Good/Bad Advice

Not sure exactly what to make of this. It was stenciled on a train car at the Florida Railroad Museum. You should take it for what it's worth. I first spotted a similar sign while attending a wedding in an antique store in Atlanta, so I wasn't too surprised when I saw this one. And I've been looking for an excuse to link to The Straight Dope website for a while, and this is as good as any. Do Not Hump.

When Worlds Collide

What happens redneck types cross with circus folk? You get Ford pickup trucks with elephant hood ornaments! Didn't Bugatti's come from the factory with elephant hood ornaments? (Or radiator caps, if you prefer.) Am I dreaming that? So maybe this is a Bugatti with a Ford name plate attached. Nah...

More Malcolm

I mentioned a month or so ago that I had stopped to take some pictures of a giant book, and here it is. You thought I was kidding, didn't you? You'll learn to listen to me someday. It's actually three giant books, one balanced atop the other two, and it's a sculpture by artist Malcolm Robertson called Open Book Gateway. You saw another piece here just recently by this same artist (the giant shell called Shell). This one sits in front of a branch library, appropriately enough, here in Sarasota.

There are languages of all sorts on here, but I think they all repeat just a couple of phrases.

It's a little tough to read above, it may be easier to read the shadow below. It says "In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back"-Schulz (Peanuts). How appropriate. If I remember correctly, on one side it attributes this to Charles Schulz, not just Schulz. I'm sure that was an artistic decision, not a mistake.

The Biggest Coral Bean Bush Ever!

I spotted this giant coral bean bush growing on the side of the road recently, and I knew I had to stop and take pictures of it. Normally when I see one of these plants, it's a short little thing, so spindly it looks more like a vine than a bush. But this one... It's taller than I am by three or four feet, and the stems are two inces or more across down at the base. And the quantity of flowers it's putting out is tremendous.



I always thought the name coral bean had something to do with those red flowers that looked like coral branches, but maybe it's these red bean-like seeds.

More Surfin'

While they were kite surfing on one side of the causeway in Titusville recently, they were windsurfing on the other. I think I would enjoy trying this a little more, since the probability of loosing an arm seems lower. Anything can happen, I suppose.

Catchin' Some Air

Last time I was in Titusville waiting for a shuttle launch, I watched some kite surfers doing their thing for a while. It looks like a lot of fun, and a good way to get your shoulder pulled out of it's socket.

I see guys like this up on the causeway at the north end of the Sunshine Skyway a lot. I need to stop and get some shots of them sometime.

Note to self-Shoot with the sun at your back, not into it. You think I'd know that by now.

Tern-About

Here I am, trying to get a picture of the Sunshine Skyway, and this tern gets in the way. How rude!

God Bless America

This was the color scheme atop the Empire State Building last year on 9/11. I showed you the view from up there here.

Waverly Restaurant

When I stayed in New York, I was right around the corner from the Waverly Restaurant. Whenever I finally got to where I could see this sign, whether by foot or popping up from the hole in the ground they call the subway, I knew I was back home. New York is a big place. I know it looks like I was close to the Empire State Building, but I really wasn't. It's just really big, and you can see it from pretty much everywhere.

Back The Other Way

After walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, I didn't want to go back the same way, so I decided to return across the Manhattan Bridge. It's a long walk...

The pedestrian amenities on the Manhattan Bridge aren't nearly so nice as on the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead of a wide boardwalk high above traffic, you're inside a cage. A narrow cage.

Something about this fancy ironwork says French to me, but I don't know why. I should look up the designer, but I am lazy.

Did I mention that on the Manhattan Bridge, you share the pedestrian level with trains? Really fast trains. Really loud trains, going both ways? In fact, you get fast loud trains going both ways very loudly at the same time. Look close in this picture and you'll see one on the upper deck and one on the lower deck. Did I mention they were loud?

Up The Stairs

So, what could be at the top of this staircase?

It's the Brooklyn Bridge!

And it's a long walk to Brooklyn, but I did it. And then for kicks, I walked back to Manhattan on, you guessed it, the Manhattan Bridge!

I guess 1875 was a good year for bridges. It's still there, still used every day by tens of thousands of cars and plenty of pedestrian tourists. No trains, though. They go under the East River or over the Manhattan Bridge.

The Other Lighthouse

Taking the Staten Island Ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island, you spot two lighthouses. I showed you one of them ages ago, and here's the other one. It's out in the water a bit, much closer to the Staten Island side, and by taking the pictures from different spots along the shoreline, you can make it look like it's in different places. It's a secret photographers trick, don't tell anyone. In the shot above, the lighthouse is in front of Jersey City. The concrete structure behind the light is some sort of sewage discharge structure built in 1915. So much for aesthetics.

In this shot, the little lighthouse is in front of the Statue of Liberty. Took me quite a bit of searching, but this appears to be the Navesink Lighthouse. Nope, I'm wrong. Robin's Reef is the name. I don't know why I had so much trouble finding that. The lighthouse is three years older than Lady Liberty, but I have a feeling both of them would lie about their age at this point.

And finally, in this wide shot, the lighthouse is in front of all of Manhattan. On a sad note, the twin towers of the World Trade Center should be dominating over all the other buildings in this picture. I think Ground Zero is pretty close to the center of this shot. I just wish the sky's had been clearer on the days I visited. These would be great photographs if it weren't for the haze.

Staten Island Ferry

One of these two pictures is of the Staten Island Ferry. I'm not sure which it is, since they both proclaim in big letters to be the Staten Island Ferry. I'll leave it to you to figure out which it is. Now what I will do for you is give you some advice. If you ever go to NYC, the Staten Island Ferry is free. You can ride it from the bottom of Manhattan to the top of Staten Island for free. That includes both directions, out and back. You have to get off the boat at the far end, and you might have trouble getting back on the same boat to return, but a few minutes on Staten Island can be a good thing. Free! Did I mention it's free? And you get great views of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, too. Oh, and two little lighthouses, and the Brooklyn Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, you can see it all from the Staten Island Ferry!

Confused In The Battery

As I was walking through Battery Park in NYC on September 11th last year, I spotted a couple pieces of sculpture I wanted to share. The one above is obviously a picture of a monkey sweet talking a cat, but I have no idea about the one below. You're guess is as good as mine. And please remember, this was a public park.

More Really Old (Bad) Pictures

I just shared a batch of picture from some years ago with you, all of which were pretty good. Now here's a batch of pictures that I thought were great then, but now I don't think they're anything to write home about. The shot above is the intercoastal waterway to the south of the Albee Road Bridge, just north of the North Jetty on Casey Key. I thought it was neat because you could see the sheer number of boats out on the water on such a nice day. Now, it does nothing for me.

These are the fruits on some type of shrub out at Desoto Memorial in Bradenton. This plant flowers with little blue flowers, then these red berries grow. I love the contrast between the red berries, the green leaves and the blue sky, but there's no form or function to the shot. It's just there. Maybe it's too busy, I don't know. I wouldn't count this as a picture worth preserving if I took it today.

This one shows a butterfly on a flower who's name I don't know. I don't know the type of butterfly, either, but I should because I see them all the time. This picture is bad for two reasons. First, the butterfly is behind the flower. Not ideal. Second, most of the flower is overexposed, making it a featureless white blob. Also not good. And I thought this was great stuff when I originally shot it.

Here's a nice little picture of a calf and her mother. Not bad. Except the cow just doesn't look right to me, since she's partially hidden by the calf, and there's something not right about the way she's looking at the camera. It just bugs me now.

Lastly, you get an ugly yellow flower with a big black fly on it. I won't even tell you what's wrong with a picture like this. Anyhow, I hope you won't think less of me for sharing these old pictures with you. We all have to start somewhere. Heaven knows I don't take all winners now, but I think I do a little bit better.

More Really Old Pictures

I found another stash of really old pictures, and here are a few of those. There were more in there than just flowers, but I felt that only the better flower pictures have stood the test of time. The date on these was 2002, and they were taken with my old Kodak DC4800. That was the first digital camera I had that produced pictures you could stand to look at. So what have we got here? The picture above is a purple passionflower. Yes, there really is such a thing as a passionflower. I saw these a lot as a kid, but we called them maypops because of the fruit that came after the flower. They made a pop when you opened them up to eat the seeds inside.

This is an old favorite that I shot in Lakeland, somewhere in Lake Parker park. I still don't know what type of plant it is, but I love all those little tiny flowers.

Another favorite, this time it's from the park that used to be around the Rye Road Bridge that I told you isn't there anymore. It's the blossom of some sort of bromeliad, and I've never seen one bloom this spectacularly since.

Another blossoming bromeliad, this time in someones yard on Anna Maria Island. I don't know how I remember exactly where I took so many of my pictures. Lucky, I guess.

And last but not least, these are some sort of plant related to the mimosa, I think. It's a sort of vine that grows well in sand, and put up these little pink puffballs, each about an inch in diameter. I haven't seen one of these in a long time, now that I think of it. I need to get out and do some hunting. I shot these on the bank of the Manatee River at Desoto Memorial.

The Center Of NYC

According to what I just read, this statue of Christopher Columbus, located in Columbus Circle, is considered to be the exact center of New York City. All distances from New York City to other points are computed from right here. If I'd known it was that important, I would have walked around to the other side and gotten a picture of his face.

Another Big Sphere

Yesterday I brought you the Unisphere way out in Queens, and today I bring you this similar looking monument. Located on Columbus Circle in front of the Trump International Hotel And Tower (the building to the right in the picture), this sphere looks to be a ripoff of the Unisphere, right down to the three rings encircling it. Those were originally meant to represent the orbits of Sputnik, John Glenn and Telstar, I believe. Leave it to Trump to rip off someone else. If this sphere has a name, I can't find it...

Another Eagle

This eagle is a little more solid that most of the eagles I've brought you around here. This particular bird is part of a World War II Memorial in The Battery, NYC. He faces the Statue Of Liberty, and is near several stone pillars that list the names of those who served. You can get a sense of how large it is by the reflection of the tourist in the front of the base. It's big!

Now That's A Big Shell!

Here's a little piece of public sculpture I don't think I've shared with you before. This giant sheet metal shell is located in a roundabout on Englewood Beach, Manasota Key, Florida. Unfortunately, that's not the most photogenic of spots for me and my limited skills. This piece is the work of Malcolm Robertson, who you've seen before around here.

The name of the piece appears to be "Shell". Quite appropriate, that.

There's that cursed spot on my image sensor! See the dark spot in the otherwise blue sky in the shot above? That's a little piece of debris that was stuck to my camera's image sensor for months. I finally had to order a little sensor cleaning kit to get it off. I think I've got some spots on my sensor right now that I need to clean off, although this latest camera does have a sensor cleaning function. I guess it's inevitable that dust gets in your camera when your changing lenses, but it sure is a pain.