Raw

Reflection

2008-09-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

I didn't notice how I had captured the reflection of the clouds in the water until after I'd uploaded the photo to my computer. I really like this shot.

Roadkill

2008-09-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, but this one is pretty self-explanatory!

I took the shot through the windshield of my car which is probably why it appears blurry. I was going to get out of my car and take a shot of it from all sides but then I thought someone would see me and call the men in the white jackets so I refrained from doing so! Besides, I think it paints a clear enough picture just from the back, don't you?!

Little Ogeechee River

2008-09-15T09:51:00.000-04:00

Back in late June when I first headed out to start using my then-new digital camera, this is one of the first pictures I tried to take but because it was on an overpass that was even heavily traveled at 5-something in the morning, it was my birthday and I didn't feel like dying on my birthday, I gave up the effort!

I think a photographer's passion really shines through when they will do anything to get a shot. Not that I claim to be a photographer or a good one at that, but I did take this shot through the driver's side window while driving which, of course, I don't recommend anyone doing because it scared the crap outta' me!

Pot

2008-09-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

Yeah, don't I wish!

In recent years, my daughter has been very into gardening. Beans, seeds, bulbs, you name it and she just wants to see if she can grow it!

She especially liked this tiny pot

because of...well, what else would an eight year old girl who thinks she's a fashion queen be interested in?! You guessed it, the real earrings attached to the pot! She's already claimed them as her own!

A pretty fruit, not so pretty on taste

2008-08-31T18:06:00.001-04:00

This pretty little fruit comes from a Pindo Palm and are called Pindo Dates in my part of the south. In other parts of the south, like in Florida, the tree is known as the Jelly Palm. The Pindo Palm I've linked to is not mine although it appears the dimensions of the pictured palm and the one in my backyard are fairly similar except I can't get a good shot of it at the present time for obvious reasons.

While the fruit is attractive to look at, that's pretty much all it has going for it! It is juicy and tender but tastes like poison! I know some people enjoy them, but it's definitely an acquired taste! It would probably make an interesting-tasting pie but I think I'll stick with apple!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

2008-08-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

I believe I read the book when I was in middle school and I remember it well. One of my favorites.

Another view

2008-08-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here is another view of the Tybee Lighthouse. I couldn't tell which one I liked better. In this one, I liked the contrast of the color of the clouds against the darker backdrop of the sky. It was also taken from the beach whereas the earlier photo was taken directly in front of it as I was driving by. Your thoughts?

Tybee Island Lighthouse

2008-08-10T00:01:00.002-04:00

Tybee Island is the place to go around here for sun and fun. Some of the beach front properties are gorgeous. And so is the lighthouse.

Up, up and Away

2008-08-08T00:01:00.001-04:00

I've bungee-jumped. I've gone sky diving. But I'm a little afraid to try parasailing! Go figure!

Click on the photo to enlarge it. It's really beautiful!

Rainbow in the Sky

2008-08-06T00:01:00.002-04:00

There's something very magical about kites.

Patrick Print

2008-08-04T00:01:00.001-04:00

For those of us who have children or grandchildren, I thought you'd get a kick outta' this one!

I thought you'd be able to see it better if I rotated the photo so that it's upside down. Put a pair of flowered shorts on that little starfish there and it's totally Patrick from Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants TV show!

It was truly amazing how many starfish were on this one section of beach. Unfortunately, some had even buried themselves in the wet sand and some were so tiny, that people had trampled on them.

Golden Delicious

2008-08-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

Anyone who lives in the south knows how difficult it is to grow fruit trees of any kind. Unless you're some big Florida orange juice corporation who has the know-how and the man power to keep their product alive, no matter what the cost.

I was kind of surprised to see this apple tree in someone's front yard.

I wish the people who owned this tree would take better care of it or at least pick the fruit before it goes rotten because it should be loved and cherished and there were very few apples that weren't rotting away. I can think of many places who would want the apples if they don't want the fruit like donating them to the food bank here in town or even a local horse stable - everyone knows horse's love apples!

Magnolia

2008-07-31T19:50:00.000-04:00

With all my photos, if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see more detail.

Consumed

2008-07-29T19:00:00.000-04:00

For those of you who read my other blog, you may have noticed that I briefly mentioned the house fire that occurred in my neighborhood yesterday. My son and I scoped out the area this morning and this is what we saw...

It appears the fire started in the garage. According to my son's keen observation, the car was most likely the cause and was probably removed from the garage after the blaze was controlled.

The roof is gone and the house is destroyed. These poor people have lost everything. My son and I saw the homeowners this afternoon and they left with one garbage bag full of belongings that they were able to salvage. Such ashame.

Ironically, the only things that did survive were a few flowered plants outside the house.

I'm willing to bet that the frequent rain we've been having lately kept the pine trees surrounding the house moist enough that the fire fighters were able to contain the fire to just that house. I'm sure the neighbors are very thankful right now! Of course the one day it didn't rain in the past month was yesterday, when the fire happened.

On the lagoon

2008-07-27T09:57:00.001-04:00

I love scenes like this! I can visualize two people lazily drifting on the lagoon, enjoying peaceful time together.

Lawn statues

2008-07-26T09:01:00.000-04:00

Statues seem to be very popular in my neighborhood.

This is my son's favorite one because he said it looks like the child is peeing. Figures!

What a long strange trip it's been

2008-07-25T06:07:00.000-04:00

When I look at these mushrooms, I half expect them to be in psychedelic colors with spots on them!

Hey guys, wait up!

2008-07-24T05:54:00.000-04:00

My son and I did some exploring in our subdivision yesterday. We happened on these cute little guys who had just taken a bath in a nearby lagoon.

Sunflower

2008-07-22T20:52:00.001-04:00

As pretty as it is and as proud as I am of my daughter for showing an interest in gardening, I'm a bit disappointed with this Sunflower. Actually, I'm a bit disenchanted with this whole growing season. Last year, when one of the men from my former landscaper's company stole my daughter's Sunflower plant, I bought her a seed packet of Razzmatazz Sunflowers to try to make up for it which we planted this year in early spring. It read on the packet that it was okay to plant directly into the ground which we did. We have yet to see a single, solitary plant despite her religiously tending to that area. It would have been so much fun for her to look out her window each morning into the flowerbed directly below to see these glorious, colorful flowers, but no such luck. They must have been duds.

I didn't realize how many different kinds of Sunflowers there are. I was expecting this one to be the tall beauty with the full, dark center but it's not. I should have known that when this one's stem had to be supported with a stake all the way through it's growth. This variety of Sunflower doesn't have a thick, strong stalk like the dark-centered Sunflowers do which stand tall on their own. This one has a weak, curving stalk that when not supported through growth, completely droops over to one side and it's petals aren't as firm and vibrant-looking.

Anyway, it seems it's fully open or at least close to it.

Peek-a-Boo

2008-07-21T16:59:00.000-04:00

Success!

My daughter's Sunflower plant is finally opening! And this time, I won't have to worry about one of my landscaper's men stealing it!

It will be in full bloom in another day or so and I will share a photo of this yellow-petaled beauty with y'all then.

Friends

2008-07-19T07:33:00.000-04:00

My friend the frog comes back almost nightly to sleep on my front step. Usually, he's alone except on this particular night he had an icky little friend keeping him company.

For some reason, I couldn't get the shot right by taking it in the normal fashion so I used to my infrared night shot feature. Not all the night shots I take with this feature come out this grainy. I'm still in the process of figuring out my camera!

There's a Fungus Among Us

2008-07-17T07:43:00.000-04:00

When we first got our dog, I had no idea that him peeing on our lawn would have such an effect on our grass. He literally "burnt" a patch of grass. It grew back but in it's place is a type of mushroom I've never seen before and it's just in the area where the dog used to pee!

I wonder...if the dog's pee can grow mushrooms, do you think he can lay a golden poop?!

Dusk

2008-07-15T07:07:00.000-04:00

I love the color of the early-night sky captured in this photo. And I like being able to see the "face" of the moon peeking out. It almost looks like a "D'OH!" expression!

mysterious critters

2008-07-12T07:42:00.000-04:00

Last month, my daughter and I spotted this insect outside. It's red with black stripes and it crawled super fast on the ground. It was the first time in my near-nine years of being here that I had ever seen such a thing. My daughter thought it resembled an ant while I thought it looked like a wingless wasp. Turns out we were both right!

I did research but found out very little. It's amazing what the news will teach you! I rarely watch the news but did so last night because we were having a rough patch of weather and I wanted to see if we were expecting anymore. On came a story about a man who's been dealing with these kinds of insects. They are called Red Velvet Ants but are actually wasps and their stings pack such a wallop, that they are nicknamed Cow Ants because they could kill a cow!

Swim Meet

2008-07-08T06:36:00.001-04:00

My daughter's swim team is the Great White Sharks. At her first swim meet, I noticed that a bunch of kids who had been on the swim team before had things like "Eat My Bubbles" on their backs written in permanent marker. I thought it was a cute way to motivate the kids so when the following week came and my daughter asked me to write something on her back, I knew I had to come up with something original as I didn't want her having the same thing that everyone else had.

I asked her to wait and while she was on vacation with her dad, I did some research online. I was inspired by this and the next meet she had, this is what I drew on her back...

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

2008-07-07T07:42:00.000-04:00

Like every other early morning, I was taking the dog out one time last week when I noticed something on the front step as I was about to re-enter my house. At first I thought it was a wasp's nest that the pest control guy had knocked down during his last visit. Upon further inspection I saw that it was this cute little guy...

It's a frog!!

Butterfly Bonanza

2008-07-06T05:55:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, as I stepped outdoors to take my dog for one of his first morning outings, was one of the most beautiful and massive butterflies I'd ever seen and as I noticed later on in the morning, butterflies were in abundance everywhere! Unfortunately, the photos below just don't capture the true perfection of this creature. But boy, did she really make up for my accidentally deleting 100 photos from my July 4th outing!

Happy Birthday, America!

2008-07-05T06:30:00.000-04:00

Okay, belated, but I had to take photos of the fireworks, right?!

It was pretty challenging, actually. I finally figured out that I had to snap the photo directly after the discharge and directly before the explosion in the sky.

They're nothing like the fireworks in NYC but they'll do!

And then?

I managed to delete the entire night from my camera! So other than these shots and a few others that I had already imported to my computer, the rest is lost...which isn't such a crime because those that were imported were the best ones, the ones of my daughter holding a sparkler can be taken on any day of the week and the one that I shot that had nothing to do with July 4th can be recreated at any other time as well. But man, talk about frustrating!!!

Well, I guess we learn from our mistakes, right??

Victory Drive

2008-07-03T06:11:00.000-04:00

This particular road stretches from one side of town all the way to the beach at Tybee Island. In town, blocks and blocks of Victory Drive are lined with palm trees and large oak trees that drape the street, as you see below. For those who haven't caught on yet, palm trees and oak trees with Spanish moss are just a few of my favorite things about living in the south!

This picture doesn't even do this street justice as it's also lined with large, antebellum estates. As much as I wanted to take photographs of the homes, early-morning walkers and joggers were already looking at me funny and I didn't want to draw more attention to myself than I already had!

Thunderbolt

2008-07-02T06:19:00.000-04:00

This is the little sleepy seaside fishing town of Thunderbolt, a small suburb of Savannah. On one side, you have a nice marina with sleek yachts, shrimping boats, people simply fishing off the piers enjoying a quiet morning, renovated, gated condo communities with people sipping their morning beverage and having early-morning chats on their decks admiring the sun glistening on the water below, small antique shops and boutiques across a quaint tree-lined street...

...and on the other side of the bridge, you have brokendown-looking apartment complexes and cottages in desperate need of repair dating back to who knows when!

I think the palm trees are the most attractive part of this side of town!

The Globe

2008-07-01T06:22:00.000-04:00

This is a landmark in Savannah although it goes largely unnoticed by those of us who live here. In fact, believe it or not, I was somewhat surprised that it was standing right where it was supposed to be the morning I took this shot because I drive by it all the time but very rarely see it!

In late summer 1999, Hurricane Floyd caused many to evacuate. After hurricane season was over that year, the Globe was repainted as you now see it, with a snarling-looking hurricane headed towards the southeastern coastline!

The Globe didn't always look like this. If you've ever seen the movie, Forces of Nature starring Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck, there is a scene in which they are right in front of the Globe as it looked then. I tried finding a picture of it online but was unsuccessful.

Morning Moon

2008-06-30T05:54:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned on my other blog, the sunrise shots I had planned were foiled by early-morning speeders along a scenic highway that is full of photographs waiting to be shot. But I managed to get this manual shot of the moon while I was awaiting the sunrise.

I have to say, I'm most impressed with this shot because it was taken manually and not with the automatic feature. The reason I'm impressed with this is because since the age of three, I've had very poor eyesight which can be greatly attributed to poor photograph-taking, especially manual shots. I have tried taking photographs with the manual feature in the past with very little luck and many blurry shots. Not to sound so pessimistic, but I don't think I will get this lucky again any time soon!

I like the way the glow of the moon fills up the shot yet you can still see the definite shape of it that morning.

the Garden of Good and Evil

2008-06-29T14:03:00.001-04:00

Many of you may have read the book or seen the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. If you haven't, the story is about Savannah native art/antique collector Jim Williams who was charged with murdering his gay lover, the characters familiar to Williams and the case and some of the strange happenings that occurred that eventually helped get Williams acquitted.

Because of the presence of The Bird Girl in the movie and on the book cover, Bonaventure Cemetary was made a popular tourist attraction. Due to tourists disrupting and damaging neighboring graves while posing with the statue, The Bird Girl no longer stands in the cemetary. However, there are many other beautiful statues and sites in Bonaventure Cemetary and that's where I made my first stop on my journey to show you the city.

Bonaventure Cemetary