I've seen Clyde Butcher's photographs in person and on line. They are usually quite dramatic with rich and vivid contrasts. He mentioned that he often uses an orange filter.  Orange is made from red and yellow and creates contrast in monochrome that is not as extreme as red, but a bit more than deep yellow. I realized that I had one and slapped it on my 55mm lens for these images. I like it and will use it more often!! 

I was eager to use my new-to-me Mamiya C330 since I've barely used it at all. It had some unknown film already loaded which I assumed was completely unexposed, but turned out not to be. So, my adventure ended with only six exposures out of the potential twelve. Of those, I was only happy with these four. I've now loaded the thing with a roll of Ilford Delta 100 all ready for another foray when the weather and sky are inviting!  

This large pond in Deerwood has been a camera lure for me several times.  Today was really, really cold and not very appealing weather to take photographs, but there I was, so I did!  At least I was dressed for it with a pea coat and wool cap which I brought from New York, but vary rarely wear here in Florida. 

Here are some views from the little memorial park under the Dames Point Bridge. I photographed the memorials this park commemorates in 2023....the sinking of the El Faro container ship with all 33 of its crew, officers and captain. This visit, though, was just to enjoy the views and gorgeous light. 

I went to Cedar Point once again convinced I could see some part of it in a new way.  I did.  This group includes the road out of the boat launch area, several trees from a little distance, and the boat launch area itself and the approach road. 

I had never seen an Angel Trumpet plant until moving to Florida.  Their flowers are quite striking on a warm summer day especially when they're dewy. But, when that season is long gone and there's been a freeze, they are no  longer the least bit angelic...more bedeviled I think.😉 Here are two photographs of the poor things on a cold dreary day in January! 

If you're not familiar with the way these flowers look at their best, here is an example of one of the plants above in better days!   

I rarely take pictures with my phone, but I did this evening since I had no time to get my 'real' camera and tripod. As I got out of my car in the driveway I saw this, It's not as razor sharp as I would have preferred it to be, but hey...it's a phonecam! ;)

Last April I took this photograph and posted it here. I looked at it again today and decided to make a better presentation of it. It often seems to me that, apart from ocean views, Florida's trees and skies are it's greatest visual assets. 

I'm pretty sure these are the last of the Hiawassee trip photographs I will post here. One is, again, a view from our cabin's porch, and the other is from a park in Young Harris.  

And probably the last two images from our Hiawassee trip are of the Little Tennessee River gorge. It's quite breathtaking in person!

Another two images from our Hiawassee trip...these were of a tree at the bottom of a very steep dirt road that had a few vestigial leaves I wanted to photograph before they surrendered to gravity.

 

Our cabin in Hiawassee, Georgia had one gorgeous view that I photographed as often as there were changes that wanted to be remembered.  Here are two of those from the deck of our cabin and the dirt road that brought us there.  

Susan and I and our poodle, Jax, take at least one trip north to the mountains of Georgia and or North Carolina every year.  This year's adventure was enjoyable albeit not quite as scenic as we'd hoped. On our last day, we visited a park in Young Harris, and Cupid Falls (probably named in acknowledgement of some college kids' canoodling.)  Here are three from that trip. 

After having been away from Boneyard Beach for a while, I went back yesterday intending to experiment with certain filters. A Red 25 A darkens blue skies a great deal which makes contrast with white clouds more pronounced and an ND (neutral density) filter can lengthen exposure enough to smooth even mildly turbulent water. Here are several from my visit. 

It's a given that photographs preserve the way a place or thing looked at the time it is photographed.  It is somewhat less of a given that it can also convey and reanimate the way a place felt.  These several images do just that for me!  I have visited and photographed at Marineland beach several times before yesterday, but it has been quite a while...I even got slightly lost finding my way there. Here are six of the ten film exposures I made. 

Three more: