The calm face of the water asked me for a kiss.
Nestled along the northeastern coast of Florida, Talbot Island State Park harbors a hauntingly beautiful boneyard beach. Visitors would find the famed stretch of shoreline— a stark and mesmerizing landscape strewn with the arboreal remains that the relentless Atlantic has sculpted over the years to create a ghostly forest of fallen oak and cedar trees. These weathered sentinels, once proud giants of the maritime forest, now lie scattered across the beach like the discarded bones of mythical creatures.
Solvitur Ambulando: It is solved by walking.
Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my pre-visualization begin to flow. I went out for a photo-walk recently. Clouds partially covered the morning sun, turning it into a giant beauty dish with a diffuser. This transformation created soft yet punchy light that gently wrapped around all the objects in its path. Shadows, when present, were soft. The pastel colors were subtle.
Remembering Memento Mori on a Misty Morning.
We are alive. We are not dead fish. Live lively lives, pursue passionate projects, foster fervor, experience events, and express yourself earnestly. Life is short. Entropy prevails.
On this misty morning, a man and his dog crossed the Tolomato River and then disembarked onto the floating deck attached to the Vilano Beach Pier. It could have been Charon on the River Styx landing on the dock in Hades. He wasn’t; it wasn’t; it wasn’t. It was an unnamed man on the Tolomato River in St. Augustine.
Mindful Morning photo-walk.
In a mindful morning photo walk I can combine exercise, attention-retraining, and my avocation in one activity. persistently shifting scenes provide plenty of picture-making opportunities, even in oft-visited neighborhoods. And what a relief it is! What a blessing! Same place, in different lighting conditions, and due to ever-varying weather, becomes new. One needs not to travel to exotic destinations to seek new adventures and find photogenic scenes. Walking during early mornings also ensures solitude. As I walk, with my Hasselblad around my neck and a Leica slung over my shoulder, I scan what's around me to find serendipitous new relations between elements of composition, even when visiting familiar sites.
Photowalk around St Augustine
Photowalk around the very scenic St Augustine.
Hasselblad CFV II 50C/907X, 30/3.5 | Leica Q2 Monochrom
A glorious city in the sea.
I spent a week in Venice in March. Its my favorite city to walk with or without my cameras. A poem by Samuel Rogers perfectly frames the narrative arc of the images. The series ends with a faux-Venus statue in a storefront.
Regrowth | Guana River Wildlife Management Area
Hiking in Guana River Wildlife Management Area, I came across charred tree-trunks and underbrush due to the controlled burn, underwater trail, new growth, and the reflections of colorful trees in the water. I was reminded of the poem by Phillip Larkin:
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
I used a Hasselblad CFVII 50C/907X with an XCD 30/3.5 to capture these images.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind
“Ice strangles oldest city,” the St Augustine Record proclaimed twenty-three years ago on December 24, 1989. The temperatures with windchill plummeted to below zero to -20 degrees in Fahrenheit. That day bridges in the area, except the Vilano bridge, closed. There were so many accidents on the ice-covered county roads and I-95 that FHP ran out of people to handle and count them. The night shift had already been called in by 3 PM on Saturday.
The Morning of the 24th of 2022 came close. There was no ice on the roads, and all bridges remained open. Traffic did not stop. Bitter cold wind chill forced down the mercury to 13 degrees Fahrenheit. Residents covered the yard plants in varying materials to ward off the cold-induced death, turned the heat on, and stayed indoors. Tourists and residents alike deserted sites that customarily are bustling.
Here is Okefenokee swamp, full of pathless, seamless, peerless mud.
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is so unique that it is on the list to become a World Heritage Site. It contains 353,981 acres of National Wilderness Area within its expansive boundaries and is home to the headwaters of both Suwannee and St Mary’s rivers and the Okefenokee Swamp.
If at Matanzas Inlet to the northeast ye standing be, the beauteous painted heavens up high o’er the bay, you’ll see.
The same hurricane that devastated communities and shattered lives also intensified and recolored the sunset’s palette. Mother Nature is a supreme artist creating one masterpiece after another. She occasionally throws tantrums, rips the canvasses, discards the brushes, and storms away, huffing and puffing. When enraged, she furiously scowls at human hubris. Once her foul mood blows over, she restarts her oeuvre.
Of sunstars and reflections in the woods
The start of my first hike on this trail felt like inhabiting the famous scene of Akira Kurosawa's movie Rashomon, where the woodcutter walks through the woods. Instead of an axe on the shoulder – like Takashi Shimura (the woodcutter) – I walked carrying a sturdy tripod angled at 45 degrees over my left shoulder.
Oh, the things you will see in 1.5 miles walk in St Augustine.
Another blessed day!
Today is my image-making day.
I am off to great places at the crack of dawn.
I am out of a warm and comfortable bed. Eager, I am off and away!
I have pre-visualized images in my head.
I have eager feet in my Teva shoes.
I can walk north or south, east or west.
On my own, I know how to walk, talk, presumably listen, look, and see.
I look at the lion, steadfast, guarding the bridge, and that's not what I will photograph today.
I turned away and walked to the tower where guards control the drawbridge out yonder.
Of condensation on windows.
I see condensation, and it makes me smile. It is a transformation – gas to a liquid, and it also transforms – vapor into liquid. It is a change – from a gaseous state into liquid form. It changes the surfaces on which condensation resides and the surfaces on which it forms. The windowpane, the car’s windshield, the can of soda, glasses in spectacles, and the camera lens, among others, are all changed. It also changes the objects that we see through it. Condensation on the camera lens and fogged glasses imbue images we capture or see with a dreamy glow
St Augustine Marina at sunrise
St Augustine Municipal Marina offers 96 slips for vessels up to 200 feet and 100 moorings and has facilities for both sail and power boats. It is very photogenic, and I often go there to make photographs. You can see the St Augustine skyline and unique views of the Bridge of Lions. I used a Hasselblad 907X 50C anniversary kit with an XCD 3.5/30 for this series.
Vilano Beach Morning Walk
I took my new Hasselblad 907X 50c Anniversary Edition to the gorgeous Vilano beach for a spin. Here are a few images from this walk.
Empty Chairs in St Mark Square in Venice
Empty Chairs in St Mark Square: I was intrigued by vacant spaces – spaces that I certainly had not seen without hordes of people. The strongest presence in these images was what was absent from them.
TRIPTYCH and more at the Bridge of Sighs in Venice.
Bridge of Sighs in Venice evokes feelings of anguish and hopes of escape. I thought of these emotions in a tercet and communicated my interpretation via a triptych. This blog post discusses how I sketched my way to that.
St Augustine Morning
St Augustine Florida glowed in morning light. I started taking images of the Bridge of Lions before sunrise – during the blue hour – and then continued once the sun rose above the horizon.
Vilano Beach Long Exposures
Testing Lee SW150 Filter system on a 17mm Tilt Shift lens on Vilano Beach. I used a 10-Stop ND “Big-Stopper” to make long exposures.
The Rialto Bridge at Dawn.
In 1588-1591, Venetian architect Antonio da Ponte combined the form and function, the grace and dignity, with strength and permanence to rebuild the beautiful Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal.