GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – Bike shop take with my Leica Monochrom and 18mm Super Elmar super lens. A very gray day – I haven’t felt much like shooting anything else.
On this day last year: March snow storm.
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – A boating day. All with my Leica Monochrom but three different lenses: the first with my 18mm Super Elmar; the second with my 50mm f.95 Noctilux; and the third with my 35mm Summicron pre-Asph. v.4 (the Bokeh King).
On this day last year: Luncheonette.
BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – A sad morning. We’re packing to go back to New York. We took a pre-breakfast walk down to the beach. We’re on the Gulf of Mexico facing West, so phnotography is better in the evening here than in the morning. This is what I got at the beach club with my Sony Nex-7.
On this day last year: Caboose Gallery.
BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – We spent today on the beach. Maria could do this all day every day forever. One day is about the limit for a month or so for me. This a long beach – 7 miles or so. I took off walking with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm lens. Here are three images from the day. Sunset at the Gasparilla Inn beach:
The Gasparilla range light. These structures are only called light houses when there is an actual house for a tender to live in. The Gulf of Mexico (and the bay behind the island) are shallow here making navigation tricky for large boats. Three frames stitched.
A portion of Maria’s horde of shells from the beach.
On this day last year: Washington CT Congregational Church.
GASAPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – Our friend Don Burton (who has introduced us the Gasparilla) took us on a boat ride today, a rare gray and threatening day. There’s an area on the east side of the island that has canals and houses built by boat fanciers. This captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 90mm Elamarit lens.
On this day last year: Still winter.
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – The beach club at the Gasparilla Inn provided a demonstration today by a professional sand castle builder. That’s right. A guy who makes a living on the beach making castles (or whatever) out of sand. Makes the rest of us feel like we’re kind of doing it the hard way. Given that it’s Presidents Day weekend (for those of you outside the US we used to celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays separately, which happen around now, whenever they fell; more recently Presidents Day is celebrated for both of them on a Monday in February, making a three day weekend), a Presidential theme is appropriate.
Our sand castle architect chose an image of a Purple Heart because it incorporates a silhouette of Washington. The Purple Heart is a democratic decoration: it’s given to all who are wounded or killed in action. I received one during my Marine Corps service in Vietnam. It is the only decoration received by most Marines, soldiers and sailors who are killed in action. At the start of the Gulf War I started wearing a Purple Heart lapel pin (which I continue to wear today). I can’t articulate why. It’s with some difficulty that I write these sentences. Anyway, here is the Purple Heart rendered in sand, captured with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.
On this day two years ago: Vietnam Memorial. I’ve looked back two years here (rather than my usual one) because on February 18, 2010 I photographed my shadow on the Vietnam Memorial (shooting infrared) in DC. The juxtaposition is a coincidence and I understand that it borders on the maudlin.
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – I spent the afternoon looking for non-beach, non-bird, non-sunrise, non-sunset images on this barrier island on the west coast of Florida. As noted in a previous post I’m packing my Sony Nex-7 and a variety of Leica lenses. Today I stuck with the 24mm Summilux, which is roughly the equivalent to a 35mm on the Nex-7 – a good all around focal length. This island is a colorful place so I’ve indulged my typical lack of editorial discipline and included three images:
On this day one year ago: Out my window.
