Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thursday, 9/11/08

You probably thought I was going to do a 9/11 post today. Well, I'm not going to be that person today... no offense to the patriotic folks in the audience, but I just didn't feel the need to drag it out today and think about what I was doing this time, this day, seven years ago like everybody else...

edit: If you're really interested, yeah, I was there and experienced the whole thing and was trapped in the area for about 18 hours. I have some of the last photos ever taken of the World Trade Center, from the evening of September 10, 2001. I don't have a scanner and they are packed away somewhere since I recently moved, or I would share those with everyone. Definitely a surreal experience.

So here are some random photos from last night. Jezzika and I got bored so we went down to the Conch House Marina, then to the beach to see what was going on. This is what we found!

On the way to the Conch House, we were driving down A1A and of course I notice every dog on the side of the road, dead or alive, but I think I have some sort of pit bull radar. I see them quite often. This little girl caught my eye as she was trotting down the sidewalk, stopping every 20 feet or so to look into people's backyards that backed up to the sidewalk, like she was trying to figure out how she's gotten out to the sidewalk and how she was going to get back in. I had to do two u-turns around the median to get back to her, but there was no way I was going to let her get hurt. We pulled up onto the sidewalk and she came right up to me. Lucky for all of us, she had tags! AND she was microchipped! I wanted to give her owner a big pat on the back for that one but I refrained.... anyway, we tied Jezzika's camera strap to Kona's collar so we could hang onto her and I sat down with her while Jezzika called her owner and told him we had his dog. He showed up quickly and picked her up, thanking us repeatedly for stopping! So there was our good deed for the day. :) Had she not had a collar or been microchipped, Dani would have had a big surprise in the backyard when he came home last night.... 0:)

Here is Jezzika holding Kona with her camera strap.

kona

Dani's friend Billy and his family own a deep sea and sportfishing charter company called Endless Summer Charters, and they dock at the Conch House Marina. They are awesome folks and have some of the best secret numbers in Florida for a guaranteed great time fishing. Check them out and plan a deep sea fishing trip if you have never done one! They are booked pretty far out in advance from what Billy said last weekend, but they run year-round so you can go at any time.

endless summer


endless summer 2

private yachts

bikes

conch house

When we got to the beach we were hoping to find some volleyball matches happening at the sand courts, but instead we found a live band playing at the beachside pavilion and tons of people everywhere in lawn chairs and sitting on the sand.

beach concert

We stopped to take in the music for a bit. Personally, I always enjoy watching the tipsy couples who are most likely experiencing midlife crises elsewhere let loose and dance. Maybe that's why shooting wedding receptions are so fun. Drunk people dancing are universally entertaining.

beach concert 4

beach concert 5

beach concert 6

beach concert 2

beach concert 3

Jezzika collects fortunes from her fortune cookies, and also loves Yogi organic teas. Each teabag from Yogi has a little fortune on the tab and she saves the good ones. This one particularly struck a chord with me after the conversations Jess and I had yesterday on the way to Marineland and back about future plans. :)

fortune tea

And last but not least, a flashlight graffiti experiment!

nfc yellow flashlight

(Techie info: 10 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 160.)

7 comments:

Jess Cumbie said...

that person huh... LOL

Tara said...

I wasn't referring to you! That's why I read my post and realized it might sound kinda snobby so I edited to add that I was at least in New York at the time that week. Just not something I care to remember very clearly. :) It was probably one of the scariest things I've ever experienced.

Amanda Register said...

Love the flashlight graffiti! And I completly understand about not wanting to relive the experience.

Jess Cumbie said...

ok my next question... did you write your name backwards, or did you flip the photo in photoshop?

Tara said...

I wrote it normally and then flipped it in Photoshop. There's no way I could write that nice backwards!

Tara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BH said...

I recently told someone we were "dog people". This shows how true that statement is. :) Glad you could help this pup.

Nice job on the long exposure! :)