A Walk On The Beach...
...or, "Please bear with me...I've only got 3 more photos"...

My Dad used to have a saying that he'd use whenever I went crazy over something...he'd tell me, in most uncomplimentary terms, that I was going "Hog Wild"...well, okay, what can I say, I guess I've always been that way. And maybe I've gone "Hog Wild" over the little digital cam I recently bought, but really, can you blame me? What with the price of camera film the way it is, it's almost like the Digital Camera gives me an unlimited supply of film. In short, I can snap away until my button-pushing finger falls off, or I reach the 200+ storage limit of the memory card, whichever comes first. And if I don't like the photo, "doink", I can delete it just like that. Why didn't anyone tell me way before this how cool digital cams are? So please indulge me; I've got three more photos here...

I went out today for a walk on the beach...it's the same beach I photographed from afar in the post under this one. Up until late last week, the weather was windy and very rainy, with some pretty healthy winds churning up turbulence on the coast...notice all of the dead sea junk washed up on the beach here. Piles and piles of dead vine-type things. Each vine has a big air bubble at its end...masochistic me, I step on those air bubbles; ***POP!***, they'll go sometimes. That's oddly fascinating to me. Well, hey, perhaps that's the side of me that used to step in mud puddles when I was a kid...



The tide was going out when this photo was taken, leaving all kinds of nature's garbage laying around. What is this stuff? Seaweed? I have no idea. So, it's "dead sea junk" to me. No matter how crowded this beach may become, there's always room for everyone to run around, or sit alone somewhere, seeking solitude. There's something about the rich sea air...just niiice.

I've written about sunsets quite a bit lately (too much?), but the photo below will indeed demonstrate that virtually every night (except when it's gray and rainy), the sun, together with the Earth's atmosphere, puts on quite a show. Tonite, the clouds moved in, and this is the result...



I was sitting on top of the jetty when I took this; it extends quite a ways out. Jetty-sitting is one of my favorite pastimes; I've got the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. And when the incoming ocean waters merge with the bay water going out, some mighty big waves can happen. Today, though, the tides were a little more on the peaceful side. From this perch, I watch the Pelicans dive-bomb for food, with the seagulls following them, trying to steal the fish they've caught. I'm about 10-12 feet above the beach here, and I've spent hours here. There's so much life all around.

This next photo will show beyond all doubt that I Really Don't Understand Everything about this little digital cam yet. I've been looking for some kind of "exposure" adjustment...this picture was taken as night fell, yet it looks brighter than the picture above. Here's a typical Saturday-night gathering on the beach; these folks were burning driftwood, while some further up the beach had brought half-a-dozen pallets and set those on fire. This beach isn't 'touristy' at all; more than anything, this is where people who live around here go. Joe Sixpack and Benny Bluecollar. Low-key, for sure. Maybe that's why I'm so comfortable here.



In the upper left corner of this foto can be seen that big Dredging Vessel that was featured in the previous post; again today, it was entering the bay, going back out, turning around, coming back in, repeating the process over and over. I've researched this a little bit; there's a spot in the ocean just north of here where the dredge vessel is allowed to drop all the muck that it's scraped from the bottom of the bay inlet. Gotta keep the inlet deep enough for ships to pass, after all.
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I took "tons more" photos today, and I'll probably drop 'em here and there within subsequent posts. I don't know if I'm any good at photography, but I enjoy it a lot. It's like, I can take some of the environment home with me when I snap a picture. And it's a harmless activity, as long as I don't fall flat on my face, stumbling over piles of Dead Sea Junk...