Sit back while I rant...

I went to visit my local park today and I left disgusted. The park has been under renovation for over a year and while there is still a lot of road construction going on, it's basically open to the public again. But it's horrible. What used to be a natural area with lots of trees and grassy areas is now mostly green-roofed pavilions and parking areas.

I have spent countless hours at that park over the years... going to baseball games, taking photos of the lake and wildlife and sometimes just sitting and thinking. 

All of the shoreline in the photo above is gone. I am very sad at this 'development'.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I listened to the news before getting out of bed this morning... I really shouldn't do that, it sets a bad tone for the rest of the day. But on the upside, I met two of my neighbors while I was delivering the trash to the curb this morning. Pete and Sally live behind me and they've lived there for twenty years. I've seen them walking in the neighborhood every morning (rain or shine, hot or cold) but I never knew where they lived. I know that sounds odd and it is. My house is set way back from the street, so waving and saying "Hi" to passers-by doesn't happen. And in the summer, when the leaves are on the trees, I'm even more secluded. I like (love!) the privacy, but it doesn't promote chit-chat over the backyard fences. And although they live directly behind me, the trees block a clear view of their house from mine. But I have noticed them working in their garden over the years.

So... now I know Pete and Sally. :)

Then I went to the park with my IR camera...

wait for it...

I had seen this shot back in March, when I took this photo:

... but I didn't take the time to get it. We were on the same route yesterday and pulled off the highway to get the "8" image.

Meanwhile, I have lots of photos to process from my week traversing the Southeast. I have no shots of oil on the beaches though because while we were there, the oil hadn't reached the Mississippi coast... I doubt it will remain untouched for long.

Meet me in...

Spent a few days in Daytona Beach, Fla, visiting family and meeting the latest addition to the family - Kylie Rae:

We took a slight detour on the way home yesterday, trying to find the Suwannee River  State Park in North Florida/South Georgia. Didn't make it to the park but I found this dirt road with a canopy of trees... very spooky.

leaving a trail of megapixels

The sun was shining and I hadn't shot anything in infrared for a while...

I like infrared... it strips away some of the riff-raff in a scene and lets the good parts stand out. Hmmmm... if we could do that 'in real life'; squint our eyes and see only the good, the positive, the beautiful and let all the negative crap disappear. Ha!

I must confess... when someone tells me they have read my blog, I sorta get the deer-caught-in-the-headlights face. Because what I write here is straight out of my head and heart. I don't write for anyone else. I don't write in this journal to communicate with anyone. I write things down so I will know what I think. (That is from a quote by someone else, but I can't for the life of me remember who).

(Except for the fiction - which at the moment consists only of "The Pen".)

So anyway, that is my disclaimer, the fine print if you will. What you read here is what I think and feel and it's not always pretty or poetic or even grammatically correct.

Other business:
Monte Stevens posted an interesting list - cameras he has owned. So I sat down and compiled my camera history :

Pre-historic: I had an assortment of little 110 pocket-cams and a Polaroid or two.

Minolta SRT 101, film
Pentax P&S, film
Kodak - I can't remember the model, but it was one of the early digitals.
Sony F505
Sony F707 - I still have this camera and I keep it ready for Infrared photography (see photo above).
Fuji S2 Pro
Fuji S3 Pro - probably the best portrait camera ever
Nikon D300
Nikon D700 (current camera and I'm very happy with it)

The earliest photo taken by me, that I still have:



This was taken on a senior class trip to Washington D.C. - I wish I could remember which museum!