Well...

I started off yesterday by getting up early.  This week's assignment at digital-photography-school.com is "night landscape".  I had practiced the night before by shooting  dock 12 off the stern of Drift Away in low light.  Not bad.

So at o'dark thirty, I hied myself off to the Jekyll Island side of the Sidney Lanier Bridge in the misty rain and snapped a dozen pics.  On the way back, I took a few of the pulp mill.  They all came out like crap.  See?

If you look closely, the bridge is out of focus, or fuzzy.  It might be because the tripod was on grass.  I don't know.

And the shots of the pulp mill are all just flat and uninteresting.

Our holding tank is full and we needed to take the boat to the pump out dock.  I turned the keys on both engines and got nothing but clicks.  Dead batteries.  Upon inspection, I saw that the water had boiled off in both.  How, I don't know.  I suspect a faulty battery charger.  But for whatever reason, they needed five friggin' gallons of water.  They're charging now.  I'll check them tomorrow.

Poor Gertie is about the same.

Scrawny, scraggly, and yucky.

It wasn't all bad.  We had a nice get together at the head of dock 13 for food and drinks.  These get togethers are always enjoyable.

Today will be a car show in Fernandina Beach, Florida.  The car club is meeting at 5:30 at exit 28 of I-95.  I am not.  I will arrive fashionably late.  Photos to follow.

Shooting Women

I've mentioned before about how photography and cruising go together.  Many of you are, or hope to one day, cruise America's waterways.  Learning a bit about photography (lighting, composition) will add to your experience and those of us following your blog.  If you study photography, you'll start looking at things differently.  Something you may have ignored before now becomes interesting because of the way light falls on it, or because of the contrast in colors.

I've always enjoyed photography, but most of my photos were merely snapshots to record an image of something I'd seen.  I might position whomever I was with in front of it, standing as stiff as a board.  So lately, I've been practicing portraiture.  My willing subject, of course, is Pamela, and yesterday was beach day.   Here are some of the results.

Bored doggie portrait.   Let's go to the beach!

YAY!

YIPPEE!

Ruby found part of an old lawn chair stuck under a log.  She got it out.

Portrait of driftwood.

Pamela poses...

until the dogs showed up to see what was going on.

Trying a close up...

and then a farther out.

Far out...

and close up.

Back at our "base camp", there were a few lovely young ladies sitting on driftwood who agreed to pose for me.  In return, I promised to post them on this blog so they could download them.

She was a natural.

The pretty young lady on the right was reluctant to pose, but her friends persuaded her.

Click on a photo to enlarge it, then right click and save it.

Back to Pamela.

Jen.

 

Now I need to learn how to combine portraits and landscapes.

Try Tractor Supply for your Boating Needs

Pam and I buy our dog food at the local Tractor Supply.  We've switched over to Diamond brand which our dogs seem to like.

Tractor Supply is a fun store.  They sell everything farm and ranch related.  They even sell fun stuff like signs that say "if you want a stable relationship, buy a horse".

Yesterday, while buying dog food, I decided to wander around the aisles.  We're planning on building a house in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York next year which will eventually become a mini-farm.  I checked out the track and roller system for building a barn door, their fencing, animal feed, apparel... and stuff I use on the boat!   They sell diesel motor oil, and have a good selection of stainless steel fasteners.

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before.  Tractor Supply is a nationwide company with good prices. You can go there to buy your dog food, stainless steel nuts and bolts, motor oil, cowboy boots, and go-kart, all in one stop.

In other news, we were considering going to see the McGladrey Classic golf tournament on Sea Island today and a car show in Fernandina Beach on Saturday, but that would require leaving Olivia in her crate all day.  We left her in it for just a couple of hours yesterday to go to the marina's happy two hours, and as we approached the boat we could hear her crying pitifully.  When we let her out, she hopped off the boat with her legs crossed to run to the head of the dock to relieve herself.  I  can't bring myself to leave her in there for eight or ten hours.

Classic Thunderheads

Moist, hot air rises over the marshes in Glynn County, Georgia.  It hits the troposphere and start spreading outward, cooling and forming into hail and rain.

Textbook.  This was taken from the flybridge of Drift Away.

Oh, and as for the presidential debate last night?  I think this report nails it -

Millions Head to Internet to Figure Out Their Own Opinions About Debate

A Day on Jekyll Island in Photos

We spend a lot of time on Jekyll Island, as you know, primarily on the beach with our dogs.  We took them both Saturday and Sunday mornings, but on Sunday went back to play tourist.  There are many things to see on Jekyll, and we'd only seen a small part of it.  I brought my camera, of course, just for you.  :)

Jekyll Island marsh. 

The tide was high and much of the driftwood was under water. 

This looked like a small yacht converted to a shrimp boat.  It was having a tough time in the waves... 

and turned around and went back inside. 

The Sidney Lanier Bridge.  Lanier wrote the Marshes of Glynn County. 

This is Pamela on an observation deck.  The only problem is that the observation deck was surrounded by trees. 

Riding down one of Jekyll's bike paths... 

where we came across a Banana Spider, the largest spider in the US not a tarantula. 

Time to leave the beach, so we carried our bikes up steps to this deck, which went nowhere. 

Smootching on the beach.  Disgusting.  Get a room. 

The famous Jekyll Island Club. 

Check out the last line of "Please:". 

The Rah Bar. 

The end.