Early Rainy Morning on the Beach

I was out at sunrise the other day.  One minute the sky displayed a full spectrum of color.  The next it was dark and intermittently I was pelted with rain.  It had stormed overnight and it was low tide — the perfect combination for a treasure trove coughed up from the sea.  The birds love it.  So did I.

Royal Tern chilling in the rough surf.

Early Bird Breakfast Buffet

Looking westward. Love looking opposite the rising or setting sun.

The next wave took them back out to sea.

Every color you could imagine!

Moonset

Moonset

Travel Theme: Wood

Twice in as many weeks, I’ve tried to take a lengthy walk along the shore, past the point where the mangroves jut into the Gulf briefly, before the beach widens once again.   At this point, mangroves have developed between the shoreline and the high-rise hotels.  It’s about 1.5 miles to this point, and is only accessible at low tide.  Beyond here, the beach is usually less crowded with people and more populated with birds.  Each time, I’ve arrived at this point, worked my way through the rough path and stopped to see pelicans, herons, and cormorants resting in a tidal pool.   And, each time, after just a few snaps of the shutter, I’ve heard a clap of thunder and looked up to see enormous, dark clouds moving quickly towards the shore.  “Flash showers” the TV weatherman called them.   “Dangerous” to my camera is what I’ve called them.   Luckily for me, there is a hotel with a beach bar not far from this spot that has been an easy spot to retreat to until the showers flashed over — or until I was “rescued” by my beach-lounging chauffeur.

When I saw that Ailsa’s travel theme this week was wood, I knew that a few of these shots would be a good fit for the theme.

Drifted wood

Cormorants resting

Old Pier Pilings

Pelican Perch

Fallen pine

Old Florida, Two Views

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Gotta Make a Connection…. (Travel Theme: Connections)

I read Ailsa’s travel theme for this week on Friday, but didn’t have time to put a post together.  However, it spurned an ear worm.   Ah, thanks?  But before I give you the pop melody I couldn’t get out of my head for several hours, my photos of a place that says connections in a variety of ways:

To physical places:

Spanning an inlet of Pensacola Bay

To an audience:

Weird? Maybe? Guess it depends on who you are talking to.

For A Cause:

Painted pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

With Messages Understood by only some individuals or groups:

What connections are there to Eskimos in the Florida Panhandle? I don’t know, but maybe the person who painted this does!

The Pensacola Graffiti Bridge, located at the 17th Ave rail crossing and Bayfront Parkway in Pensacola, Florida.  It’s a 50-year tradition where local law enforcement looks the other way, so that artists, lovers, graffiti writers and anyone with a message can use the bridge and trestle to make connections via spray paint.

About that ear worm:  When I thought “connection”, I found myself humming “I’ve gotta make a connection to you…”.  Of course, the lyrics to the song are “I gotta get a message to you”.   One of the songs from the soundtrack of my youth, though this performance was long after this was a hit.  Hadn’t thought of this song in a few decades.

It’s not too late to play along.  Everybody has a different idea of a “connection”.  Post yours & then link up to Wheres My Backpack before Friday.

Here are some other interpretations:

• Travel Theme: Connection (judylesko.com)
• Travel Theme-Connections (woollymuses.wordpress.com)
• Travel Theme: Connection (2far2shout.wordpress.com)
• Travel theme: Connections (sasieology.wordpress.com)
• Connections- Ailsa’s Weekly Travel Theme (vosperdruiter.wordpress.com)
• Travel Theme: Connections (nwframeofmind.com)
• Travel Theme: Connections (ahecticlife.wordpress.com)
• 11-8-13 Travel Theme: Connections (quotidianhudsonriver.com)
• Trevel Theme: Connections (travelicius.wordpress.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

The theme of this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is UP.  I’ve posted other variations of this photo (one I took last September), but this seemed like a good fit with today’s theme.   I was experimenting with a technique where you make a photograph look like a pencil drawing and apply a tint.  I’m not sure what I did incorrectly, but after following the instructions, it didn’t look like that at all.   Not to let Photoshop get the best of me, I played around with lots of other filters and effects and ended up with the image below.  Although I think it looks like it was drawn, it wasn’t the line drawing I had originally tried to produce. That’s okay though; I like it anyway.

Pensacola Lighthouse, Pensacola Florida

Although you can’t tell from this, the lighthouse is several feet above the beach. I took the photo has I was walking back from the beach toward the lighthouse.

Ailsa’s travel theme a few months ago also was “UP”.   As I got ready to post this, I remembered that post.   It was a lighthouse too, also in Florida, but about a day’s drive further south.  I like the look of the lighthouse in Pensacola better!

And how timely is this?   This weekend is Florida Lighthouse Day.   Being landlocked, I’m way too far away to visit any lighthouse, especially one in Florida, but at least I have photos of a few!

Be sure to check out what others have done for the weekly challenge.   You’ll find them on the Daily Post.  Here are a few of them:

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (thriftyfinn.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (lilymugford.com)
• 4-19-13 Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (quotidianhudsonriver.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (scottseyephotos.wordpress.com)
• WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (sherrygaley.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up (Tree & Clouds) (skpfoto.wordpress.com)
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Up Again (lucidgypsy.wordpress.com)

Sunday Quote, 2013, Week 10, Havel

“Hope is a condition of the soul, not a response to circumstances”

~Vaclav Havel

If trees could talk and we could understand

Other Bricks in the Wall (Weekly Photo Challenge)

This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge was to get Lost in the Details.    I love seeing the details that  can  be so easily missed in a larger image.   I think that is why I love macro photography and shooting close-ups of flowers.  But, for this week’s challenge, I looked for something larger, a large piece of an even larger whole.   I’ve been wanting to post this shot for a while and this seemed like a great fit.

Lost in the details are the other bricks

A larger view: Fort Pickens

This is the Civil War-era battery at Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola Beach, Florida.  

Be sure to check out how others interpret “Lost in the Details”.  Below are just a few.  You can find other links at The Daily Post.

Tom
Patricia D Drury
My Vivid Visions
Folly Girl
Schelly Cassidy
Esenga’s Voice
Allan G Smorra
Magdalena36
Scott Randall
Livvy

Looking Down

I took this photograph about six weeks ago, but it wasn’t until this evening that I returned to this set of shots.   The challenge this week in Kim Klassen’s Beyond Beyond course was to shoot from above.  Ahhhh!   This is  a favorite angle of mine.   Just for kicks and grins, I reviewed all of my posts since Jan 1.   In 34 posts, I used images shot from above 17 times.   Yes; I think it is a favorite!

So, instead of taking another photo, I thought I would post this one.  I think items on a beach made perfect sense to shoot this way, although I’ve taken some shots of shells that I really like from other angles too.   I’m curious what you think:  Do you think a particular subject suits itself well to shooting from above? What is your favorite “go-to” angle to shoot? Does it vary with your subject?

Two Shells and a Sea Fan

Cool bonus feature of this photo:   As I was shooting, the Florida Fighting Conch began to move.   It’s Alive!   The gastropod moved out of its shell enough to get a bit of leverage to roll over, away from the sea fan and out of the frame. I think he was tired of the hot sun — and maybe he wasn’t ready for closeups! If you look to the left of the shell, you can see lines in the sand that he had made.  The critter isn’t easy to detect from his shell, but it’s the lighter brown area just to the left of the bright orange.   If you find these creatures on the beach, especially at low tide, do NOT throw them back into the surf.   They’re snails and they work their way out of the sand daily.   They aren’t in any danger.  Look at them, don’t throw them in the water, and always leave live sea animals on the beach where you found them!

DWMBBTS*

(*Detail Which Might Be Boring To Some)

Taken with Canon REBEL xSI, Canon EF-S 55-250 f/4 IS lens, @ ISO 100, f/11, 1/200

My processing recipe in case you’re interested:

Minor color adjustment & sharpening in ACR,

In Elements:

1.  Isolated shells and made copy.
2. added kk_chase, Blending mode screen, Opacity 42%.  This added some beige to counterbalance the grey sand (which is white IRL), added a Gaussian blur, erased texture over the shells.
3.   Added kk_1402magic, Color Burn, 58%, removed over shells.
4.  Moved the layer containing only the shells to the top, then merged all layers.
5.  Made a copy of the layer, added a Gaussian blur 15 pixels, Soft Light, 20% opacity & merged with background layer.
6.  Made a copy of the layer, Multiply, 25%.   Used Marquee tool to select a large portion of the image.   Used Refined Edge feathered to 200.   Removed this area from the layer, and merged down, creating a slightly darker “frame” around the image.
7. Added kk_1612 create a border, with a slight blur to make the tones a little bit more subtle.
8.   Added a solid color screen using a color I selected from the sand.   Using rectangular marquee tool, removed all of the screen except for the outer border.   Didn’t like the color, so adjusted it to a brown tone.
9.   Added signature and ready to post (….and wondering what steps I’ve already forgotten!)

Pink Dandelion?

I’m not sure what this is, but it looked like a dandelion to me.  Isn’t that pink pretty?  Not sure what others would call it, but I wouldn’t consider it a weed — even if it were yellow.

Pink Dandelions

Linking up with Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday.  This week’s edition required using at least one of Kim’s new textures inspired by the television series Downtown Abbey.   I’m not a Downtown fan, but her new textures are nice.   I used Violet in this one, first with blending mode Color Burn, and a second layer as Screen.  For the frame, I used another of Kim’s textures — Sybil — first applied as a normal layer, then again with blending mode of Color Burn, then a third time as Multiply 100%.   I also used a light pink gradient, masked off the blooms, and a darker pink over the flower petals to bring back the color muted by the textures.