Close to home

With the new pup, I’m still staying close to home for my photo hikes. No matter what the shelter chicks said, Asta is NOT housebroken so we’re in that “watching-her-like-a-hawk-in-case-she-squats” phase, and since she is still hobbling around on her injured leg, I can’t take her with me on long walks… yet. Hopefully, soon she can join Herhsey and me on the trail. May not get much photoging done, but we’ll have fun.

This weekend, little league tryouts began and I walked around the recreation park snapping away. I also got to the beach for an amazing sunset. The waves, for around here, were pretty cool too.

You can click on any image to see a larger photo, or the series as a slideshow.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City

Sunset moon

There’s an art to sunset watching. It’s more than just waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon. It’s staying to watch what happens after that, and it’s knowing to sometimes turn around. The view east, can be as beautiful as the one to your west.

The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.” ~ Frederic Lawrence Knowles

Submitted to Skywatch Friday, Season 6: Episode 30

*Photo venue: Maxwell-Gunther Recreation Area, foot of Mid-Bay Bridge near Destin, FL.

My own backyard

This seemed to be the longest week ever. By Saturday, I was exhausted, and I didn’t actually do much of anything. Being a slug, apparently, is hard work. I still got up early and went for a photo hike, only I stayed in town. I made a lap at our local nature boardwalk. It’s a mile long, so I had a good walk, and found some fun surprises.

I happened on a trio of turtles sunning themselves on a submerged tree limb. The photo doesn’t do them justice. It’s hard to get a decent perspective, but they were huge. The largest of the three had a neck and head as big as my forearm and fist.

Earlier in the week, I visited the beach a couple of times while on errands. It’s snowbird time here on the Gulf, but that flock of gulls is not what that means.

There was also a moment of zen during a recent sunset. It was while I was enjoying the evening light show, that the Mister texted me to let me know our application to adopt a sweet, miniature Lab was approved. Hopefully we can bring our newest fur kid home next weekend.

You can click on any image to see a larger photo, or the series as a slideshow.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City

Supernova

Leaving behind the supernova that is you – overwhelming, exhausting – I’m burning alive in the wake of your eruptions. Distance my ally, a new beginning light years away, I seek shelter in the gloaming.

Trifextra challenge this weekend is: 33 words about a new beginning

Fracking

Peel away my brittle crust, shards cracking along fault lines, exposing a vulnerable underbelly, sore and raw. Delve too deep and my molten core erupts, scorching all in its path, an unquenchable force.

The weekend Trifextra challenge:
the structure of the earth can be divided most simply into three sections: core, mantle, crust. Give 33 words, interpreting the prompt literally, metaphorically, or somewhere in between.

Curtain call

In the winter, it seems that sunsets are more vivid, more surreal. What many people don’t realize though, is that once the sun drops below the horizon, when you think the floor show is over, if they only stay a little longer, the curtain call happens.

Like many things in life, it’s not only the superficial that’s important, but what lies beneath, what follows after, that can be just as spectacular.

Just wait, the best is yet to come…

Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven.” ~ John Lubbock

Submitted to Skywatch Friday, Season 6: Episode 26

Bag of bones

This weekend I headed back to the Boneyard. It was cold and windy, and it felt like a driftwood sort of day.

I got a late start on my hike Saturday, so I stayed at the beach for sunset. It seems that the colder it is, the more brilliant the skies.

Aside from the relics scattered along the beach, I like this venue because it’s part of the nearby Eglin Air Force Base reservation. A permit is required to even be there. That cuts down on the number of people I may encounter. I think in all the time I’ve been living in the area, I’ve only seen one other person there. I was feeling anti-social and left without getting out of my car. I’m friendly like that…

It’s not that I’m truly anti-social, but it seems that if you’re at the beach taking photos with anything other than a tiny point-n-shoot, or smartphone, then you’re a magnet for sketchy people… chambray and khaki clad families, blue-haired snowbirds seeking a pet photographer, or nosy people who apparently have never seen a tripod and want to touch and breath all over my stuff. So, yeah… I prefer solitude, or at least personal space.

I’m trying something new, so please let me know how you like this feature… for this week’s photo hike I’m presenting the shots in a gallery. You can click on any image to see a larger photo, or the series as a slideshow.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City