Saturday, October 31, 2015

I may have posted this a few years ago, I don't remember, and don't feel like scrolling back that far to check   I just rediscovered it among some files, and thought it pertinent to the series I seem to be accumulating about the ocean, marshes, and swamps in this area.  How trees end up this twisted and gnarly is a mystery to me.   (Film)






Thursday, October 29, 2015

The beach has become my Zen garden... a daily cycle of renewal that holds no memory of itself yesterday, nor any inkling of itself tomorrow.  Though these words were meant differently,  I think they also lend themselves to this theme  (Film)

  "...of course you are not finished
   how can you be finished
   when the morning begins again
   or the moon rises..."

An excerpt from the poem, to the book,  in, The Lego Poem by W. S. Merwin









Tuesday, October 27, 2015

There are a lot of these flooded cedar swamps around here.  Fortunately, this was by the side of the road and didn't require slogging into the water wearing snake boots.  This is one of the rare instances where I might have preferred a color image as the leaves were yellow and really stood out against the dark water.  But, this is what I got, and I like it well enough.   (Film)



Monday, October 26, 2015

On my way to the place I photographed in my previous post, I passed this scene.  I turned the car around and came back quickly....didn't want to lose the sun on the water.  (Film)



Sunday, October 25, 2015

As I now have an annual pass to Florida state parks, I feel compelled to visit those nearby as often as I can. I made this yesterday at Little Talbot Island SP when the tide was nearly all the way out. As swimming is discouraged, and fishermen gravitate to other places, it's often nearly deserted,  I did, however,  meet some nice people who had an interest in photography which was an unexpected bonus.  The strand is quite large at low tide, and the feeling of solitude is magnified by the vast expanse.  (Film)



Thursday, October 22, 2015

It's not always about the ocean here; sometimes it's about the marshes too!   I've photographed at Pumpkin Point Preserve before, but there's never been as much wind as there was yesterday which made the otherwise dreary Spanish Moss a much more dynamic element.  (Film)


 

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Well, back to the beaches.  Inland?...not so much.  (Film)






Friday, October 16, 2015

It is spectacularly easy to make a decent photograph around here if you're at the beach or the marshes.  But, away from them,  Florida forests are much more difficult and present a very different challenge than the boreal woods I've been used to for nearly all my life.  The light is often very harsh, and the undergrowth is cluttered and more difficult to penetrate.  But, I make the demand to myself that there is ALWAYS something in my own backyard that's visually compelling even if it's littered with junk (which, happily, it isn't).  This photograph attempts, using Photoshop Elements 11, to futz with the negative scan enough to make an image I don't hate. I'm at a loss to figure out what I'd do with it in the darkroom, but that's a problem to solve later...namely, when the damn darkroom is finished being set up!!  (Film)



Monday, October 12, 2015

Sometimes less is more in photographs, too.  (Film)



Sunday, October 11, 2015

I hope there's never a tax on the appropriation of cloud images in Florida.  It's the coin of the realm here.  The land is one huge, flat sand bar, but the sky is one huge melodrama more often than not.  Here's one from yesterday.  I was nearly hit by a car when crossing the road to this beach.  Partly my fault for being oblivious, but the damn driver didn't even try to brake.  At least, he is safe from zombies as he clearly has no brain at all!  Nothing to munch on....not a whit.   (Film)



Saturday, October 10, 2015

Here's one more from Anastasia SP from my Thursday trip there.  I love the little vines that act like leading lines.  And, just for silly, the sand goblin was photographed in mid dance yesterday at Big Talbot Island SP.    (Film)





Friday, October 9, 2015

The state parks in Florida I'm now familiar with are really beautiful and remain 'wild'.  Yesterday I bought a year's pass and expect to get waaaay more than my money's worth.  The photographs below are from my first visit to Anastasia SP in St. Augustine.  (Film, 25 A red filter)





Tuesday, October 6, 2015

I returned to Alpine Groves Park again yesterday with the same camera as my last post, but with fresh film.   There is a dramatic difference in the negatives on the fresh from the 14 year's expired batch.  But, once scanned and fixed up in Photoshop, those differences are muted.  I won't go back there again for a while, because I'll just be likely to rephotograph what I've done already.   (Film)