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A Familiar Scene

Here is another shot of a familiar scene along the Ringling Bridge in Sarasota. I posted a similar image from the same batch about a year ago, but this uses a different lens and processing. Nevertheless, it’s a scene and a location that I keep coming back to time and time again.

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A Familiar Scene
The Sarasota Bay along side of the Ringling Bridge

Sarasota Bay is an estuary and if you stand here you’ll see dolphins and other sea life. It’s under the stewardship of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program and if you visit their home page you notice another photo by yours truly. Due to the abundant sea life it’s a fishermen’s paradise and less than a hundred yards from where I’m standing is a bait shop. I could think if worse places to fish, …if I did.

more sunset images

If I didn’t do photography I’d have to fish, it’s kind of a requirement down here, everybody does it. Sometimes I’ll show up at a location by the water with a tripod in hand and fishermen will just assume it’s a fishing poll. But as I said I don’t fish, I take photos. If I need fish I get it the old-fashioned way, …from the supermarket.

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Old Church in Ucluelet

A couple of years ago I was in the small fishing village of Ucluelet, British Columbia. In the center of town on a hill, I noticed this old church that seems to be in need of a paint job. Its rustic appearance piqued my interest and I took a photo that I haven’t processed until now.

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Old Church in Ucluelet
This easily overlooked church is on a hill in the center of town

The reason I waited so long is that the church is actually obscured by all kinds of wires. What I did was to use Photoshop to remove all of the wires. Because there were so many it took me hours of detailed work to get this image. To get a sense of what the scene really looked like, take a look at this image from Google Maps.

more images from Canada

For me, I prefer the version without the wires. I know it’s not real, but I do these things because it resonates with me as I look for an aesthetic amongst the chaos. I think the image is more interesting now, even though it’s not completely real. And besides, the process of removing the wires was almost like a meditation on removing complexity. There is probably a nugget of wisdom in there somewhere.

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Empty Beach After Sunset

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Empty Beach After Sunset
This is what an empty beach looks like on Anna Maria Island

A couple of nights ago I headed down to the beach and just after sunset when most of the people had left. As I was driving towards the beach most of the traffic was in the opposite direction. Parking was super easy and I had the whole place to myself.

more beach photos

This is what an empty beach looks like on Anna Maria Island. It’s not something I see too often so I took this shot to remind myself of it the next time I come here and can’t find a parking spot.

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The Divide

This is a picture I took this last summer of the street I live on. Now it’s cooler and as I look this I think of those warmer months. But to be perfectly honest, summer is hot as hell and the cooler weather is a nice change.

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The Divide
This street divides the urban from the wild

On the left is a row of townhouses where I live. On the right is open land that is a little wild and not yet developed. The street in the middle divides the urban from the wild. I look out the upper window and see nature just doing its thing.

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Out there are all manner of wild animals. I’ve seen eagles, fox, coyote, and alligator to name a few. They all live literally within a stone’s throw; right over the fence. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that wildlife can live so close to our urban setting. If your someone like me that loves animals, I tend to worry about them and wonder how long they can hold out. My fingers are crossed.

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The Line Across the River

This is a spot I like to photograph. There are a lot of reasons but the main one is that the tracks form a leading line across the river. We are drawn to leading lines because they provide a sense of movement and direction. For some reason that’s important to us at an instinctual level.

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The Line Across the River
The line across the Manatee River in Bradenton

Maybe the rules of photography are based on some primal desire for survival. If that’s true it’s an interesting idea and, all the more reason to break the rules once in a while. That might mean considering compositions that will not lead us back to safety.

more from bradenton

I know I’m drawing a long bow, but writing about photos as I do forces me to think about these things. Let’s just say I do more than my fair share of introspection. In the end, I would really prefer to just get out and take pictures and worry about the intellectual stuff later. Or, not worry at all.

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West Coast Sand

This boardwalk crosses over the dunes to Nokomis beach. Whenever you go to the beach here along the gulf coast you see these walkways. They protect the dunes which in turn protect the islands during storms. I like how they appear to provide a grand entrance to the beach.

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West Coast Sand
West coast sand in Florida is similar to white powder

The sand at the beaches around here is a fine white silica, almost like powder. I’m not aware of any other beaches that have this type of sand. My car has black floor boards and the white powdery sand gets all over it. When I was in the Caribbean I learned a trick from a local tour guide. That is, to keep a brush in the car to brush the sand from my feet before getting in. Not that sand is a big problem, but I’m a bit of a neat freak so little tricks help.

more gulf coast photos

The sand on the east coast of Florida is completely different. The first time I walked along the beach in Fort Lauderdale I was amazed at how hard it was. Your feet sink six inches with every step making any long walk a real chore. This west coast sand is much easier to walk on. Anyway, that’s probably way more that you ever wanted to know about sand.

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Design Museum of Barcelona

This is one side of the Design Museum of Barcelona (Museu del Disseny de Barcelona). I was lucky to have been stranded in Barcelona for a few days and just happen to get a hotel right next door to this. While the city has more than enough ancient architecture, it is also a center for modern design and architecture that, beginning with Antonio Gaudi, spans the full breadth of imagination.

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Design Museum of Barcelona
Design Museum of Barcelona I took while stranded in Barcelona

On the day that I took the clouds reflected on the windows of the building creating this unusual effect. This is an example of why I am just happy to walk around with a camera; unexpected things will appear all around.

more architecture photography

I can get hyper-focused on small details and so I try to be aware of that with this particular type of photography. For instance, I might look at the shapes of the windows and miss the clouds reflected in them. Sometimes it takes a little effort to see interesting compositions right in front of me. Nevertheless, just by getting out and looking around it usually happens, like this, in unexpected ways.

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Bean Point

This is from Bean Point on Anna Maria Island. It’s a beach with no parking and a little hike. It’s a sanctuary of sorts; aside from the solitude there are various types of wildlife that find refuge here including colonies of skimmers. But of course, come with my camera for the sunsets and to walk the beach.

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Bean Point
Bean Point on Anna Maria Island

It’s easy to walk around the point and on the other side is the Rod and Reel Pier which is a local favorite for fishing or a blackened grouper sandwich. The area is so low key you might think you were in the tropics somewhere.

more beach photos

I took this over two years ago, but when I go back today it looks the same. Not much changes here and if you are into a slower pace of life then this where you want to be. Actually, all of Anna Maria Island is a slower pace than the mainland and Bean Point (at least for me) is the best example of it. It’s a good place to go and forget for a spell.

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An Afternoon Thunderstorm Dissipates over the Water

I took this from Palmetto Florida one evening last summer. There is a lot going on in the sky as an afternoon thunderstorm dissipates over the water. I needed a panorama to capture the expansiveness of the sky. It’s made up of ten photos in two rows so there is a lot more to see than I would get from an ordinary photo.

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An Afternoon Thunderstorm Dissipates over the Water
An Afternoon Thunderstorm Dissipates over the Water

This image is a good representation of what it’s like here in summer. You look one way and it looks dark and ominous, you look another way and it’s a nice sunset. That’s why I used a panorama, so we can see in both directions.

more panoramas in the gallery

But in reality, panoramas are the predecessors of 360 images. With your browser or a VR viewer you can look in any direction. I like still pictures because of the creativity I can put into them. VR is a different thing altogether but they each have their place. Maybe one day all photos will be VR, wouldn’t that be interesting?

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The Most Photographed Bridge in the World

This may be the most photographed bridge in the world, that or possibly the Brooklyn Bridge. Nevertheless, every time I approach it I feel the need to take a photo. Never mind there may ten thousand photos of it taken that day, I still have to take my own. Is that crazy or what?

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The Most Photographed Bridge in the World
The Most Photographed Bridge in the World is the Golden Gate Bridge

Since cameras merged with cell phones we’ve become a photo-obsessed society. We see something that moves us in some way and we snap a picture. It’s as though we are creating an infinitely rich record of everything we see. Imagine if we combined all photos ever taken into some kind of database. Companies like Google are already laying that foundation so maybe it’s just a matter of time.

more from San Francisco

Anyway, this is one of many millions of photos of this bridge. Even knowing that I’m still moved when I see it and feel the need to take a picture. And if I’m lucky this image will be added to that great big database in the sky.