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!

6TH OCTOBER 13

JUST A PICKIN AND AGRINNIN!

At the Blue Grass Festival yesterday.  Now that takes real talent.  

My floater's job was basically to drive a golf cart to pick up people at outlying parking lots and ferry them back to the event.  And visa versa.

I know spellcheck there is no such word as agrinnin!  And I probably butchered the spelling of visa versa....But God still loves me!

"If you have gotten on this cart, be aware that you have done so at your own peril because we follow no established or recognized driving laws"!

Hold on!

That put em at ease.  What fun!  It actually seemed that I had some kind of authority. 

The crowd was light early but picked up later in the day.  Lotsa corn dogs and greasy fries sold to mostly overweight folks who appeared to be urban cowboys and not true mountain people.  The true blue grassers were probably busy making their own music......and moon shine.  OH and for you politically correct weenies, get a life because I can be sarcastic from time to time.  Everybody I talked to had a great time.  A family event with lots of stuff for the little rug rats and no booze for the adults made for a wholesome outing.

Tomorrow.......back to sex, drugs and rock and roll!

  Cause as Jimmy Buffet says...."It's a long way between Saturday night and Sunday morning"

I love you too Lord!

5 OCT 13

Another Saturday...Thank you Lord!

The recent draught in sales ended last night with a large piece sold to a North Carolina buyer.

http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=65bd697b5a579c78c70fe4ec50eca24d#comment9771260

It's funny.  I go a couple of weeks without a sale and three or four happen all at once.  I must admit that my week on the road threw the marketing efforts into the basket and perhaps that is just catching up now, but I am appreciative of any and all sales.  I once thought that goings on in the macro economy of the country had an effect on sales, but I am becoming to suspect that effect is more of a long term thing.     Sales seem to be more directly related to the amount of social marketing I do.  Just some thoughts there.  Note to grand kids....hard work!  That's the secret.  The holy grail!

Today, Saturday, I am a floater at the Cayce, SC Blue Grass Festival.  You know the old saying that we all rise to the level of our own self incompetence.  Well now I also have the title to go with it.  Floater. Crap!  And how did I volunteer anyway?

There are going to be a lot of these played there and maybe I can get some interesting photos.  You know I will carry a camera.  There won't be a need to take a walk this morning as I will be on my feet from noon to seven.  Then in two weeks we're off to New Jersey and the Lighthouse Challenge at Hereford Inlet.  For the uninitiated, please click on the links in the text for further information and crass marketing attempts to catch your attention. 

It's not that early, I know but the dogs have not realized that I am awake and hence are not whining for food.  And the stupid birds are still asleep....that leaves me the only one rumbling around here with my Pike Place Roast in hand.  Thank you Starbucks!  It's always nice to start the day with that hidden extra caffeine kick.  That's how they market you know!  Highest caffeine of any coffee around.  Not advertised as such, just insidious.  I wish I could create a way to make my photos as addictive as their coffee.  Maybe scratch photographs and sniff?  I think you can tell I am reaching for stuff to write.  So I better close and get to some real quasi work done!  

Supposed to be in the 90's today so I will be working on my farmer's tan as well.  Then along around Tuesday or Wednesday we get to meet Karen.  No, not a real person but a tropical storm.  We do need the rain as the creek's down.

Now you see that's the teaser for you to check back around that time to see if the ark I built is ready.

Stay happy my friends.

4 OCTOBER 13

I feel like it's 30 years ago. 

 No, not wandering around in my thready memory or regressing into some sort of middle age childhood.  No!  I attended two meetings!  MEETINGS I tell you! You know...with other people present.  And where I had to add something cogent and speak with some kind of voice that sounded unlike Uncle Si, but rather someone who actually knew what he was talking about.  God, the stress!

The first was an artist's meeting with the town's mayor and others trying to promote the town by highlighting the activities of local artists.  OK, I'm down for that as it gets our name out there in the hopes of bringing more warm bodies with money into the community.  I get it.  And am appreciative of any and all activities in that regard.  And will participate with vigor and actual fondness for what we will be doing.  

The second was a one hour webinar supposedly teaching me how to use Pinterest to sucker you poor folks into buying something from the website.  Please note the link and the crass commercial moment there.

In the cool stuff category today..............

But, here's a kick!  Got a water tower?  Old rusty, crumbly thing, hanging out there on the edge of town surrounded by empty beer cans and used personal hygiene products.  You know the image.  A spot for local teenagers to prove their manhood by climbing just to show off to the girls and exercise the local emergency management people.  Probably you wish they could arrange for a hurricane or twister to remove the old eyesore!  

Well, here's an answer to all our wishes!  Paint the @%$@$#^% thing and use it to advertise your community.  Beautification they call it!  Advertising they might call it.  Promotion it might be called.  Net net.....it could improve the look of the community.  Throw in a donation to a needy cause as part of the painting promotion and you have a pretty neat project.  And to top it all off you and I can actually own part of the mural.  How sweet is that.

Genius!

I urge you to go the this website and donate. (note this NSA and IRS) Your donation will probably be tax deductible and for a mere quarter century you can own a two foot square part of the mural.  

http://www.GamecockMural.com

And if you have any friends who are Clemson fans.....Buy em one too!  Doing so could be your best practical joke of the year!

Be a part of recordable history.  And you don't have to wait till you die to do so.  OH, and by the way the photo above is not of the one their going to paint.  It's somebody else's wreck I captured along the Country Roads. 

Some bullets!

88 Foot tower

10,000 virtual squares available

Each 2 foot square can provide 25 meals to Harvest Hope Food Bank

All squares must be funded by Nov.1

Eric Henn, a nationally known mural artist will paint

So please go to the website,  blow the moths off your wallet and help out.  It's a good cause on so many levels.

3 October 13

The 19th and 20th

That is the Hereford Inlet  Lighthouse in Angelsea or North Wildwood NJ.  The event will be the NJ  Lighthouse Challenge.  The first one was held in 2001, I think.  According to the Lighthouse Digest at least.  It was a big deal back then and still is today.  I have been there for each one so this year makes this year my hum, er, aah 13 years.  Jeez, had to use both hands and a part of a foot for that one.  Hereford looked a little different back then.

Different paint job and different time as this was taken in the winter in the late 90's.  I enjoy going there because of the people who run the place and just gathering with other lighthouse freaks.  This is an article I wrote for their news letter a few years back which kinda sums up my ties to them.

"The Making of a Fine Image"

"I met the Hereford Inlet lighthouse in February of 1995 when I was photographing the lighthouses in New Jersey for a poster which was subsequently published later in that year.  Unknown to me at the time, I should have done the photography later in the spring when the Victorian gardens were in full bloom.  I am a professional photographer of some modest renown specializing in lighthouses and other beach and maritime studies.  The original photos I made in 1995 had nothing to do with the “Image” of this light. 

Lighthouses and the history of them, their locations, keepers, legends and or myths have become a favorite topic of not only my vocation but my avocation as well.  There is a sense of history and drama associated each light not found in other historic structures.  I guess the aura of the ocean and the mariners lost at sea lend a mystique to lighthouses.  Each light has its own romance and local devotees eager to work long hours to maintain them. The original Keepers, for the most part, were paid less than $500 per year to keep and maintain their light.  Current “Keepers”, for the most part, are unpaid in dollars but reap much more in the satisfaction of promulgating the legends.

When most ships were powered by wind and sail, sailors were necessarily limited to hugging the coastlines.  Lighthouses were the only sure marker of one’s location and served to warned ships to stay away. Modern shipping is conducted with GPS, radar, and other marvels of the electronic age.  Lighthouses hence have become more of a destination rather than beacons warning of potential disaster. 

North Wildwood is blessed with an historic beacon carrying on the history and mystery of an age long gone.  Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is truly a destination in itself.  Yes, for the lighthouse aficionados there is that.  The Victorian house, the tower, the light, the memorabilia are all there for the lighthouse buff.  But this treasure also affords one of the most unique Victorian gardens on the east coast.  Steve Murray is the Superintendent of Parks for North Wildwood and is responsible for the spectacular plantings surrounding the lighthouse front and back.  With 25 plus years of experience in seashore gardening, Steve has created the setting for the crown jewel of North Wildwood.

I have witnessed and documented, over the last ten years, a total exterior renovation of the physical structure, bringing it back to the way it was when the place was built in 1874.  But the infrastructure, gardens, and location are merely the shell.  A shell held together by the folks who put in many long hours of dedication and pure work.   This is truly a place where people afford other people an opportunity is see, visit, learn, and contemplate.  Steve also serves as the head of the organization.  Betty Mugnier is the unofficial modern day “Keeper” and runs the place with the help of Jane and Marie.  Sam and Ronnie Black run the food concessions when there is an event at the light and Ralph Feindt sells lighthouse caps and other memorabilia to help raise funds.

It is ironic that a place which was originally intended as a signal for mariners to avoid has become a place for folks to gather.  But it seems that lighthouses are just that today, a place for good folks to gather.  And, Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is one of the finest places to gather on the east coast and is truly the crown jewel of North Wildwood.  And that is the image I see."

So in the next week or two I will be busy loading the camels and donkeys for yet another trip north on the Blue Hair Highway.  Pictures will have been framed, matted, and packed.  Posters will be ready to lay out on tables and business cards will have been printed.  I look forward to seeing some of the old regulars that attend each challenge.  Like the Christian motor cycle club that seems to make it each year.  You can hear them coming from miles away.....Harley's you know.  Families with small children in tow.  Historians or just plain the interested.  Sure I'll make some money (pass that on to the IRS please NSA), but the comraderie means more than cash ever will. 

 So, enough drivel...I gotta get to what some would call work!

Great day everyone!

Two Oct 13

You know it's fall when----

It's sixty degrees here in the south at seven in the morning.  But still going to mid 80's later.  

But elsewhere pumpkins are in the air and every drug store is selling Marigolds.  Used to be you went to a drug store to get what .....wait for it......drugs.  Now they're supermarkets.  Oh well it's progress.

  I often wonder what our founders would say if they just had a chance to ride in a car to a mall.  Even old Ben Franklin would be amazed.  And he almost became a crispy critter when he flew that kite.  He didn't listen to his Mom either.  "Ben don't go outside....it's raining!" "And put your boots on."  "Don't stand under any trees....there's lightning!" Kids, they never listen.

I love fall or autumn.  But then again at my age I love any season change.  But fall kinda gets the old juices flowing.  Lower temperatures.  Less humidity.  Great sunsets.  Prospects of going out in the woods as a hunter gatherer (hunting, that is for you of public educations, with a weapon...gasp).  Sneaking into the woods, simulating a bushel of apples, in search of a deer to harvest.  Now it's with a camera and not a weapon.  Watching a flock of wild turkeys feeding on acorns.  Over zealous home owners decorating for Halloween.  I used to love that holiday, till I got arrested on mischief night.  Well not really, but probably should have been.  AND, that's another story for another time and another place.

 A couple of additions to the "The Galleries".  Please note a new gallery called Country Roads.  Some images have been added and there will be more as we move on.  Please note the links in the blog upon which you can click upon for a crass commercial moment.

Chow! (little European lingo there) and enjoy the day.

  Mike, Mike, Mike what day is it?

FIRST OCTOBER 2013

COUNTRY ROADS

Travelling this past week enabled me to not only capture some interesting photos but to also do some rather deep thinking.  Now bear in mind I had just come off a weekend of frivolity with a bunch of seventy something "Seasoned" citizens and hence "Deep" may have less of a meaning that what one would normally associate with basic intelligence.

I saw kids going to school in big yellow buses.  Amish folks working with what our grand children would call primitive tools.  A society labeled by some in the media as primitive.  

I saw farmers cutting corn with big green or yellow machinery that cost them over a hundred thousand dollars per unit.

  I saw children in high school driving machinery that cost in some cases over thirty thousand per unit provided by loving or perhaps guilty parents.  Or fixed up antiques and hot rods. 

I saw folks who worked from three am till two pm catching seafood for the rest of us.

I saw once proud ways of life abandoned by folks who had perhaps passed on.  Or who just couldn't make it work.  Estates where inheriting families had to sell or parcel out just to pay usury death taxes.  Or just plain second or third generations that just had no stomach for the hard work and dedication it would take to keep going.

I saw gas pumps where the last sale was under a dollar a gallon.

I saw "Americana".

  No split screen news casts produced by agenda driven ideologues who want their point of view to become America.  I saw no biased, self aggrandizing professional politicians who huff and puff and refuse to do the work we hired them to do.  They think us ignorant and unable to care for ourselves. 

 I see they shut the government down this morning at 12:01.  I was asleep at the time.  Interesting and infuriating that these pompous rectums that run our politics will still get paid for not doing their job despite a payroll shutdown for everyone else.

I saw parents working hard to make a go of it.  I saw parents taking care of their children so that they would live in a better place than they themselves.  I saw children being taught the ABC's by caring parents.  But, I also saw a Parent/Teacher meeting where out of 24 students only four parents had the care or interest to attend.  I saw parents work all day only to take their children to riding lessons or hockey lessons at night and then get only five hours sleep before starting it all over again.

I saw Americana on the Country Roads.  

It was all inspiring, but yet melancholy and sad as well!