Low Hanging Branch

A branch hangs over the water along the Sunshine Skyway in Tampa. This image was taken at dawn one weekend. During the weekdays, the skyway is inundated with cars commuting to work in the various counties that surround Tampa Bay. I traverse three counties just to get to Tampa, one county twice. The weird way Tampa is carved up, Hillsborough County is on both sides of Pinellas County, on the same highway. Nevertheless, this is a long exposure that I took from Hillsborough County looking back at Manatee County. The Skyway is an impossibly long crossing of Tampa Bay. Not only is it a scenic drive, but it's also a recreation area and one of the best rest stops in Florida.

Obstructed View

There are so many mangroves along the water that quite often the view is obstructed. But maybe in some cases, it's a good thing. I was walking along a hidden shoreline at Emerson Point in the afternoon when I took this photo. I'm not sure what prompted me, but it seems the focus on the foliage is the subject of this image. Foreground elements are essential, especially in environmental or landscape shots. They're a good idea anyway because they tend to be the first thing we focus on. As our eyes wander, we travel from foreground to the background. The trick in photography is to make that journey enjoyable.

Magical Walkway

This is a magical walkway leading to a hidden land where the sun rests each night. Or, its a boardwalk over the Mangroves in Palmetto. We report, you decide. All the pictures I've published this week are landscapes with water and clouds. Perhaps that has me in a mood to concoct fantasies about the scenery. Fantasies are natural for children, why not us? I think it's cool how the leading line points to the sun. I got this photo from my 2015 archives. Maybe it was my lack of imagination that kept it hidden for so long. Or, perhaps it was meant to be buried forever, protecting the secrets of Neverland from humanity.

Wreck Beach

This is a section of Wreck Beach near the University of British Columbia. It's secluded which accounts for it being a favorite among nudist. I visited it fully clothed in winter. I like this in a geeky kind of way because both the foreground and background elements appear in focus. It's also very different than the beaches back home in Florida. Sometimes I post photos just for the scenery and memory, and I suppose this is one of those. Thank goodness for old photos, I would forget so much without them. There is so much going on in the present, that the past gets crowded out. Not that I want to live in the past, but pictures pull together things I've done and places I've been which helps provide the backstory to where I am today.

Sailors Delight

The saying goes "Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning". And as it turns out, it's mostly right. Having said that, because Florida is a big peninsula, the weather can be unpredictable, especially in the warmer months. Tropical storms boil up from either direction in little time and dissipate just as fast. But for the most part, the old sayings are still relevant. This photo points out over the Gulf of Mexico, so if I launched a sailboat directly west, I'd end up near Corpus Christi. But even though the skies say it's okay, it's not something I'm likely to do. I'm no sailor, and I prefer to stay away from the open seas in a small boat. I'm a cruise ship kind of person and a rough day of sailing means having to wait in line at the seafood buffet.

Window Shopping

I like to walk by restaurants and see what the people are eating. It's also fun to take a picture and freeze the moment so I can decide later if I want to go back. This is another South Beach night scene. I shoot in places where there are a lot of folks out at night. People are relaxed, and it shows when you catch them unaware. But if they see you, faces change in a blink. We had friends over recently, and Marlise told everyone to act naturally as she snapped some photos. Of course, it had the opposite effect; we all posed and looked unnatural. I guess the tip of the day would be that if you want people to act natural, don't announce you are taking a photo. Unless, perhaps, you are working with actors who are trained to look natural.

Park Bench

Bayfront Park in Sarasota has benches along a winding path. A good time to come is the evening to watch the sunset by the water. One side faces the city, the other Sarasota Bay. There are yachts docked, so it's also a residence of sorts for folks that live on their vessels. That sounds like a fun lifestyle. Each time I come there is something to see. I always bring my camera looking for stories. Stories are little vignettes of life that, when we see, it sparks our imagination. In that way, the photo doesn't have to be too complicated. I think this photo is an example of what I mean.

Westward Gaze

This is a common scene at the beach and a good illustration of why I prefer the west coast of Florida. Or for that matter, the west coast of anywhere. Sure, you can get up early to see the sunrise on the east, but it's not the same. Watching the sun sink into the ocean at the end of the day is observed facing west only. According to astonomy.com (http://www.astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2017/12/galaxy-rotation), about half of the galaxies rotate clockwise like ours, and the other half counterclockwise. That means that planets in other galaxies, and maybe a few in our own, have planets with the sunset in the east — something to think about.

Remote Beach

At the tip of Longboat Key is a beach strewn with the remnants of past storms. It creates a surreal scene, and it's a nice place to hang out. The beach is only accessible by hike so, it becomes a bohemian camp of sorts. You feel very much away from it all here. Each time I come, there are groups of people in temporary camps with hammocks hanging from the trees. Sometimes they are playing music or singing, like gypsy gatherings in a Patrick Rothfuss novel. At around sunset on any given day, you'll see photographers trek here with their clients. I've done that, but I also look for unique scenes like this when I come alone.

Steam Clock

On the east side of Vancouver is an old steam clock. In the Steampunk universe, these things are commonplace. Everyone stands around and waits and, after about fifteen minutes or so it gives off steam. In the age Apple Watch, it's fascinating to watch a relic mark the hours by vapor and gears. The area is known as Gastown, and it has a lot of places to hang out. You could eat at a different place each night of the year. Whenever I'm in town, I come here and shoot night scenes. It's been a few years so I can't wait to come back. And unlike the glass towers a few blocks away, this Gastown is in a universe all it's own.

Lions Bay

About five years ago I took a drive up the coast from Vancouver. I took this at a little community called Lions Bay. This image has been sitting in my rejects file for a year or two. Now and then I look at the rejects and see if I should reconsider any. My perspective changes so much that, given a little time, I might change my mind. To be clear, most of my photos deserve to be in the dust bin; they are not that interesting. I usually wait at least a week, typically much longer, to post a photo. It takes a little time to look at a picture dispassionately and decide if it rises to the level. But even then, it's all subjective, and what makes a good photo is entirely in the eye of the beholder.

Streets of Salerno

It was one of the hottest days of the year, and for the life of me, I couldn't imagine why anyone would carry a sweater. Maybe the stores were air-conditioned in the shopping district of this Italian port city. In Florida, we freeze going to a movie in summer. You dress in shorts and flipflops but then need a jacket in the theater. When I was here in Solerno, it rained cats and dogs in the morning, and within an hour the streets dried up from the heat. I got a wide range of pictures that day that included different types of weather. It reminded me of Florida summers but with a lot more to explore.

Streets of Nice

Here is another photo from Nice France. I took this as I walked around the streets above the harbor on a hot August morning. The hill above the harbor is steep, and I remember thinking to my self that I didn't want to get too hot first thing in the morning. So I paced myself and took slow steps, trying to avoid exertion. That was a fool's errand because I quickly became covered in sweat no matter how slow I walked. I ended up getting ice cream for breakfast to cool down. That's just how I roll. Nevertheless, I prefer to walk around these little streets as opposed to the more famous beaches of Nice. Beaches I have all around me in Florida, so when in Europe, I like unique places like this; even when covered in sweat and eating ice cream.

Caboose View

In Skagway Alaska, we caught a sightseeing train from the sea up into White Pass. I took this just after we reversed directions to head back down. The whole trip I hung out between the cars where I could get pictures of the landscape. On the way up we were in the first car behind the engine. Then the train pulled into a siding and the locomotive connected to the other end and, as you can see, we were at the back. It was pretty high up, and the weather dropped about forty-degrees. Skagway used to be a mining town, and in the Klondike days before the train, miners would traverse the pass on foot or mule. That would be a hard slog indeed, so I was glad to be on a train with its trusty breaks all the way back down.

Bridge Again

I take a lot of photos of this bridge; I should open a gallery and call it the Manatee Bridge gallery. With these types of scenes can you blame me? What makes this so mesmerizing is the calm water of the intercoastal. When it's like glass, it reflects everything and creates a dreamscape-like effect. That's what I strive for but rarely achieve. Anyway, if you go to my gallery and enter the keyword "ManateeAvenueBridge" in the search, you'll get all the versions of this bridge I've taken over the years. In another five or ten years I'll probably have quite the collection. Then they can rename the bridge after me. It will be called the Rick Bridge, or not.

Manarola

This picture of Manarola is one I took from a boat ride along the Cinque Terre coast. It makes me want to pack my bags and go back now. The villages lie one after the other along a rugged coast, all connected by train. So while they are somewhat remote, they're easy to get to. They also have a trail that runs the length of the coast so you can backpack as well. When you look closely at the construction on top of the rocks, the difficulty involved boggles the mind. Also, the terraced hillsides have been carved out of the most inhospitable soil for crops, yet they are fertile and well tended. If you let your mind wander, you'll go back the many hundreds of years to see the first inhabitants removing one rock at a time. And that is why I'd rather be a tourist in this century.

Early Walk

This is a section of the Riverwalk in Bradenton. I'm not sure why people wake up before dawn on the weekend and come here. Nevertheless, there we were. Come to think of it, there are always people here, at any time of day. It's just one of those places people like to hang out. I'm surprised there aren't more restaurants here. Often, I operate with a sleep deficit. I should stay in bed on the weekend to catch up a little. But it's also the perfect time to get out and take these kinds of photos. I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I die.

Beach Fog

The other day I went to the beach to watch the sunset, but the beach was covered in fog; time to execute Plan B. Plan B is to try and make lemonade out of lemons. This shot is one where a hole opened up in the sky just as some birds flew by. Photos like this in the fog have no shadows because the light is very even. I think photography in this type of soft light is more comfortable on the eyes when we look at it. Even without the fog, some of the best landscape photos are taken when the sun was lower, and the light gets diffused by the atmosphere. Or, when there are enough clouds in the sky to diffuse the harsh sunlight. The sun is an unfathomably harsh body that can rip everything to shreds in an instant if it were not for the amazing conditions we have here on Earth. Knowing this and having the opportunity to photograph it is pretty awesome.

South Pointe Afternoon

Shooting into the sun on an afternoon is not a great idea. But when it comes to experimenting, I'm full of not great ideas. In this image, I took about seven exposures to get a wide range of exposures. I then blended a few of them to make the final image. There are some cases, like this, where you need to think outside the box to create an image. I experiment quite a lot with my camera, and in a lot of cases, the experiment does not turn out well. But, more and more I'm able to imagine what the result should be in my head before I take the photos. Post processing is where the magic happens; it's where the camera in my mind gets to work with the camera in my hand. In other words, it's the creative process.

Skyway Bridge

I take a lot of pictures of this bridge because it's so close to home. It's the biggest thing around, way bigger than a bread box. Do people still use bread boxes these days? Whenever I buy bread, it goes in the freezer. But I digress; the bridge is the biggest thing around, so it's the center of a lot of attention. I'm all about iconic photos close to home like this. This photo, in particular, is a long exposure that was taken with an ND filter. The picture is 46 seconds long which is why the water appears flat. Usually, I might use Photoshop to create the same effect, but in this case, there is little, if any, Photoshop involved.

Nice, France

This is a section of Nice where cruise ships dock and people come ashore on a tender. That's what I was doing when I took this picture. While waiting for transport to other parts of Nice, I walked up and around the narrow streets. It was in the middle of summer and hot. I remember trying to decide whether to have a beer or ice cream to cool down. My only hesitation was that it was nine in the morning so I opted for ice cream. The famous beach is west of here, but since I live close to beaches in Florida, I visited other parts of the city including an art colony in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. As that was up on a small mountain, it was a little cooler, but still quite warm. I ended up getting a beer there, but it was midday at that point. Such are my memories of ice cream and beer.