Monday, November 11, 2013

Retirement from a formal, everyday-go-to-work career is a life altering event.  It's been five months since I've had to get up at 4:30 AM to prepare, and then drive 50 miles to where I taught for 28 years.  I certainly don't miss the commute, nor the bullshit aspects of the job (that most people have to endure, as well), although I do miss the teaching.  Nor, is it easy to quickly make the transition to creating one's own schedule.  It's very tempting to waste time in indolence and unseemly wallowings, but I'm trying not to.  What I'm not able to abandon, it seems, is the physical clock that tells me to stop sleeping at a very, very early hour.  So, I'm trying to get it in gear before dawn to go where golden hour light illuminates a subject or place that appeals to me visually.  The photograph below is a consequence of a quick change of plan when I realized I wouldn't get to the ocean and be able to set up the camera in time for sunrise.  I remembered this salt-marsh where I had parked once before a long time ago.  I was able to rapidly prepare just as the sun was about to greet the horizon.  After that, for about 15 minutes, there was nothing to witness that wasn't magic!





Leaving the marsh, I drove to Vilano Beach.  The sun was glarey and too high for an easy exposure, but there were clouds.  A few came to my rescue and I was able to make this photograph using the jetty rocks as foreground. Fortuitously, there was water on the nearground rock and the sun brought it to life very successfully.  For any who are interested, this was made with my 45mm lens which must be incredibly well coated to not have flared in direct sun.  Lucky me! lol!!





And finally, this photograph was made just to the left of the one above.  I might not have taken it if it were not for the birds which, I believe, were pelicans.  They are beautiful in flight, and continue to fascinate me as I had never seen them in life until I moved to Florida.



4 comments:

Gail said...

In photo 3, the clouds above the birds resemble a bird :-) Lovely.

John Voss said...

Thank you Gail! And thank you for wading through the ridiculously complex 'security' wall that blogspot continues to confront anyone who wants to comment with. Geez, the comments are moderated by me anyway, so what's the big deal I wonder?

Robert said...

You fall out of bed and make great photos. LOL.

John Voss said...

Thank you, Robert. I do try to not fall out of bed though! ;-)