One Hundred Four Miles Per Hour!

I am getting all kinds of free rides lately, it seems. Today my friend Ken came over from Connecticut with his forty-foot offshore powerboat. I should give you a bit of history. For years he designed next generation turbine engines for aircraft, and he is a "motorhead" and a crackerjack mechanic and engineer. He has owned boats since he was a kid. Back in 1976 he brought a Boston Whaler over here to Long Island, and took a bunch of us into New York Harbor for OpSail. Anyhow, today he came with his son and took me out for a ride in Long Island Sound. His lets his son do most of the driving - he's content to be the co-pilot. The water was relatively calm today, so his son gradually increased the speed from 40 miles an hour, until we were clocking along at ONE HUNDRED FOUR MILES PER HOUR! Wow! Yikes! Surprisingly it was a fairly gentle ride - nothing like I would have expected from a high-powered ocean racing machine. It was VERY cool to be going that fast.

The Cat and the Hat

I walked through the living room and seeing this scene tickled me to no end. I had put my L.L.Bean "Mad Bomber Hat" on the couch for some reason, and here was one of the cats sitting next to it. At first glance, with both of them being in the shadows, it looked like two of the same thing. This image cracks me up! Especially because the cat seems to be wondering who this is sitting next to her.

Yesterday

This is hardly a significant photograph, but I just have to show it to you. I went cycling yesterday under impossibly blue skies from the horizon to the zenith. When I stopped to rest at the end of my ride at the harbor, I was just marveling at how clear and blue the sky was. Just drinking in the color was a sublime experience. So that's why I am simply showing the sky to you, instead of giving you a more complex photograph.

Moss That's Not Moss

I guess I already told you this, that Spanish Moss is not moss. You can re-read the blog post back on October 4th. This Spanish Moss is everywhere down in Charleston, and I can't stop photographing it. Wide shots and close up shots - I have a bazillion variations on the same subject, but it is so different from the flora up here in Yankee-land that I can't help myself. These are Live Oak trees, and these particular ones are at Middleton Place plantation. Pretty soon I will run out of photographs from down there, and I will get back to normal. Oh wait, then I will be off to Austin, Texas.

Baaaaaaaah...

I thought I would have a change of pace, before I showed you more trees, or architecture, or whatever else I shot lots of pictures of. I told you it would be Charleston week again... Anyhow, we went to Middleton Place, one of the plantations just outside the city. This plantation did have some farm animals which were interesting to see. Here's the not very obvious thing about taking this photo - we were taking a tour in an old horse drawn wagon, bouncing our way around the property when we went by this goat. I took about 5 pictures and only one of them was in focus. How's that for a greenhorn move? At least I got one good shot.

The Defenders of Fort Moultrie, 1776

This is a photograph taken in White Point Garden, down by the waterfront in Charleston. I was looking for an interesting photograph of the Live Oak trees that dominate the park, and then I saw this view. This is a statue commemorating the soldiers who defended Fort Moultrie in 1776, near the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Nine warships attacked the unfinished fort, but the cannonballs bounced of the soft palmetto logs. Four hundred men fought a day-long battle with the warships which ended with the damaged British ships being driven from the area. This victory galvanized the Patriots' cause for independence. The thing I love about this photograph are the two long, twisted branches from over my head that reach out toward the statue.

Charleston Week

I guess it is strange to call this week "Charleston Week" because it was Charleston Week last week. Oh well. I still have a whole bunch of what I think are interesting photographs from the trip. We saw a lot of beautiful architecture and because of my interest in that subject, I will be showing you some interesting homes. This is a photograph of a home, but to me, the subject is actually light and shadow. Shadows of all the tree branches on the house. It feels like a different way of looking, for me. Does this seem like a different kind of photograph for you? Please click on it to see it in more detail.