My Street, Looking East

When I took the photos that I posted yesterday, I also kept looking behind me down our street, looking east to see if anything was happening of interest in the sky in that direction.

It WAS interesting.

I have no idea how those rays were created. The sun was setting in the other side of the sky, so these rays are a mystery to me.

They look beautiful, but they're a mystery.

The second one is a waxing, 3/4 moon as seen through a couple of palm fronds in our front yard.

That's my 'hood.

My Street, Looking West

I carry my camera with me to work on most days. If work gets to be too stressful, I might leave during lunch or in mid afternoon and go to the beach or to a park to walk and decompress a little bit.

Most days I my camera just stays in my trunk all day and I don't take it out until I get home for the evening.

This past Tuesday, I got home about the time of sunset, and as I was driving home I kept stealing glances at the beautiful late evening sky. When I pulled onto our street, heading west, the first photo is what the sky looked like.

When I pulled into and parked in our driveway I got out and got my camera out of the trunk, took a couple of steps into the street and took these photos.

I loved the two portions of the clouds that are glowing orange from the low sun that was still casting it's orangey rays on these far away and high clouds.

Beautiful. A great way to end the work day.

(Tomorrow, My Street, Looking East. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.)

Palm Bay

Top Photo: What's left of a palm frond among the sand and shells on the shore of Palm Bay, in Palm Bay, Florida. I just liked the symmetry of it, and the gritty ground.

Bottom Photo: I mentioned this yesterday; Palm Bay. It's a body of water in the Indian River Lagoon, our section of the Intracostal Waterway. People live in the city of Palm Bay for years and never realize there is an actual body of water called Palm Bay.

Both photos were taken at one of Palm Bay's city parks, Castaways Point Park on one side of the bay.

Did You Know That Birds Stretch?

All three photos:
Nikon D70s; 1/500sec; f5.6; Nikon 55-200mm lens at 200mm.

Great Blue Heron. He was hunting, and stopped to stretch.

Photos taken at Castaways Point Park, Palm Bay, Florida. On the mainland bank of the Indian River Lagoon.

Why?

I am by no means a great photographer. I have never pretended to be. I see photos on the internet each day that make me want to hang my camera up and stop, but those of you with the photography bug know that this is impossible to do. It's a compulsion. Like breathing.

I've been thinking about starting another blog, one that pretty much just lets me show a photo (or a few photos) each day.

My other blog, Least Significant Bits, has literally hundreds of my photos that I've posted in a little over a year.

But that blog is where I write about my life, old memories, political rants and stuff like that, and I have been wanting a simpler one on which to showcase photos I've taken over the years. That's what this blog will be. Just a photo or two, and maybe some explanation as to where and when the photo(s) was taken, as well as possibly explaining why I took it or why I like it.

Between the two blogs, there will definitely be overlap. Many people like to visit "a photo a day" type blogs, check out the photo, leave a comment, and leave. They don't want to sit and read about someone's life. I will post photos here that were also posted there within the text of that blog's post.

Some folks might end up checking out both blogs, but I'm sure some will look at one or the other. This one is "the other."

So, here it is, the humble beginning of my photography blog. Not sure what path I'll be taking, randomness, themes, or the like. I guess I'll figure that out as I go.

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I live in Palm Bay, Florida. It's on the Atlantic coast, about half way between Jacksonville and Miami. About a one hour drive southeast of Orlando. Here's a Google Earth satellite photo of the area.

You can see that Palm Bay is on the mainland, and just south of the better-known city of Melbourne, Florida. Though Palm Bay is now much larger than Melbourne in population.

One advantage of our location is that we are about fifteen minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and some pretty nice beaches. From where I work, I can drive to the beach, eat my lunch, drive back to work, all within my 45 minutes allowed for lunch.

And finally, after all that blather, here are my first two photos. Lovely Wife came and picked me up from work for lunch a couple of weeks ago, and we went to the beach to eat. I had my camera and here's a couple of photos I took that day.