of Columbia with an exit to Peak, so I just followed that and finally found this place.  A little like a feeling from "Deliverance" when I got back in there.  A big part of the lure of this photo business is just searching and finding significant things to photograph.  I have written in the past on here how difficult it can be just finding lighthouses, but then that is part of the fun.  The joy of the search!

OK, here's one of those obscene commercial moments designed to get you victims in the door to buy something.  I really am not just another pretty face around here, but becoming successful on the Internet with the web site from which you may BUY, Buy, buy!

The website if you have been visiting Mars or Venus for the past year is found by simply clicking "Website". 

Just to show ya!  This year to date we have had 302,000 visitors and 3158 positive comments on the images therein.  Now that is a site with over 100,000 artists.  So I stand out somehow.  I know I work hard to do so.  I have 1848 images logged into 43 galleries to make searches easier.  Again, if you have been in outer space for a while and have missed what's going on……..you can just do a key word search for whatever you are looking for.  They will sell you a simple note card or #Christmas card, a print, matted, framed, spectacular metal prints and even iPad covers.  You can create a memento for your people from most any spot in the world on that site.  So go and have fun with it.

Now the hook!  You can also get a small discount by using the discount code EEJVSA.  It's not much because I am a cheap SOB, but it might help to lure you through the door.  It's good till Jan. one.

So, when the alarm goes off next Friday at two am….remember you coulda slept in and bought it all from the comfort of your Barco lounger at a reasonable hour of the day.  Of course, if you want to do Black Friday, it is amusing to watch.  So good luck with that!

Have a wonderful day and a better week end.

20 NOVEMBER 13

SEASONS

The color is just now beginning to hit our woods down here south of the sun.  

Mostly yellows except for those trees man-planted in lawns surrounded by telephone wires and houses which are not really photogenic.  I have been working in the house this past week content to add to the website and edit photos.  OH, and yesterday we hit the 300,000 visitor mark on the site and I would dearly love to entice another 100,000 by year end.  The above was taken on the river walk this week.

Yesterday I did manage to walk along the new section of the walk and as it is somewhat distant from most people and a lot don't even know it is there it was nice.  No people but of course no wildlife either.

My contribution today to minimalism in photography is the image of the electric lines going across the Congaree River.  

As you can see more yellow over there, but still some green. This new walk is all concrete and makes for some pretty quiet stalking, but all I could sneak up upon were a couple of squirrels.  Skinny ones at that, but then again I am comparing them to my sunflower seed raised thieves I have on my feeder.

Y'all have a good week.

ELEVEN ELEVEN THIRTEEN

We had a guest last night in the form of an old high school chum, Michael Tierney and it was a hoot catching up on all the things that we missed at the 55th Zombie Apocalypse.  We both look forward to the 60th.  This morning he's off to DC and I will be on this infernal machine peddling pictures.

The rocket scientists on the weather channel are talking about cold stuff coming down from Canada this week.  That is when they can break into their scheduled reality weather shows of snow storms, hurricanes and disasters that happened ten years ago.  This morning's weather be dammed.  So in keeping with the forecast for the northeast…I include this.  

So throw another log on the fire Mother and button down.  

Have a good week all!

Nine November Thirteen

INTREPID PHOTOGRAPHY

I took life and limb in hand again this week in order to make an image.  In the not so small town of Aiken, South Carolina lies a street covered and enveloped with old oak trees.  A great vision I thought.  This town is just about on the Georgia border and only a half hour or so away.  

First I did not know the town and have not gotten to the point to where I can actually understand how to program that lady in the box on the dashboard.  So it was with Rand McNally in hand, that I went to Aiken.  

I am sure I am guilty of this as well.  But how is it that when you go into a strange town everybody  there knows where they're going and are doing it at warp speed.  Hence, they drive right on your bumper, some blowing their horns or the tops of their heads at the old guy who hasn't a clue (me).  I have to remember that when I am out an about in my own town.  It's "Rule of the Road Number 27"!  Which reads "Get out of my way tourist"!  I know I am guilty of doing that as well, and really do have to work on my road manners.  I got the rage thing down pat!

At nine AM  the traffic in Aiken is quite similar to some of the Avenues of New York City when it comes to automobile one ups man ship.  And I want to stand in the middle of one of those streets with a tripod and a camera set at f22.  For the uninitiated that's a really small hole, f22 that is.  And it means that in dark conditions the shutter speed is slow.  Furthermore, I had to wait till traffic cleared and there were no cars around.  So this is not your normal drive by shooting.  I got the image.  I am not real proud of it, but did post the thing.

I wish you all a good weekend and to the good citizens of Aiken, if you were late to work because of some crazy photographer…I apologize.  And you have a really neat town!

6 November 13

In the shadow of--

For a lot of years I lived in New Jersey and commuted to NYC each day.  My commute was a two hour ordeal each way starting at around five AM and ending somewhere around nine PM.  Some would say crazy, but then again I have been accused of being that smart on a number of fronts over the last seven decades.  I lived in central Jersey for one reason.  Kids!  I wanted them to grow up in a semi rural environment and to go to school and church there instead of some of the near ghettos around the big city.  It worked, they both turned out to be fantastic kids and now adults.  So the sacrifice was worth it all.    

Years later when I grew up and started my lighthouse odyssey, I had a chance to revisit the big apple in a whole different role.  I needed to photograph the Jeffery's Hook light.  Or as some called it the "Little Red Lighthouse".  Little because it stands directly under the George Washington Bridge on the New York side and is dwarfed by the bridge itself.  You really have no appreciation for just how large some of those bridges are until you stand under one.

You also have no appreciation for just how downright dangerous it was back in the late nineties to get to a bridge abutment in Spanish Harlem on foot.  This becomes especially tricky when you have a pretty wife and about seven thousand dollars of camera equipment on your back.  One cannot park a vehicle near the bridge.  It just isn't available.  So there is about a 25 block walk through a couple of parks and a couple or three slum streets all the while looking like Mr. Clean in the midst of the Congo.

To say I was nervous is an understatement, but we did make it back out alive.  Somehow!  I did have to talk my way out of a few skirmishes.  I mean, those people had no idea what National Geographic was!  Not that I was working for them, but I felt the story would help to wrap us in as cocoon of authority.  Or at least semi safety.  Fat chance!  Back then that was a pretty tough neighborhood.

Then when we go there, the light was wrapped in a shroud to protect the environment from falling paint chips while it was being painted.  So, this is the only image of the Little Red Lighthouse that I have.  And I ain't going back!

Tomorrow is Camel day!

5 November 13

Fun!

If you happen to be a friend of mine on Face Book, you may have been following a discussion with my resident entomologist and all around good guy Nancy Tidy about the name of the butterflies in this photograph.

One of the most fun things I have found about this dog eat dog world of marketing one's photographic art is the effort to be accurate and complete in what we do.

A good friend of mine once told me that he "Always told the truth or as close as he could get to it"!

Well I think, as the president is increasingly finding out….not telling the truth is more trouble in the long run than doing so.  I for one have learned that lesson the hard way.  But I digress.

The collective we thinks that these are butterflies of the Pearl Crescent group.  I think that is close as I can get to it.  Well, maybe a Harris Checker Spot pair.  Another friend called them litter bugs.  Hence, the name of the piece.  I found them on the concrete of the River Walk the other day.

But my point is this.  It is fun to go and search information about all that we photograph.  Is why you will see a bit of history with each of my photographs of lighthouses.  I think it's just fun to go out and become knowledgeable about that which we study with the camera.  Don't stop with the click, click of the camera.  While that is what we all like to do the most…the fun just begins there.

Become the local knowledge center for that which we photograph and it becomes more fulfilling in our quest to fine tune our trade.

And that's the truth…or as close as I can get to it.

4 November 13

November, what the heck ever happened to April?  Time flies. 

 Walked the new section of the River walk the other day.  Have a new idea for a blog, but that will come when I figure out how to do it on this new computer.  Which, judging by the way time flies, may not be till after the elections in 2014 or even 2016.  My eldest Granddaughter has a Birthday today and she is getting way to much older than I thought I was.  Sigh!    

The new section of the walk is still unused for the most part and for me that is a good thing.

The entrance on one end and  a boat ramp on the other.  The whole stretch probably isn't a half mile and it is a very quiet walk.

That's the Congaree River, and during the fishing season can become a pretty busy place. But on this day there were only two vehicles in the parking lot.  Even so, I marvel at the ingenuity of the thugs that inhabit our world.  

That pole is about 30 feet high and is one of the steel pilings used to hold the floating dock.  The thugs had to climb 20 to 30 feet just to get their gang colors and symbols up.  If we could just channel all that talent into something other than rape, murder and mayhem maybe we'd have something.  Just amazing.

The modern day thugs remind me of poison ivy climbing an old oak tree that it will eventually kill.  Amazing what a quiet walk will conjure up in an already seasoned and muddled mind.

I know there are deer here, but don't see too much sign of them.  I thought this might be a deer trail leading from the woods to the river, but so such luck.  And I didn't see any of those critters on this outing.  Maybe today will be different as I intend to head over there in a little bit.

After watching that show on the Nat Geo channel about losing the grid across the country, I am more and more aware of the wires and stuff that criss cross our land.  Here pole 139 provides a short study in minimalism in photography.  And finally, no blog worth it's salt can be completed with the requisite dead tree photo.

Happy Birthday E, and the rest of you have a wonderful week. 

 I do so look forward to January next week!

11 1 13

DECK THE WALLS

OK, we've gotten through the Black Cat season and now we have to roast a turkey and then we can deck the walls.  So I jump the gun a little.  But because the Christmas Season is my favorite.  

I still get a thrill from an overnight snow storm.  The next morning just glistens in an extreme quiet which can only be measured by being out in it.  It always overwhelms me with the awesomeness of nature.  One minute it is cold, overcast, maybe raining a little with a good wind blowing and the next time you look outside everything is covered in white.  And the only thing to prove witness the scene are the tracks of little critters looking for their next meal.

It brings to mind one such morning in Central Pennsylvania fifty years ago.  It was opening day of deer hunting season, (Yes Maud, I was hunting with "Gasp" a gun at the time) and we had about six inches of the white stuff fall the night before.  I had climbed a mountain to just below the tree line in the wee hours (where did that saying ever come from? Wee hours?) of the dark morning.  I strategized correctly that when the sun came up all the hunters in the valley would scare the b-Jesus out of the deer and they would head for higher ground to hide out. Well, I was right.

Deer will generally feed in the fields and edges at night and then move to higher and presumably safer ground as the sun rises.  Part of the reason for this is that scent will rise in the early morning hours as the air warms up and they will move above for safety purposes.  In addition, in the evening as the air cools, scent will fall and they will have protection from above by going to feed in the lower climes.  

To make a long story short, the minute the sun barely rose,  the first gun went off.  I tensed and strained eyes and ears, looking for the first escapees.  I was sitting with my back to an old oak tree about three times as wide as my own profile when a group of about twenty deer made their way over the bench in front of me.  HA!....he says to himself ... I was right!  They climbed above me with only a small fork horn buck amidst the group.  So I was wrong.  No huge Pennsylvania record book buck for me out of that group.  They milled around behind me for a half hour, finding spots to lie down, rest and be safe.  Other than little peaks around the tree, I could not watch them for any protracted period. 

But hearing steps behind me, I looked to my left and from behind the tree came this black, wet nose, followed by two huge eyes of a doe still looking for a spot to nap.  I guess our eyes were about a foot apart.  Only thing to do was say...."Morning lady"!

It was so quiet and still in the snow that she never saw, heard or smelled me.  Of course at that point she just exploded back up the hill taking 20 of her best friends with her.  I didn't get a trophy or a picture the bright snowy morning, but in a way I did.  A trophy memory.

31 October 13

BOO!

And that is the extent of my participation and joy on this fine Halloween!  I hope all the urchins get their sugar high tonight and all the adults get to fill their wine glasses at each stop.

So much for the editorial comment of this dribble.

One of the neat things about participating on Fine Art America is the ability to see what other artists are doing and what is selling each day.  There are some really great people doing some pretty great things out there and we get to interact with each other via comments, blogs and forums.  I enjoy all of them but cannot participate to much as my time is spent in editing, posting and promoting.  

But, please take a look at some of these individuals by clicking on their links.  I will include a couple of people as I go along with my posts here.

http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=1acfd5609637d41c9a4cf0dfe0e539b1

That's a sale announcement page to get you through Thanksgiving and help prepare you for one of the Real holidays!

This gal is one of the most prolific of the artists there.  She also is a pretty consistent seller as well.

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-sharon-cummings.html

And finally, because I always do things in three's, a gal with some Maryland ties.

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/francie-davis.html

But we all know that the only work you really want to see is mine, I leave you with this.

A marsh dweller that flashes, like an old man in a raincoat, his colors every time he sings.  The red winged blackbird.  

Happy Hallo all you weenies!

29 October 13

Well, back to normal!

Beginning to warm up here after our little cold snap.  Normal!

Somebody hacked my ATM card...the new Normal.

  And that's a good reason not to have any money...none to lose!

The trash people are working their way up the street and that has the dogs on alert and ready to bark...Normal!

The front line warning system (cockateals) haven't gone off yet, but will....Normal!

Sitting here (again) in my virtual office and daydreaming about walking a stream or climbing a mountain....Normal!

Planning dinner......chicken probably....Normal!

Have a lot of images to edit.....daily Normal!

And a bunch to list.....again Normal!

God I love my life!!!

Now have to go outside and set the snares for all the little gremlins that will be coming to the house for candy and stuff.  Just love to see them hoisted overhead in a snare yelling "Trick or Treat dammit!

Now that's NOT Normal!

But it's where the birds are!

26 October 13

 Chilly Willy!  

A hunerd years ago I was known as Willy.  A nickname which really didn't stick created by some of my high school friends, or maybe it was college.  At any rate, it's 36 degrees warm here this morning and we are "Chilly"!  But, then again it's October or at least it was the last time I looked. 

We had the opportunity to visit old Cape May, New Jersey last week and it always amazes me the extent to which people will go to keep their residences looking nice.  It's the law there! I mean, a hunerd miles up....who cares.  But down here it's paint and groom constantly.  Now this community is the end of a great bit spit of land bordered by salt water on basically three sides.  Sherwin Williams loves this place!  But those old Victorians are a drawing card for the tourists.  They're kept neat and spit shined to use an old army term.

I am not real sure what it is exactly, but I think of other spits of land extending into oceans that draw of tourist dollars is a driving force in lawn and building maintenance.  I mean there's Provincetown on Cape Cod and the ultimate end of land in Key West.  All similar destinations sticking out into oceans. All with similar life styles.  I love them all and all offer fantastic photo ops.  Great restaurants.  And even something called "Nature".  Places where the oceans dictate the daily game plan and not the humans.  Places too where "Time Goes By".

Penn State Vs. Ohio State today...so you know where I'll be!  Great weekend all!

25 OCT 13

We survived another journey north to the Garden State (NJ for those of you who live west of Camden).  The weather was just a normal spectacular weekend with cool temps, drizzle on Saturday and bluebird skies on Sunday.  Sales for this NJ Lighthouse Challenge were off as were the crowds but the friendships were outstanding.  Ronny and Sam drove down just to visit us.  Sam, whose foot is about to fall off due to an old man, self inflicted, dropping of a sign onto said foot injury was in a pergiment (again for those of you west of Camden that's probably a misspelled drug) induced haze.  So the only thing to do was to reinvent the old man shuffle around the place.  You know the type of walk!  Stooped shoulders.  Hands out for balance.  Eyes on the ground in front of your feet and one inch strides repeated as quickly as possible for old men.  I do hope he gets better soon but that's just the way we roll.  Not even change for a quarter given or received.  Love the guy.  Visited with a  High School bud, Carol and her husband Jim on Saturday evening and had a great time free loading.  Nice people them!

Sheri (on the left) established bonds with Nancy, my erstwhile FB buddy who paints, interior designs, photographs and writes little books for little kids and is otherwise all around good people.  She and Carl are a wonderful addition to the lighthouse family.  Of course all the usual suspects were on board and it was wonderful seeing them all again.

We stayed two nights at a Bed and Breakfast in North Wildwood, a place I found out later was supposed to be haunted.  Can't tell ya!  Saw nothing strange.  But if anyone is ever in need of a place to stay in Wildwood or North Wildwood, New Jersey....The Candlelight Inn is the place to go.  Easy commuting distance to Cape May and even Atlantic City.  AND, the breakfasts Bill serves are killer!

As some of you know I ordered two 20x30 images printed on metal for the show, and they were the hit.  Didn't sell, but then again nothing much else did either.  Both images drew people from a hundred feet away and all the appropriate oohs and aahs were emitted.  So....If you need images and would like them printed on metal, do so with all the confidence in the world.  Fine Art America does a fantastic job!

The inventory reduction effort continues and I did get rid of a bunch of stuff.  I will not be doing too many more shows like I have in the past and will hence forth venture out only on invitation.  And therefore am selling, selling and selling.  I even sold one of the WWI ammo boxes you see on the table in the foreground.  I am thinking that a digital booth may be in order, but have to look at that further.  In the meantime, we continue to have fun.  

My daughter, Heather, visited all too briefly on Sunday and even help to pack us up.  That was appreciated but I would have like to spent more time with her.  We left Sunday afternoon for my son's place in Middletown, DE and spent the night.  Grandkids are on some kind of drug or fresh air or something that makes them grow, but I guess we all know about that.  Monday and Tuesday at the beach house and then back here on Wednesday. Another whirlwind 2,000 mile trip.  Next a winter visit with the kids and grands in December.

I did manage to get some new images which you will be seeing in the near future on FAA.  One of which was the Cape May LH.

This one is unedited and will be one of the ones to be listed soon.  I had the good luck on Friday evening to have a great sky filled with all kinds of cloud action.  The setting sun is behind the tower which created a shadow of same right over the top of my head.  An interesting take on a normal setting sun image.  Later the more traditional sky color developed, but a lot of the clouds were gone and the set was, well, not so much.  I wish that I could report to you that I had been in touch with the meteorologists and planned to arrive under the conditions you see....But not so.  In the planning stages any good photographer must consider that he/she can just get plain lucky.  We were headed for dinner and just happened to stop by the spot.  The old "Blind hog finds an acorn" rule applied. 

Have a great week end y'all!

16 Oct 13

LOOK OUT ANGLESEA

Anglesea is the small community of North Wildwood, New Jersey where the Hereford Inlet lighthouse calls home.  And where we will be headed tomorrow.

I have been attending and showing at the light for 13 years and have developed some meaningful friends there.  Hence, looking forward to it.  But today and tomorrow morning will be spent in preparation and cannot therefore hang around online too much.  But some of the other lights on the challenge are fun places too.  The ideas is for people to make it to all the lights on the tour in one weekend.  The lights will be open for touring and also will have people displaying all kinds of things.  It is a fun week end for all.

You all fly safe now!

14 October 13

TRIVIUM

The weekend was calm here, with not much going on except the best football game I have seen in years.  Of course I am biased, but the Penn State/Michigan game went to four overtimes with PSU prevailing.  Sweet!

Sunday was another successful day of avoiding pro football on the telly.  Just not as exciting as college, but then again I guess I am biased once again.  We did take a mini-road trip up to the lake to see Sheri's cousin's place which is under construction.  Looks like a Junior High School .... yup that large.  We took Missy with us and she loved to get out of the house and her own back yard.  However, the floating dock was a whole nother thing.

You might have to zoom in a bit to see that she is splayed on the deck with front paws holding on for dear life.  Hey, stuff I'm walking on or laying upon is not supposed to move.  She flat out did not like that part of the trip.  There is a little bit of color in the trees, but we just don't get the mountain colors down here.  Too bad.  And we probably won't get a decent chance at the fall colors next week as we will be Jersey Shore bound from Thursday this week to the same next week.

I do love to free wheel photograph as you know and found two places of great interest.  The first being some old Texaco pumps at a little store along the way.

The other image (s) I made were of an old barn or shed on a little dirt road (Country Roads).

This is an unedited image of the barn.

As you can see the edited image looks a lot different than the original.

  I happen to feel the final product is more attractive.  Remember, I am not here to massage my own ego.  Some would say that it is large enough already.  No, my purpose to to create something someone might want to hang on a wall.  If someone doesn't like the final image, well congratulations....you have a mind of your own.  And I go onto the next image.

  A very wise man of the sales type once said this to me.  "Of the universe you are selling into, you will always get a particular percentage regardless of how good, or bad, a salesman you are.  The trick is to take away part or all of some other salesman's percentage."

  So that's the trick.  And proverb number 1,123 of Skip's almanac of garbage knowledge and other useless trivium.  Oh and I have no idea whether Trivium is a word or not, or means what I want to say.  Just a piece of trivial info!  That's my definition and I'm sticking to it.

OK, I looked it up and it's not quite what I thought it would be. But then again it might fit in a twisted sort of way.

  

"An introductory curriculum at a medieval university involving the study of grammar, rhetoric, and logic."

Have a wonderful week and work on those percentages.

12 October 13

Morning all!

 The weather God has seen fit to treat us with a calm, clear day with the temperatures in the low sixties.  It's quiet an the dogs have not yet begun to stir and are getting into their "Feed me, feed me" mode.

The stupid birds have not even found that it's daylight yet.  And that's a good thing.

This is the kind of morning that brings to mind flat lakes, small boats and fishing rods.  Well, to me anyway.  To you it may be mountain passes, snowy peaks, or wide beaches with quietly lapping surf or a mountain field full of wild flowers.

A sunrise so inviting that even emergence from under warm and downy blankets isn't the chore it often seems to be.  Pike Place perking in an old percolator pot and the smell of bacon turning a crispy brown.  Sounds and smells.  It's funny what the mind can conjure up when it is free wheeling through the memory chips of the fastest and largest computer that only God could make....the human brain. 

 We do that when we have no sticky notes before us.  No shopping list on the fridge.  No to do lists made the night before.  And no pressing issues in that sometime over used structure on our shoulders.  Given what's going on around us, we probably should exercise that structure a little more often.

I guess we seasoned citizens tend to roam through our mental library's more than the young.  We at least have shelved more books than the young and should, should I say, have those significant memories that allow us to actually sit back and enjoy the moment.

Days like this, in quiet and leisure thought, I am reminded too of the serenity prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

If I could have lived that prayer all my life, I think that I would have been a better person.  But alas I am human and well those old memory chips can also give us problems as well from time to time.
It is however, a delightful day here in Shangra La South and right now I would not have it any other way.

Stay well read my friends.

9 OCTOBER 13

Fifty eight degrees here in Shangra La South.  I understand my friends on the Jersey coast are bracing for a nor easter today.  Just what they need up there, but what the heck it's shoot a camel day!

I sure do hope that the shore keeps the sand on the beach and not inland where the front end loaders have to be brought out again.  Been a tough year for those folks.

We are beginning to see the photos of the colors in the North East.  Jack Nevitt has been posting stuff from West Virginia and Rebecca Latson is in Maine.  You might want to check their links here to see some fantastic work.

Season's changing!

I continue to be desk bound, editing and posting.  I am about all ready for the trip to North Wildwood.  Wondering if I can rent a flat screen TV to run the website during the show and generate orders directly there from.  Just a thought, but am not sure I have the technical expertise to pull that off.

While taking a break, I have been dismantling the apocalypse garden in the back in order to move it to a spot more in direct sunlight.  Last year's garden was a bust and I think it basically did not have enough light.  It at least gets me off the puter for an hour or so.  One of the local banks was robbed yesterday, and in a small community that's big news.  People just desperate I guess.  What will all the lies being generated out of Washington lately, things are just a little dicey.

  A man after my own heart has the answer to all that though.

And my mind wanders from time to time to those days when I did that....... just go fishing.

And this addled old mind slips back into "The Putt" just offshore on the Big Lake with a landlocked salmon coming to net.  Those moments when the rest of the world can go hang.  No photos to be taken or edited.  No crass commercial moments to be created.  Just eight ounces of fishing rod, ninety feet of fly line and a two and half pound of salmon doing his best to stay alive not knowing he will be released anyway.  Parts of life have been a good life.

Well my friends survive your Nor Easter, stay safe and know we are all thinking of and praying for you all.  

Good Hump day my friends,  stay thirsty!

8 October 13

Morning all.

  Welcome to the day before shoot a camel day! We actually had some rain last night and a little yesterday.  It was much needed.   Warm though here south of the sun!

I have been posting some of the images made at the Cayce Blue Grass Festival and must admit that some of the pictures look pretty good.  And a couple have gotten decent reviews.

Lighthouses still seem to be the seller category bringing in the bacon.  And for that I am eternally grateful.  The latest one yesterday of a light on Block Island.

"This image of Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine will be going onto the site later today.  Such an amazing spot to see.  One can view the Nubble, or island, upon which the house is perched from a huge parking lot overlooking a rocky escarpment on the mainland.  I just wish I could be there during a North Easter.  That would be something to see. 

 I wrote a little history about the light some years ago when I was selling small prints on eBay.

"This light was built on a rock just off shore at York, Maine in 1879.  An interesting cable car built for one or two people at most, runs from the parking lot to the “The Nubble” or rock upon which the light was built.  This is the evidently the only way for people and supplies to reach the light.

President Hayes signed the order providing the huge sum of $15,000 that was spent on building this lighthouse, not a small amount in 1879.  The tower is short, only forty feet, but the elevation on the rock is over 80 feet above sea level.  An interesting part of the architecture displayed in this image is the walkway from the keepers house to the tower itself. Obviously, this is a requirement where the winter weather is so inclement from time to time that protection is needed just to reach the tower.  New England farms were also built with this feature connecting the barn and house.  This feature is also seen at a number of the other Maine lights." 

The Fall Gallery is filling up and I will be starting a winter one before too long.  Anything to make it easier to navigate the web site.  Still have some scanning to do and thousands of images to edit and post.  All that is not going to get done this year.  I think that I was a little over optimistic earlier when I said that I would like to be finished this year.  As it is I have over 1600 image posted and have had almost 270,000 visitors.  All that makes me happy, happy, happy!

We made reservations at a B & B for the 19th and 20th up in North Wildwood.  Now I'll have to do a thousand worth of business just to break even in lodging.  Not sure that's going to happen, but it's for a good cause.

Y'all have a good day now!