BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – We spent today on the beach. Maria could do this all day every day forever. One day is about the limit for a month or so for me. This a long beach – 7 miles or so. I took off walking with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm lens. Here are three images from the day. Sunset at the Gasparilla Inn beach:
Sunset
The Gasparilla range light. These structures are only called light houses when there is an actual house for a tender to live in. The Gulf of Mexico (and the bay behind the island) are shallow here making navigation tricky for large boats. Three frames stitched.
Gasparilla Range Light
A portion of Maria’s horde of shells from the beach.
GASAPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – Our friend Don Burton (who has introduced us the Gasparilla) took us on a boat ride today, a rare gray and threatening day. There’s an area on the east side of the island that has canals and houses built by boat fanciers. This captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 90mm Elamarit lens.
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – The beach club at the Gasparilla Inn provided a demonstration today by a professional sand castle builder. That’s right. A guy who makes a living on the beach making castles (or whatever) out of sand. Makes the rest of us feel like we’re kind of doing it the hard way. Given that it’s Presidents Day weekend (for those of you outside the US we used to celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays separately, which happen around now, whenever they fell; more recently Presidents Day is celebrated for both of them on a Monday in February, making a three day weekend), a Presidential theme is appropriate.
Our sand castle architect chose an image of a Purple Heart because it incorporates a silhouette of Washington. The Purple Heart is a democratic decoration: it’s given to all who are wounded or killed in action. I received one during my Marine Corps service in Vietnam. It is the only decoration received by most Marines, soldiers and sailors who are killed in action. At the start of the Gulf War I started wearing a Purple Heart lapel pin (which I continue to wear today). I can’t articulate why. It’s with some difficulty that I write these sentences. Anyway, here is the Purple Heart rendered in sand, captured with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.
Purple Heart
On this day two years ago: Vietnam Memorial. I’ve looked back two years here (rather than my usual one) because on February 18, 2010 I photographed my shadow on the Vietnam Memorial (shooting infrared) in DC. The juxtaposition is a coincidence and I understand that it borders on the maudlin.
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – I spent the afternoon looking for non-beach, non-bird, non-sunrise, non-sunset images on this barrier island on the west coast of Florida. As noted in a previous post I’m packing my Sony Nex-7 and a variety of Leica lenses. Today I stuck with the 24mm Summilux, which is roughly the equivalent to a 35mm on the Nex-7 – a good all around focal length. This island is a colorful place so I’ve indulged my typical lack of editorial discipline and included three images:
NEW YORK NEW YORK and GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – We woke up today in New York, boarded a morning flight to Ft. Myer Florida, arrived there and drove to Gasparilla Island in time to be on the beach in the late afternoon. There is a lot of Florida that we don’t much care for but a 1980 legislation has protected Gasparilla from high density development – it’s like Nantucket with palm trees. I took my Sony Nex-7 and a selection of Leica lenses. Here is sunrise in New York (taken with a 135mm APO-Telyt lens) and a sunset on Gasparilla (taken with a 24mm Summilux lens).
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well. Another long day at my day job. I managed to get out for a few minutes and catch this at Lever House with my Sony Nex-7. Not brilliant (the light was flat and ugly today frustrating my attempt to get something decent on the street at sunrise, but it’s a picture and I’ve promised you a picture a day.
NNEW YORK NEW YORK – A busy day of meetings. II got home and still hadn’t taken my picture (except one iPhone image from a meeting but I decided that it would be unprofessional to post it to the web. So I set up my Sony Nex-7 on a tripod in the dark with a wide lens (the 15mm Voigtlander) and did an image of out living room, draped with drop cloths, illuminated only by the light coming through the windows.
