THE SECOND OF THE SECOND OF TWELVE

Still beach time!

It is my intent to write about a number of the East Coast beaches I have visited.  Sort of a trip down the back alleys of my summer time brain.

We did get some rain overnight and it's supposed to rain most of today.  What a better day to go to the beach? 

Worked in the yard most of yesterday and it was like what I would call a late spring day.  In fact took my shirt off to catch some rays.  Just about gave the widow lady down the street a heart attack, but it felt good to get the exercise and dream about being in my teens again.  She'll get over it.

One of my favorite beaches on the east coast is in Virginia.  No, not Virginia or "Ginny" beach, but those wilds of Assateague Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore.  Specifically the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  For wildlife photography, this is one of the greatest places on the east coast to visit.

There are of course the wild ponies which attract thousands of people each year.

 
But the refuge is also home to millions of migratory birds as well as resident critters, which for the most part are not camera shy. You can find the usual cast of characters sloshing through the marshes, such as blue herons, mute swans and snowy egrets.   But it is the beach of which I write today.

As on most of the barrier islands along the East Coast, erosion is a constant threat and here the problem is severe.  Therefore, the requisite storm fencing which hopefully hold the dunes together and the ocean back.  Storms, primarily north easters are the biggest dangers to the real estate.

Of course they can be beautiful.

Like on many beaches, replenishing the sand is an annual thing.  Sad really, but then again it's nature folks.  A new bridge from the mainland at the town of Chincoteague makes access to the island very much easier, but I fear that the crowds may change the area completely.  We'll just have to wait and see. 

THE FIRST OF THE SECOND

I give up! 

 It was pushing 80 here yesterday and no sign of anything winter in central South Carolina. 

I thought all the hot air in the state would automatically leave when the republican primary moved to Florida, but I guess not. 

So the only thing to do is think of the beach.  Places I would like to be right now.  North of here the beaches are "Off season" and that is my time.  No people, good sky for the most part and great photo ops.

This place is a gem!

 Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware.  Yup, lower slower Delaware to quote a friend of mine.  This is the Bay side of the spit of land which is mostly scrub brush and sand.  There are two lighthouses here, a lot of walking trails and just good old fashioned nice scenery.  The place is not hard to find on a map and withing driving distance of most Maryland and Delaware cities.  Even a big time ferry ride is available between Lewis, DE and Cape May, NJ. 

The ocean side of the park sports some pretty impressive dunes and enough beach to handle the summer crowds.  But in the fall through the spring it's, for the most part,  just the gulls and occasional beach nut like me out there.  If either one of these images really grabs you, they can be purchased on my FFA site which is advertised on this blog to the excess.  Enjoy!

The 29th day of the first

NEW STUFF ALL THE TIME!

If you gotten this far, you've noticed that I have added a slide show.  Whoooopeeeeeeee!  That ought to keep you here at least a good thirty seconds or so. If you place your cursor on a photo in the slide show and click it should take you to FAA for that photo.  God, I love things I can't understand. Oh and did I say I also love spellcheck....I don't understand that either.

  Also added a couple of crass commercial advertising links here on the right side for what has become my primary retail sight, Fine Art America.  There you can find all my good stuff for sale any way you want it.

  Also please check the art contests there.  Because they are fun.  AND there is a lot of fine art entered in those contests.  And you can vote, participate and even be entertained.  Some 67,000 artists are on board.  It's hard to stand out because the quality of the art and the presentation of the final product is so good.

So far, I have won.....WON.  Won, I say....four contest this year.  That's first place for those of you who don't understand.  So I'm no lightweight.  He says with tongue in cheek and in the style of Mohamed Ali............"I am the greatest". 

If you haven't read this blog before...I am kidding, do have a bit of sarcastic humor in me somewhere, and welcome aboard.  Tell your friends!   If you've been around this site before, just smile 'cause you know that's just the way I am.

Oh, and I am a capitalist so buy and get over it!

There will be a prize for anyone who can stay on this blog longer than thirty seconds and  is able to prove it.

The 27th day of the first

EAST BRANCH IN THE NORTH

As some of my readers will remember, for some forty years five of us went to NH fishing in the spring.  Well, the spring of our lives are over and the fall has set in and the trip is now a pleasant memory. 

That having said, the memories I have made on film are still in the can so to speak.  The snow and the ice has set in on the big lake in the past two weeks.  Lake Winnepasaukee that is.  I just posted an image on FAA showing a wild river in the White Mountains along the Kancamangus Highway.

Kancamangus is hard to pronounce, but try the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River.  That's a mouthful and I still have to look up the spelling every time I write about it or title a photograph.

I remember the day well.  It was pretty bad fishing all week on the big lake and we all looked for something else to do and take a break to get off the water.  I decided to take a ride with the cameras and venture  up through the mountains. 

Route 112 or the Kancamangus runs west from Conway, New Hampshire to Lincoln which is on Interstate 93 almost on the border with Vermont.  The road travels through many elevations and that day was cool at the lake but snowing and icing in the mountains.  This image was at a lower level where rain, fog and mist made photographing all the better.

There were some clear spots where the mist and fog didn't penetrate.  This little stream reminds one of what the wilderness must have looked like a hundred years ago.  The water looks as though you could just take a glass full and have a long drink.

At another time this is one of my favorite hidden ponds.  Not even sure today the name of the pond, might have been the Greeley Ponds area, but the walk in was a couple of miles through big woods.  Crystal clear and all alone.

Same feeling here.  And the ride across the state leads you to such places as Crawford Notch, Loon Mountain, Lincoln and Swiftwater.  What a neat place!  What great names for places.  Next time maybe I can get further north to places with names like Magalloway Mountain or Lake Umbagog. 

Jan. 26, 2012

Bittersweet!

We lost one of our followers and a best friend this morning.  It is always bitter two lose someone who has been a part of your life for over 40 years, but sweet knowing that we celebrate her life in our memories.

Rest in Peace and God bless the family.

THE 23RD OF THE FIRST

I GUESS I WILL JUST NEVER UNDERSTAND

God has a plan.  He has never really shared it with me personally, but I guess that's coming. 

Personally, I have enough stupid in me to make some pretty serious mistakes in this life.  Just enough smarts to know better, but not enough common sense to make the difference work.  At least to the level that I thought it should.

We all know that He is always there overlooking that which he made in his own image, but sometimes I gotta wonder why I often never see it.

People who have done wondrous things in life pass away too quickly although they have lived a long and meaningful life.  And yet there seem to be sufficient haters out there that would publicly damn them them to purgatory.

On the other hand.....

There are those who seem destined to suffer prematurely for long periods of time, waiting till the body finally gives up.  Nice people who have caused more good in this life with just a simple "Hello how are ya"?  And it is amazing to me the amount of beating the body can take before they slip back into God's hands. And why the suffering?  Or is that just part of the healing process for those of us who love and remain?  I guess so.

And then there are the Evil, who just seem to hang on forever.  What's up with that?

Suffice to say, I guess that we all just have to wait to find out the "What" and must just let go of the "Why".

The 19th of the 1st

PHOTOGRAPH BANNED AT BWI

I guess the airport is now called the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport just to be totally, politically correct.  It's in Maryland which right there is enough of an explanation about "Political correctness".  It used to be called simply BWI.  Then they had to change it to assuage  some group just to show the rest of us how ignorant we were and how good they were.  Which of course is what PC is all about....the elite telling we, the less elite, what it's all about to be elite.

 Confused? Don't be it is all part of some diabolical long term  plan on the part of somebody up there on the ladder to somebody else's success or perception thereof.  Called self aggrandizement! But I'm not cynical.

I have written here in the past about how commercial fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay are, for the most part, called "Watermen".  Still are, and have been for generations.  In fact, the first waterman was probably a native American who picked up an oyster along the shore and traded it to one of the invading evil white men from Europe for three beads and a hank of red cloth.  But that is another story altogether.

Watermen fish the bay all year round despite the weather.  The fish for anything that can be sold to the buyers and in turn the general public.  Eels go to Europe.  Crabs and oyster are shipped all over the country, as are the fish fish caught.  Catfish go to catfish ponds in the Midwest and south and strippers go on my plate.  That is when I can get the wild kind.  Soft shell clams are shipped to New England for processing into clam "Chodaw".  The clams are probably the largest portion of the seafood harvest in the Chesapeake.  At least dollar wise. 

The watermen spend thousands of dollars on boats and clam rigs jut to maintain a fiercely independent lifestyle.

The work from early dawn to about mid afternoon, generally about a 12 hour day on the water and another five or six at port cleaning and maintaining equipment.  Not a ride in the park as job descriptions go.  And you gotta make a living in the winter as well.

Tough to get out of port just to work all day in freezing weather.

And the commute is a little hairy at times as well.

After all that preamble.  Yes, one of my photographs has been officially banned at BWI airport.  A few year back, I submitted an image to the add agency in New York that was redecorating the ticket area in the airport.  They chose one of my prints and with the aid of mirrors and other trickery made it into a 4 foot by 16 foot mural.  It looked good and was nice money.

However!

  One lady wrote a letter of complaint to the authorities at the airport claiming that my photo was obscene.  One person mind you.  Being politically correct, it had to come down, and down it came.  I had to replace it with some sunset scene of a marina.  I wanted a press release....which I didn't get.  Knew I wouldn't but also knew it was fun to tweak them.  This was the image, now remember 4x16 feet of something that was the biggest commercial dollar harvest on the bay.

My only reaction to all of this was my comment to the ad agency ..... "Well, obviously that lady has never seen an aroused clam"!