Art Deco

- Had dinner tonight with a great group from the American Public Transportation Association TransITech Conference at Quinn's in the Central Park Hotel on Miami Beach. It was my first visit to Miami Beach and I must say I was impressed by the great Art Deco Style. Canon G11, 1/8 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 400 camera braced against a palm tree. Sometimes you have to improvise camera support.

Flamenco in Sand

- Another nighttime sand sculpture picture from last weekend's Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This one is entitled Flamenco by Thomas Koet and Jill Harris. Check out some other great daytime pictures of the sand masterpieces at Les's blog The Tidewater Gardener. Canon G11, 1/10 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 800.

Builder Bob?

- No it's not Bob the Builder, it my grandson Robert doing some serious reconstruction last week at Sandbridge Beach. Canon 7D, 1/1600 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400, zoom at 135mm focal length.

A First

- This is a first for my daily photo blog - a picture I didn't take! After 630 straight days of posting my pictures, I took the day off - well kind of. You see today was my birthday and we went to Sandbridge Beach in the late afternoon with my grandson Robert. I did take a bunch of pictures but then I asked a young lady sitting next to us on the beach if she would mind taking a picture of the three of us. She was a bit intimidated by the Canon 7D and confessed she didn't take very good pictures. I told her not to worry, just point and shoot. She took four pictures while we were trying to convince Robert to look up at the pretty girl when a big wave hit us from behind. Lucky for me, she got the money shot. We were pretty soaked but it was great fun as you can tell from this picture. Canon 7D (The Intimidator), 1/1000 sec at f/10.0, ISO 400, 45mm focal length.

Sandpiper Strut

- This little sandpiper was strutting his stuff at Sandbridge Beach this evening. He had a strip of about 20 yards of beach that he was working with each wave. When ever another Sandpiper landed on his beach, he promptly chased them off. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 400mm.

Lashes

From 2010 Blog

- My grandson Robert has some long eye lashes. We were at Sandbridge Beach after work today and he and I got dunked by wave. With his eye lashes still wet, I took this closeup while he watches the water. Canon 7D, 1/1000 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 100mm.

Dragon Fly

From 2010 Blog

- Got this close up photo of a dragon fly at the beach today. His face has a kind of carton like appeal. Swedish folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls - pretty heavy stuff. I think they are just valuable mosquito eaters. Canon 7D, 1/1250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 100mm macro lens.

Evening Sand

From 2010 Blog

- The weather was great today so I was thinking that beach season will soon be here. Last August we spent a few days at Cape May New Jersey and this early evening beach scene portrays my favorite time of the day to be on the sand. Maybe I'll get to make a new beach photo this weekend. Canon 40D, 1/400 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400.

Beach Bridge

From 2010 Blog

This is the pedestrian bridge crossing Route A1A, aka "the Beach Road". The bridge connects the oceanfront beach with the pool deck at the Westin Beach Resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Canon G10, 1/1250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 80.

Lauderdale Sunrise

From 2010 Blog

Got up early to catch the sunrise on my last day in Ft. Lauderdale and was not disappointed. Canon 7D, 1/100 sec @ f/16.0, ISO 200, 70mm focal length, mounted on a tripod.

Beau Geste?

From 2010 Blog

This sandcastle on the beach reminded me of those old French Foreign Legion films. The story Beau Geste has been made into five films staring the likes of Gary Cooper and Guy Stockwell. Ironically the 1977 parody The Last Remake of Beau Geste staring Marty Feldman was not the last remake as it was followed by the BBC's mini series in 1982. According to Wikipedia, the undisputed authority on all things trivial, the French Foreign Legion has been featured in at least 55 different films. Canon 7D, 1/1600 sec @ f/7.0, ISO 100.

Breaking Rules

From 2010 Blog

This photo breaks a number of photography composition rules. It is a portrait oriented landscape photo and the horizon line is almost in the direct center of the image. But I like the image and the constraints of the scene and where it was taken from required "breaking" some rules. This is the morning sun after burning through the fog on a cloudy day. Canon Powershot SD870 IS, 1/125 sec @ f/10.0, ISO 80, 48mm equivalent focal length.

275 - Conch

From 365 Project

This small conch shell has been illuminated from below and the macro photo shows off the beautiful color, patterns and contrasts present in the shell. Canon G10, 1/10 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400 in macro mode.

249 - Seven Things MeMe

Last week I was tagged with a MeMe by Janet – The Queen of Seaford. So now I have to tell you seven things about me you didn’t know.

1 – I married my high school sweetheart. Cindy and I met at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach. She was sixteen and I was seventeen when she asked me to the annual Sadie Hawkins Day dance. We have been married 34 years.
2 – Before moving into my current field of technology management, I worked as a City Planner. I was once in charge of naming streets in Virginia Beach.
3 – My father was a carpenter as was his father. From him I learned skills of woodworking and home improvement and do most of my own repairs. Coworkers have teased me about having renovated the entire house.
4 – As a collector I have over 500 different PEZ candy dispensers as well as numerous antique watches and lots of fountain pens.
5 – I can decipher binary and hexadecimal numbers. The clock on my desk at home is a binary display.
6 – A trivia buff, I know a little about a lot.
7 – My 15 minutes of fame came in 1993 when my son and I were at a local Subway restaurant and a pickup truck crashed into the store. No one was hurt, but the security camera caught the entire "made for TV" incident. We were startled to see ourselves jumping out of way on CNN the next morning. I was interviewed for an episode of a show called “Caught on Tape”. The episode still runs on cable TV now and then.

Now for today's photo - Sand dunes in the late afternoon sun. Canon G10, 1/2000 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 200.

From 365 Project

245 - Surf's Up

From 365 Project

This surfer caught a good wave at Cape May beach this morning. Good surfing pictures are hard to capture. The action is fast, usually pretty far away and its hard to get the light just right. I was able to capture this image because of the way the jetties are at Cape May. I was standing on the jetty while the surfers were catching the waves in deep section just on the other side. The sunlight was coming over my left shoulder and I had the big zoom. I think it's my best surfing picture yet. Canon 40D, 1/640 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400, 320mm focal length.

243 - Sunset Beach

From 365 Project

It's rare to see a sunset over water on the East Coast but you can at Sunset Beach near Cape May, New Jersey. I took this photo about 5 minutes before the sun dipped into the bay. You can see the wreck of the concrete ship Atlantus just offshore. Canon 40D, 1/125sec @ f/11.3, ISO 100, 17mm focal with a 1 stop polarizing filter.

221 - Skimming

From Skimming

The tide was way out and the waves small, smooth and breaking close to shore, not too good for surfers, but perfect for skimmers. Unlike surfing, skimboarding begins on the beach, with the skimboarder running and dropping their board onto the thin wash of waves. They use their momentum to 'skim' out to breaking waves, which they then catch back into shore in a manner similar to surfing. Several skimboarders were having a great time in the early evening surf as this photo demonstrates. Check out more of the fun from today's trip to Sandbridge Beach. Canon 40D, 1/800 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, 100-400 zoom at 235mm focal length.

214 - Wave Break

From 365 Project

The waves were breaking from right to left today after some late afternoon showers. We weren't sure if we we were going to get our Sunday evening trip to the beach in, but the rain stopped and we had the beach almost to ourselves. I was experimenting with the selective focus of the Lensbaby Composer. Canon 40D, 1/500 sec @ f2.8, ISO 200.

208 - Dolphin Leap

From 365 Project

Caught this dolphin leaping out of the water off Sandbridge Beach, Virginia. You can often see them surface close to shore, but they were jumping out of the water causing many oohs and ahs from beach goers. Canon 40D, 1/1000 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 200, 200mm focal length.

207 - Labardor Retreivers

From 365 Project

There are two things Labrador Retrievers love to do, retrieve and be in the water. I caught these two playing hard at Sandbridge Beach today. Dallas returns with the prized tennis ball while Rocky waits to try and take it away. Dallas is an 8 month old American Labrador and Rocky is an 11 month old Chocolate Lab. Their human companions, Kate and Dan, brought them to the beach to burn off that puppy energy. Any Lab owner can appreciate that. Canon 40D, 1/4000 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 200mm focal length. More pictures of the fun here.