The Ohio River

Late last summer while I was in Huntington attending my high school reunion, I went with my sister to have dinner at a restaurant located near the river. Actually it was ON the river but I didn't realize that until we were seated and preparing to order. As we were looking at the beautiful view of the river, a boat approached and we began to rock. I looked at my sister, who was talking on the cell to my California sister, with a look of panic. As she continued to talk, I jumped up and went to the bar to ask why we were rocking. The bartender looked at me like I was nuts and explained that we were on a barge. Okay, I admit it, we did walk on a plank to enter the restaurant, but I didn't get it. Although I loved the view, I just can't have dinner on something that moves when a boat zooms by causing the diners to grab their wine and hope the flounder doesn't land on your lap! Besides, I HATE boats!

Fortunately, I had my camera with me and I was able to convince my sister to go with me to take a few quick shots. This is the actual view.

This image was changed to sepia, giving it an older, more vintage look. Notice the boat in the background? I think it takes away from the story of the image. I wanted the focus to be on the three guys fishing...so in the next image, I removed it.

I added a filter to the next image. It has a kind of faded look. I'm not liking it. The image below retains some of the color, but still has a filter. I like it, but still like the original one best. I'll just keep experimenting.

By the way, we had dinner several hours later, downtown. That is, after my sister had an encounter with another driver...he should never have honked. It's a long story. I told her I wouldn't tell.

Leading Lines

Last weekend, Tom and I went to the beach. Tom went to party and I went to shoot. As soon as we arrived on Friday, I dropped him off at a restaurant to meet some friends, and I hit the road to begin my adventure. I love trying to get different shots of the beach. I mean, how many different shots can you get?

To add a little pressure to this adventure, my photography instructor assigned different types of composition for us to experiment with. Yes, I'm taking another class. Every time I take a photography class, I learn something new. The instructors focus on their expertise and that makes it interesting. Some are more nuts and bolts and some are more creative. This instructor is a combination of both. He brings a lot of humor into the instruction and makes it fun. Back to the assignment. I chose to work on leading lines. The concept is for the line to draw the eye into the scene. Here's the first shot.

I've taken this shot several times. There are millions of lines in this shot, so I wanted to get closer and get more of a side view. Well, when I did that, I looked over the side and look what I found.

Oops! Nevermind. Not wanting to disturb anyone and really wanting to stay alive, I quickly decided to change my location and move on down the beach. I tiptoed to the car and drove south towards Myrtle Beach, hoping to have time to get to Litchfield or Pawley's Island. In addition to looking for leading lines, I was also looking for beach letters. (See blog dated January 28 to see what I'm talking about.) As I was driving south on Ocean Boulevard, I spotted this hotel near Windy Hill. It was colorful and yes, it had leading lines. I also saw the reflection of the sky and clouds in the windows. It would have been great to get the ocean in the reflection, but I would have had to have a crane to swing on, or perhaps a high-rise and a very, very, expensive camera lens. So for now, I'm happy with the clouds.

Continuing down Ocean Boulevard, I approached an area where the Ocean Forest Hotel was located many years ago. After the hotel was demolished a walking path and a small park were built. There are two small beach huts on the same property and I guess during the season they sell drinks, snacks, etc. Attached to one of the huts, in the back facing the ocean, is a staircase with a sign posted. And, yes, it has leading lines. It's a joke. As far as I know there is no nude bathing in Myrtle Beach. At least not while you're sober.

I didn't make it to Litchfield on Friday, but I did go on Saturday. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and there were only a few people walking on the beach. Maybe because it was so darn cold!

In a few weeks, we'll be back at the beach. Hopefully, it will be warmer, there will be little or no breeze, no one will be walking on the beach, the sea oats will be green, and the new beach fences will have aged a little. I'm not asking for much.

Beach Letters

I've been working on a new project for the next art show. I "borrowed" the idea from a company that does the same thing except they use architecture for letters and the images are in black and white. Mine will be in color and I will use images from the beach for my letters. That's the challenge. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This was the first one. Obvious. Stay with me.

After the idea hit, I began looking through a zillion folders filled with images I have taken over the past ten years or so. It's kinda like, "where's Waldo?" except it's "where's the B?" I have looked at palm trees, rocks, piers, signs, benches, umbrellas, cottages, and even sand.

This one popped out of nowhere. It's not as obvious, but you can still figure it out.

Just in case you didn't get it, it's an i.

The last one for this post was cropped from an image I took at the gulf. It's also obvious. These were the easy ones.

This is what they will look like after they are matted and framed.

Again, for those of you who are beach letter challenged, it's a t, o, m. Get it?

So to sum this up, I have found the following letters: t,o,m,h,i,and p. It's apparent that I need your help. The next time you go to the beach, preferably Myrtle Beach, please find the following letters: a,b,c,d...Take a picture and email it to me. I'll give you ten percent of my sales. Trust me.

Everyone Needs A Thank You

I must admit that this title was not my idea. My sister, Janie, the one who went with me to Art in the Park, thought of it. As she was watching people enter my tent and going straight for the cards, she told me that we should move the cards to the front of the tent where prospective buyers would have to trip over them. Anything to make a sale! She also added that I needed to make a cutsy sign giving people ideas as to why they should buy the notecards. That night in the hotel, I made the sign and it worked! Will wonders ever cease. Janie should have been in merchandising or maybe even a think tank. She does that a lot, think, not merchandise.

As friends see my cards, some of them ask me to do a set for them. I absolutely love to do them, especially when they give me an old picture that I can enhance with my magic wand. Some call it Photoshop. The card pictured below is one of my friend Debbie and her friend on a lake in Michigan. I used a sepia tone with fancy edges. It makes it look even older than it is.

I used this shot in an earlier post and then made it into a card. This was a shot of our neighborhood gang. It was probably taken in the early 50's. What a motley crew we were.

I've sold several sets of personalized golf shots for Christmas gifts recently. I'll show them in my next post.

Stay tuned.

The Same, But Different

Somewhere I heard the quote, "Sometimes I just sit and think, and sometimes I just sit." How about, "Sometimes I just fish and think and sometimes I just fish"? I can't remember where I heard it. It was probably more than 30 years ago, and it's just now coming out of my head.

I saw the man in the bottom image last week in Florida. He reminded me of an image I took two years ago on the Mediterranean coast of Italy. Wonder if they were fishing and thinking or just fishing.

Santa Rosa, Ventimiglia, so far apart, so much alike. Deep.

It Never Rains in California, But It Does in Florida

Here we are at Santa Rosa Beach in Florida. Gloria and I drove down here to the gulf on Monday.We were invited by Evelyn to come and spend a few days at her new beach house. The three of us used to work in the same county...all of us school administrators- Evelyn, high school (left), Gloria, middle school (right), and me, elementary. We became good friends when we had to go on those awful administrative retreats where among other things, the top dogs tried their best to motivate us.

Even though it has rained every day, we have managed to get to the beach every evening for happy hour.

Because of the rain, we've had plenty of time to explore the area. This is my first trip to the gulf, so this is all new to me. In the past three days, we have been to Seaside, Watercolor, Blue Mountain, Destin and Rosemary Beach. The image above is the house from the movie, Truman, located in Seaside. I took lots of shots of the houses in the area..really cute...reminds me a little of those houses on Balboa Island.

One final shot of the beach. Going home tomorrow. Had a great time. Thanks, Evelyn!

sand is not my friend

I didn't realize how good I had it shooting under the pier. Sure, the people were starting to drive me crazy, but at least I was in the shade, out of the sun and out of the wind. I had done all I could do under the pier...it was time to change locations.

After packing the equipment in the car, I drove south towards Ocean Drive. I love this site because of its accessibility and the beautiful vista. The dunes are smooth and the fence is sturdy and still standing. Having a sturdy fence was important because it had to support the golf bag with lots of clubs.

I've taken shots of golf clubs before. My California sister, Janie, gave me the idea when she accompanied me to last October's Art in the Park. Because Myrtle Beach has hundreds of golf courses, she thought tourists and even locals would be interested in purchasing images that had ANYTHING to do with golf. She was right.

For this shoot I had more clubs and a bag....a very old and stained bag. Stan, a friend of mine whom I've known since college, lent me the bag and the clubs after much begging. It took a lot of effort on his part because he had to send them from Richmond. Of course, I, the stupid girl who knows nothing, wanted him to bring them with him on his next fight to Atlanta. It sounded logical to me, but he would rather pack them with nasty cloths to keep them from breaking, in a make-shift box that looked like its previous use had been to transport cow manure. I'm being kind. Let's just say it was obvious they weren't packed by FedEx.

This shoot had more challenges. It took me a little longer to get set up because of the extra equipment. The sun was much brighter and it was windy. One more thing, people were everywhere. I took over 40 shots, trying to take them between the masses taking their perfunctory morning walk. Looking at the image on the left, you can tell I wasn't fast enough.

They say patience is a virtue..I got the shot!

I tried to get creative in the later shots. It was important to show the wooden shafts and the names on some of the heads. The names of the drivers were, thistle, dundee irons, and niblick (made in Scotland) and the wooden driver was a H.J. Vallette. My instructions were not to clean the clubs...it seems that would affect their value. No problem, you don't have to tell me twice!

Here are two tips for shooting on the beach on a sunny, windy day. Tip #1. Because I was shooting in the sun, I used a new device called the Hoodman HoodLoupe Professional. If you have taken shots in the sun, you know how hard it is to see your results in the LCD monitor. This enables you to see your shot by placing the device on top of the LCD monitor. It sure beats using your hand or trying to find a shady spot. Tip #2. Keep your camera backpack closed. I had to learn that the hard way. It looked like a monsoon had hit the beach. I'm still picking sand out of the compartments. The good thing is that I didn't need to change the lens, so at least I didn't get sand in the camera or in the other lens. Speaking of changing lenses, Tip #3. comes from my guru, Tom in North Carolina. It's not limited to shooting on the beach, it's for anywhere, anytime. He says, "Changing lenses is no problem at all..just set the camera up on the tripod, then change the lens one at a time...just have the cap in hand then press the release button....." My problem with changing lenses is having only two hands. I can take the lens off with one hand and put the cap on with the other one. At that point the camera is lensless (my new word). Stuff can fly in the body at that time, so I have to be fast. So I bend over, keeping one hand on the body of the camera as I put the lens in the bag and get the other one out. This is a real problem if I follow tip #2. and keep the camera backpack closed. Like Tom said, "just a little pre-planning does the trick in most cases." I've got to remember that.