28 AUGUST 2013

UH-OH

Guess what day it is!

Mike, Mike, Mike.....what day is it?

OK, it's getting trite already.

  I truly thought it was Monday.  Last weekend we actually went on a road trip and acted like semi tourists right here in South Carolina.  We started out with a car show in Irmo, a small town a bit north west of here.  There must have been 200 cars there and I did get some postable images which was just fine.  BYW spell check says there is no such word as postable.  Sure there is, I just used it!

This was my first car in 1958.  OK, you do the math...I was 17!

A '51 Ford coupe I bought for $200 and it looks almost the same.  Except mine was metallic green.  A hot color for the time.  This one is for sale....$60,000 !!!

What the Heck was I thinking.  All those cars we had along the line and today they are worth more than some new cars.

Boy those were the days.  You could take the engine apart without a PHD in computer science and all you did was get a little dirty.  I can't begin to tell you the amount of money in that parking lot that day.  It just boggles the mind.  

Then we saw this as we headed out of town on our way along one of the back roads to a little town called Newbury.

I owned three of these!  If I had two cents and any sense, I should go back and buy that thing and rebuild it.  Alas, I got the sense by not the cents.

Newbury's claim to fame is the Opera House!  They get some top of the line shows there and it really is a quaint town.  As far as down town was concerned on a Saturday after noon------Not so much.  We saw one or two antique shops open and one restaurant, which was good.  I actually ate something called Dill Pickle soup.  I know it sounds strange and was.  But it was really good.  Most of the rest of the stores were closed.  Huh?  Saturday?

Stay tuned!  I'll write if I get work!

22 AUGUST 2013

I fear we are in for another invasion of the local stray cat chronicles!

The last time this happened we had a black cat take up residence in our garage for about a month and could not find him anywhere out there except when he was hungry.

This morning I see a Siamese wandering around the neighborhood.  My better half has a distinct affliction to the Siamese breed, so here we go again.

Course, I would choose to befriend one of these.  But then again it probably wouldn't be too practical.  And the last one of the larger cats I played with wanted me for lunch.

So maybe I should just stick with the strays that like free handouts.

And if the end of the world ever comes, at least we can eat these things instead of the other way around.

8 21 2013

Creek's up again!

We have been having enough rain each day to keep the river levels high, and then they open the gates on the Lake Murray Dam and up it goes another notch.  The actually had to close the upper gate to the Riverwalk at the West Columbia end.

I walked the new section of the RW on Monday around noon and found that I still had my hunting instincts from a hundred years ago.  I was purposely quiet because there were no people on the walk and I knew I would see something.  Sure enough there was a doe and her two fawn on a small ridge above the walk.  Momma stood and watched me for a few minutes then melted into the brush.  Babies stood wondering what was happening watch me for a minute more and then joined the doe in retreat.  

You all have a great hump day! 

20 AUGUST 2013

Calling somebody a "Turkey" is a pretty popular remark when you feel someone is acting foolishly. I imagine the remark stemmed from the way domestic turkeys behave and yes they are pretty dumb. Well yesterday I probably earned the name but fortunately there were very few people around to see the act.

You see as the old saying goes..."A turkey is so dumb he would drown in a rain storm".  The presumption is that he stands with his head and bill up looking to see where the rain is coming from and drowns in the process.  Well, I wasn't that bad.  But I wanted to make a specific image and I needed to get outside to exercise and clear all the mud from my thought processes. 

I had reached my destination and took a couple of pictures when the above happened.  Now there are not too many places on the Riverwalk to hide from the rain.  I do stop and get one or two of those doggy stuff removal bags that dog owners are supposed to carry for pickup.  In my case I used them to cover the camera....just a light plastic bag to keep it dry.  Well, they fit the camera but don't fit over my head.  No that's just poor planning on the part of the bureaucrat that invented the idea, sitting in his lonely geek cubicle devising ways to be a PITA to the rest of us.  So rethink it Wilbur!

I did luck out in as much as I found myself under the Rte. I126 bridge.  Me and the rest of the trolls resided under there for a half hour.

Another term I wonder the origin of.  "Like a drowned rat".  I guess it refers to the old sailing days when the rats would move from land to the merchant ships and back in all the ports around the world.  

Now I know what they feel like.  

Note to self.  Rain gear in the walking, hiking, biking survival kit!

  Take rain gear Turkey!

18 August 2013

When returning the cat food to my neighbor for whom I was "Cat sitting" last week, he mentioned that there were some really neat fungi growing at the base of one of his trees and I might be interested in photographing them.  Well, does a chicken have lips?  Of course I would.  Expecting the usual brown, grey and white mushroom type structures I was not thinking color.  Boy was I wrong.

Thank you John for the lead.  There are other images on the web site and they are all full of color accentuated by all the rain we have had.  You will notice that there is a new website associated with Fine Art America, the newest is Pixels.com.  That makes three that have all the same galleries and images.  This newest one is going to have things like IPhone cases, already available, and hopefully cups, mugs, water bottles, Elvis blankets and neon sports jackets with matching tee-shirts and thongs.  Who knows?

I have listed a new and I think important image in the lighthouse gallery.  This one is of Nobska light on Cape Cod at Woods Hole.  A pretty impressive sky and different angle on the house should make it appealing, but ya never know.

You all have a great Sunday, and thank you Lord for feet on the floor this morning.

17 AUGUST 2013

Good Saturday morning all.

  It's still raining and the temperatures are in the mid sixties here.  Whatever happened to the week, I mean it was Monday an hour and a half ago.  At this rate I'll be in my mid nineties by next Tuesday......or so it seems.  It's that old time bridge I guess.

No sooner do we get on it than it seems we're at the other end and the older we get the faster the darn thing goes.  I have had some nice comments on some of the new stuff I have been listing and that is gratifying, but the work is grinding on.  I still have 1800 images in the general populations to edit and post for the most part.  Almost five hundred lighthouse images scanned with a third more to finish in that category and probably another thousand or so of the waterman category to scan, edit and post.

Next month I'll be on the road for a few days traveling to the upper Jersey Shore for a hundred and fifty fifth high school reunion.  Going with mixed emotions but it will be fun to see some of you there.  Then again to NJ in mid October with Sheri to the Lighthouse Challenge at Hereford Inlet Lighthouse.  I'll probably make some images on each trip.  In the mean time it's more computer work, a few local shoots and the big prep for the October show.

My newest lighthouse scam on the site is an image of the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Maine.  I can just feel the atmosphere changing in this image.  I made this photograph in early May and the temperatures were somewhere in the mid forties with about zero humidity.  Great New England weather and almost breath taking when you get the first whiff in the morning of that bracing air.  The offshore front coming in started to quickly raise the humidity level, but not the temperature.

West Quoddy is a very distinct candy striped light on the easternmost mainland point of the United States.  This lighthouse was built in 1858 and is a cast-iron structure overlaid with brick.  The first structure here was built in 1808 was was a rubble masonry tower.  The second light was built in 1850 and quickly became unstable and was replaced with the current tower. A visit here is a must and lighthouse aficionados can find an added benefit in some spectacular ocean views.  Truly the main coast with a long pathway extending along the cliff like stone escarpments on the left of this image.  

I need to get back up into that part of the country again before I take my dirt nap.  Maine is rugged on the coast and just as rugged inland.  And when one gets north of all the population centers it is just plain wilderness.  Good stuff!  Have a great weekend all.

16 AUGUST 2013

Getting some rain again this morning and the temps are still strangely low for August, but who am I to complain about that.  Normally in August we're over a hundred most of the time and even my thin blood is "Happy, happy, happy".   And yes I did watch the first show of Duck Dynasty on Wednesday and I am clinging to my guns and Bible too.

I have spent most of the week editing and posting new stuff to the web site and some of it is getting nice reviews and that's a good thing.  The above is Montauk Point Lighthouse in black and white.  There are two of this image on the site now, full color and sepia tone.  I also like the BnW, so will probably list is as well.

I have this fear that I am becoming the neighborhood go-to curmudgeon.  I am collecting mail for my next door bud who travels most of the week in his job.  I mean it's no big thing.  But I have picked up the responsibility of feeding another neighbor's cat while they are away for the week.  

Kiki, I mean how original is that?

  It's a nice cat but if I could train it to chase squirrels maybe it might contribute something worthwhile to society and earn it's keep.  As it is, it just comes over when I am grilling looking for handouts.  Lays on its back and purrs.  Of course who can resist that?  He/she prefers chicken and will turn it's nose up to steak or fish.

  Cats!  The dogs will eat corncob if they can get close enough, but a cat......well they're a different matter.  So off in the rain with my bumper shoot (that's umbrella for those uneducated amongst us) to feed this thing this morning.  In the middle of writing this creative piece of art... out in the rain, feed the cat, feed the dogs yell shut up at the birds and that's my morning so far.  Second cup of Pike Place just adds some more juice to my already stoked up blood.

The umbrella and the rain reminded me of a time in another century, in another world when I actually had a job that paid a salary.  New York City in the rain is huge umbrella bumper cars olympics.  You remember bumper cars don't you?  People there do power walks from place to place.  Hurrying from meeting to meeting where not much gets done but the face time is great.  Then back to the little cubicle to plan the next political attack on some rung of the ladder just above. But seeing all those black mushrooms scrambling about is just a trip.  I wish I had the opportunity to do a photographic study of that banging about.  And that brings to mind the street vendors.  It doesn't take twelve teen drops of rain to fall and these characters have brought out the umbrellas to sell.  Where do they get them so fast?  Talk about hustle!  Those guys adapt faster than catfish in the mud.

  Yeah, I know I am complaining but hey what else can I do at this hour.  Gives me something to write about.  Actually, I guess I do enjoy taking care of the animals but don't tell Missy.  She's enough of a suck up already.

On top of everything else, they tell me the spell check does'nt work......so suffer!