Diagonal

Merry Christmas

My annual christmas photo of one of my wives Christmas decorations. I believe this my 13th year.

Wishing all a wonderful holiday and a safe and productive new year!

Christmas lights

 A bit over the top but impressive in person. This home was part of ABCs Great Christmas Light Fight program this year and is located near where I now live. They did not win but I did enjoy a walk through the installation.

Spanish moss on live oak

Winter colors

Colors during the cooler weather are quite a bit different than up north. The vines that have invaded this palm tree certainly add some colorful interest to this scene. 

Handsome fellow

Tall crane

Home Depot Santa army

Colorful mural

Detail of a colorful mural painted on the side of a pizza restaurant in Jacksonville Beach. Liked the shapes.

St. John's River and downtown

View from the terrace of the Baptist Health Heart hospital. I was a "guest" there last week for a procedure and everything went well. It is nice to have this facility right on the river facing several of the bridges across the St. Johns and some of the buildings on the north shore.

Colorful coffee shop

Magic doors

Magic Beach Hotel in Villano Beach Florida. A retro gem due for teardown to make way for a bigger more conventional hotel.

Pier reconstruction

Ginger's Place

Colorful pipes

Extreme perspective

The curve of the wall makes the perspective even more powerful.

Fancy tile

Tile is from Hemingway's home in Key West. I was told some of the tile was from a bowling alley in Havana, but I am not sure this is the specific section. It is, however, quite decorative.

Fancy brickwork

Walkway

Beachwalker buzzed

I like the look of this photo but admittedly it is over-processed which is not normally my way of doing things. It becomes a little abstract, but the colors and composition work for me. What do you think?

White buildings

I guess if you are an architect working in Miami Beach one thing you don't need to decide on is the color of the building.

Key West Rooster

It is true that Key West Florida has many wild chickens running around the streets and pretty much every where else. They are a trademark or symbol of the town and they do make quite a bit noise in the early morning light. They are protected by local ordnance and I was told that if you purposely harm them you can be fined up to $500.  

They certainly provide a unique charm to this unique town. 

When a theater becomes a drug store

Tree on the rooftop

Pioneer bridge

The Pioneer bridge was built in 1891 by William West Durant to honor his father, Dr. Thomas Clark Durant who was instrumental in the completion of the transcontinental Union Pacific Railroad. William was an active promoter and innovative developer of great camps in the central Adirondacks. 

We approached this on glassy Eagle Lake as we paddle toward Blue Mountain Lake.

Adirondack sunset

Adirondack cabin

Lake view

City hall

Skylights

Seems like many airport concourses now feature skylights to bring more sunlight into the interior. Also an opportunity for some added design interest. This concourse is in JAX, the Jacksonville International terminal.

Delightful picnic spot

On the loading dock. 

I guess in these times of COVID, outside dining is the way to go… even at work. 

More cars

Another composite photo collection from today's visit to the  Brumos Car Collection located here in Jacksonville. It is an impressive collection of wonderful cars though history focusing mostly on racing and leading up to the Porsche sport racing cars that made Brumos famous. The facility itself is also very impressive... every feature seems first class just like the Porsches. Well worth the visit if you are in the area.

Actually there is one tractor in the image... can you tell which one?

As usual, click the image for a larger view.

Pulley

In keeping with my recent post, here is another nautical detail, shot on another boat on another day. This schooner had five sails and carried almost 40 people. We had wonderful weather and plenty of sun.

Hook & chain

Maybe I am getting a little too abstract in my most recent posts?

Stairway & arrows

Red pipe

Square art

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Jacksonville has this unique installation that includes dozens of citizen artist created 10 x 10" pieces of art. The Jacksonville community at large was invited to create these squares (a favorite aspect ratio of mine!) that were assembled and titled Imagination Squared. The subject of each square was selected by the individual and there is a surprising range of images.

Limpkins

Photo taken at Blue Springs State Park in Florida. The Limpkin is also known as the crying bird as it makes a distinctive and loud call that make you seem like you are in the jungle.

JAX Beer

IllumiZoo Jacksonville

We went to the LumaZoo and I took my Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II with the 12-45mm Pro f4 constant aperture lens thinking there might be a few opportunities for some shots. The displays were OK but not overwhelming. This was the most interesting view I saw.

Wanting to keep up with the wife I did not take a lot of time to check my settings so this was my first shot... mistakenly with the camera still set at ISO 200 and f stop at 5.6. The result is a unbelievable demonstration of the outstanding in-body image stabilisation of the Olympus system. The exposure time was 2.0 seconds (not 1/2 sec, a full 2 seconds). I did not brace myself more than normal but waited a long time to hear the shutter close. You can see where people and some leaves moved but much of the image is still pretty sharp.

I took several other mages after bumping th ISO, but the colors in this shot were my favorite (the colors constantly changed). To further demonstrate the sharpness I have added a 100% crop. Sure it is not perfect but still impressive.

Fresh is overrated

A little deviation from my usual 1:1 square photos.

Memorial Day 2021

To the point

Blood Pressure Parking Only

Curious...

A pleasant day

Blue sky, wispy clouds, pleasant temperature, tropical landscape... what's not to like?

Strange clouds

Look more like waves than clouds. Anyone know what type of clouds these are?