light and shape
march 30, 2006
barefoot beach, florida

"they . . . asked me:
"'how do you make your pictures?' i was puzzled . . .
"i said, 'i don't know, it's not important."
     --henri cartier-bresson

the last few evening walks to the end of barefoot beach, where it meets the strong tides coming and going from wiggins pass, have been exciting. enormous flocks of shorebirds gather on the exposed sandbars, devouring thick black clouds of small baitfish that choke the trenches and tidepools. the cacophony has been deafening. the sheer kinetic activity is mezmerizing.

i wade the tidepools among them. i watch. i follow long angles of light and try countless compositions: reflections, backlighting, silhouettes, tight and wide shots.

we are all hunters at sunset.

nikon d100, nikkor 24-120 @ 120mm, 1/15, f/20

daybreak walk in my garden
march 30, 2006
bonita shores, florida

"we all like to congregate at boundary conditions. where land meets water. where earth meets air. where bodies meet mind. where space meets time. we like to be on one side, and look at the other."
     --douglas adams

light meets leaf and bloom this morning.

coffee in hand, steam rising happily in air still heavy with night, i wander. a trusted companion, my camera is a necklace of hope and imagination.

looking, looking, looking. a visual feast before breakfast.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 @ 210mm, 1/200, f/7.1

the falling of day
march 29, 2006
bonita beach, florida

"the setting sun, and music at the close, as the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, writ in remembrance more than things long past."
     --william shakespeare

in some places on our planet on this day, the sun disappeared behind the moon for a time. a solar eclipse arrived on the heels of the march 14 lunar eclipse. i thought about this as i watched the blood red and ocre yellow sun fall into the gulf of mexico tonight.

the word eclipse comes from a greek word meaning "abandonment" or to vanish. quite literally, an eclipse was seen as the sun abandoning the earth. many primitive cultures believed that demons or dragons were associated with a total solar eclipse. conversely, in arctic america, the eskimos, aleuts and tlingits believed that the sun and moon left their places to check that everything was going well on earth.

while today's solar eclipse was not visible in the americas, i believe that had the sun and moon left their places to peek in on my postage stamp of terra firma, they would, indeed, have been assured that all was well.

lovely light. a quizzical eyebrow of haze is illuminated above the falling sun. gathering crowds of tourists on this beach clap as the last flicker of red disappears into the sea.

never reclaimed, another day disappears.

no regrets.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 @ 400mm, 1/40, f/18

absence of noise
march 27, 2006
barefoot beach, florida

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 @ 12mm, 1/2, f/10

paths
march 27, 2006
barefoot beach, florida

"travelers, there is no path. paths are made by walking."
      --anthony machado

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 @ 17mm, 1/80, f/18

textures of the beach
barefoot beach, florida

"have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing."
      --dr. wayne dyer

there are nights when the surroundings on my beachwalks cannot fuel the light in my eyes. i walk and walk and somehow can see nothing new. this amazes me, this perspective, because i consciously know that the beach, much like the fabric of our lives, is never static. molecules are forever on the move. light shifts. colors explode and fade.

perhaps it is familiarity. perhaps it is distraction or mood or nagging worries dragged along from the day now over. i do not know why. i only know it is.

and so i attempt to practice a simple tenant of creativity: you see what you *want* to see. focus differently and a scene will absolutely change before and through your eyes. the simplicity of an incoming wave will float over sand ripples in shallow water and land on a miniscule spot of gold-dust beach.

textures. patterns. the geometry of vision.  look at something old and see it new.

nikon d100, nikkor 24-120 @ 32mm, 1/60, f/13

i stand at the edge of this ocean
barefoot beach, florida
march 17, 2006

"few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
      --albert einstein

the light simply refused to die quickly tonight. it pays to look over one's shoulder on occasion ... to see things coming, or, to see things going away. as i left the beach, the horizon was just beginning to glow with delightful intensity behind me.

I turn and stand there. i stand on the edge of this ocean looking out over water and the dune scrub and think my thoughts. why does the sky hover over me with such heartbreaking colors? why do these soft westerly seabreezes blow more questions than answers through my hair? how can you walk along an ocean of no edges and find only walls?

sand between my toes. salt in the air. colors drench my eyes. last light fills my heart. a humble woman's smile sent into the afterglow.

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 @ 19mm, 1/3, f/4

2 face west
barefoot beach, florida
march 15, 2006

"look and think before opening the shutter. the heart and mind are the true lens of the camera."
      --yousuf karsh

brown pelicans are a common sight in coastal florida. usually seen in my beach walks flying north or feeding the inside trench a few feet offshore, they are always companions in my evenings.

as "dipnetters", pelicans work hard to eat, requiring three to five pounds of fish each day. under perfect conditions, brown pelicans can live to be 35 years old. they can fly 35 miles per hour. their pouch can hold approximately 3 gallons of water.

in the mid-1970's the brown pelican was in danger of extinction. none were left in Louisiana, where it was the state bird! it has been on the endangered lists for texas, california and florida.

pelicans are victims of oil spills, pesticides, fishing hooks, fishing lines, guns, arrows, cars, boats, power lines, and various freak accidents. eighty five percent of injuries can be attributed to man. a fish line on a bird can create a fatal tourniquet or noose. a barb from a fish hook left in a bird can cause a fatal infection. it is not unusual to see pelican corpses hanging by fishing lines in the mangroves where i paddle my kayak.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 @ 180mm, 1/320, f/10

30 past sunset
barefoot beach, florida
march 13, 2006

"in my shoes, in my shoes
there is so much to remind me
as the stars come out above me ... home."
      --midnight oil, "bushfire" from   earth and sun and moon

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 @  12mm, 3 seconds, f/10, handheld, hugging the railing

the elegant universe
barefoot beach, florida
march 10, 2006

"a clear night sky and a little instruction allows anyone to soar in mind and imagination to the farthest reaches of an enormous universe in which we are but a speck. and there is nothing more exhilarating and humbling than that."
      --brian greene, string theorist

the beach was alive with shifting light tonight. clouds became density filters as it splayed across the water and sand in the last arc of the day's descent. it fascinates me, light does. no, really, it inspires me.

as i walked back in the darkness, the three-quarter moon rising in a quiet advance along the line of my right shoulder, i wondered about inspiration. how does it speak to us - find its way into our creative centers? is all art born of inspiration? must you "feel" inspiration before you can translate it?

it reminded me of a long talk with a friend on another continent, in another hemisphere. we dove into string theory that night, and chewed on it until the stars began to fade overhead. what is our understanding of this universe and how we interact/react to and with it? is all energy interconnected by long strings of attractions and collisions, which become ripples - or tears - in the universe?

it is not surprising that most grand theories involve the mathematics of music. the concept of strings was devised to help scientists describe simultaneously both energy and matter. in string theory physics, "strings" are furiously vibrating loops of stuff invisibly present in all things. the frequency and resonance of strings' vibration, just like those of strings on an instrument, determine charge, spin and other familiar properties of energy - and ultimately the structure of the universe: a true music of the spheres.

strings are the only way to describe my inspiration - furiously vibrating loops of "stuff". i know when a shot will be good - i can feel that vibration resonate clear down to my toes.

i walk along, though, and can't help but wonder who or what that vibration visited before it connected with me. and did it collect a snippet of that previous energy form and all the forms before, which was then left behind in me, creating a long, endless chain of perception and interpretation? large questions for such a soft night on the edge of the ocean.

the music of the spheres. furious vibrations. inspiration. time traveling past light years.

the elegant universe.

nikon d100, nikkor 24-120 vr @  120mm, 1/100, f/18

juvenile northern gannet
barefoot beach, florida

northern gannets are not particularly prevelant in southwest florida. while their winter range does bring them in to coastal florida, their numbers have been recorded primarily on the atlantic coast, north of merrill island. this lone juvenile was wet, tired and nearly asleep on the beach at sunset. it looked blown off course and worse for wear. some days are just like that, i think.

breeding in only a few large colonies along the north atlantic, the northern gannet spends most of its life at sea. flocks engage in spectacular bouts of plunge-diving for fish, with hundreds of birds diving into the ocean from heights of up to 40 meters (130 feet).

most plunge-dives are relatively shallow, but the northern gannet can dive as deep as 22 meters (72 feet). it uses its wings and feet to swim deeper in pursuit of fish.

adult gannets have dazzling white plumage except for narrow grey spectacles and jet black, tapering wingtips. during the breeding season, the head and neck assume a delicate saffron yellow tinge. the eyes are an icy blue, and the bill is blue to grey-blue. juvenile gannets reach adulthood in four years.

gannets are closely related to the more tropical boobies who possibly got their name from the fact that they were senseless enough to let hungry sailors walk up to them and hit them over the head.

i suppose there are some days like that, too.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 vr @  330mm, 1/200, f/7.1, spot metering

geranium
bonita shores, florida
march 8, 2006

"to have complete satisfaction from flowers you must have time to spend with them. there must be rapport. i talk to them and they talk to me. "
     --princess grace of monaco

"with a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, i live without envy."
      --lope de vega

the late afternoon often tempts me through my open office door. i have a charmed view, full of birds, water, flowers and trees. sounds drift in like lazy summer afternoon fragrances. and suddenly, over the melodies coming from my computer, i hear bird calls foreign to my yard.

a pair of eagles are in the trees that overhang my canal. in all the years i have lived here, it is the first time they have perched so close. they sing madly to each other. it is a sight and sound to behold, this loud song of love or lust of some other spring condition between them. their great heads glisten white in the late afternoon sun.

thrilled and excited beyond measure, i grab my camera with the long lens and slowly make my way to the dock. the afternoon sun refuses to allow a good shot  - and before i can swing around to another vantage in my neighbor's yard facing east, they are gone.

along the walk back to the office, the geraniums sing their own love song. sometimes, even when you lose, you win.

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 vr @  260mm, 1/400, f/7.1, spot metering

workday sunset
my dock, florida
march 7, 2006

"in nature, light creates the color. in the picture, color creates the light. "
     --hans hoffmann

"one of the great exercises you can do is to stop and acknowledge the colors around you... if you're constantly distracting yourself, then you're never really experiencing anything fully. it can cause you to feel like you have no center, like nothing is grounding you."
     --sheryl crow

"i do that so i can see this."
     --m.e. parker

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 dx @ 17mm, 1.6 seconds, f/16, handheld

soleil in pastels
barefoot beach, florida
march 6, 2006

"i walk ahead of myself in perpetual expectancy of miracles. "
     --anais nin

i walked hard and fast on the beach tonight. the light dared me to find something interesting among the diffuse shadows and highlights. perhaps it was the day, which began with new computer equipment failures and never really picked up from there, but the world seemed painted with muddy light tonight. the sun gave up its own pastels as it sank behind clouds on the horizon.

still, walking back to music filled with steely, over-loud guitars and melodies made for moving, the mid-beach resident flock of birds skittered in the half-darkness as i approached them. their numbers had grown since i passed them before the sun disappeared, and they stretched out in front of me in tightly packed clusters. dozens. giga-dozens. terns, skimmers, and obese, noisy gulls.

i paused. it is reflex, i suppose...that quick thought, "i wonder if i could handhold this one." my mind gambled with good sense for a few good, long moments. sense won and i moved forward, straight through my darlings.

it is near-night at the edge of the ocean and i am walking through a blizzard of birds taking flight around me. wings touch my hair and the salty air is filled with motion and levitation. then, in the instant of a gasp, they are gone, into the sky and the last color of day on the horizon.

"I walk ahead of myself in perpetual expectancy of miracles."

nikon d100, nikkor 80-400 vr @ 400mm, 1/80th, f/18

soft folds
abe lincoln rose
bonita shores, florida
march 3, 2006

"when you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. i want to give that world to someone else. most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. i want them to see it whether they want to or not. "
     --georgia o'keeffe

my garden delivers such gifts, even in the middle of the long work day. a few steps from my desk i find wonders beyond compare. i suppose, because i sell photography, this is technically working. but to me, any stolen moments among my flowers is is nothing more than life's way of saying thank you.

nikon d100, nikkor 60mm micro, 1/20th, f/4

sky warnings
bonita shores, florida
march 3, 2006

"i'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time."
     --emily dickinson

there are a few fortunate times when you can just see a good thing coming. the eastern sky wore a shawl of clouds when i walked to the dock well before sunrise this morning. the splash of mullet in the canal echoed off seawalls and the last of the stars were going dark. i love this time of day. pre-morning. bare feet in wet grass. soft air that is beginning to give up the night.

and the first glow of sunrise proved my determination to wait was wise. pale colors, then fire, began to bloom to the east. long v's of birds flew overhead in the half-darkness, the whisper of their flapping wings carrying promises of a delicious sunrise.

and it was.

there is something that thrills me in the understanding of a brand new day.

nikon d100, nikkor 12-24 dx @ 12mm, 1/10th, f/14

crepuscular rays
barefoot beach, florida
march 2, 2006

"twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star."
     --lucy maud montgomery

orange sherbet glow on the horizon at sunset. light falls hard as the last rays of fire reach high to hold a fingernail moon in the sky. It shines like a star above the western horizon.

as with most nights, i am the last soul on the beach save for tiny shorebirds who flutter as i pass. i watch the light fade, as all things do. these rays of color fascinate me and it's hard to turn up the boardwalk.

crepuscular light rays are actually parallel, but appear to converge to the sun due to "perspective", the same visual effect that makes parallel railroad tracks appear to converge in the distance.

convergence. perspective. light shares many lessons.

nikon d100, nikkor 24-120vr @ 29mm, 1/2.5, f/18