Carsten Lane

I enjoy walking the Fleming Street and Southard Street corridors with my camera, places that Rusty has not lately shown any interest in. So on a lunch break from work and thus dog-free I came saw and photographed. First things first Michael's Restaurant, the steak place, is to be replaced it seems by a fish place possibly?.

I ambled off under the trees down Margaret toward the cemetery. Old Town Key West always gives a great return to someone paying attention.

I passed the Old Harris School looking mysterious and castle-like through the shrubbery.

                         

A particular splash of color deserves the color treatment at the corner of the lane.

Once again a red door merited a flash of color, I thought. 

Traveler's Palms. Said to contain nasty tasting potable water inside the stems  supposedly good for travelers in distress. I've never been so desperate.

Oops there's something standing out...

I saw a small pun through the bushes lining Carsten Lane and focused the camera through the saplings at "Tree Man," which in this case could be said to be me...

Fence angle and house angle and not even using a wide angled lense.  

That was a fun lunch break.

Mellow Yellow

I don't do it very often but I suddenly saw I had a bunch of pictures with a color theme. It struck me in the eye as it were. 

    Decorations notwithstanding, still yellow:

I can press a yellow porta potty on Poorhouse Lane into the service of the color of the day:

The three referenda passed with large majorities. Their effect will take a while to manifest no doubt. 

I took this one originally as the fans were blowing wildly in the middle of the night all by themselves. But yellow grabbed my mind at took over.  The souvenir stand at the Conch Train Depot on Front at Duval.

 

Wooded Sunset

Some evenings you see extraordinary piles of clouds and sunset which of course are harder to spot now it's getting dark at six, the time I leave work...

Rusty sniffs and I play with my camera, messing with the exposure and so forth. 

I find the edges of the roadway to be filled with shapes and colors that seem to attract no one's eye except my own. Seagrape  leaves in various stages of decomposition:

This abstract struck my eye by accident as I was fiddling with the camera and pointing it at my feet.  I realized the road surface itself was a jigsaw 

I you find leaves intriguing look up the photos of Edward Weston. He died a pauper in California supported at the end by Ansel Adams but I find his pictures inspiring. He made common objects lose their relaity and transform themselves into wild abstract figures. Quite extraordinary.

I am not the photographer he was obviously, but I trust my civil servant's pension will keep me from destitution as I grow older and I hope a better photographer.

And every now and again I am a sucker for a still sunset.  Imagine the silence over the mangroves and salt water ponds. Imagine the no see'ums nibbling your ankles which are just enough to drive you mad and take the glow off the spectacle. So you dive for the car with your dog in hot pursuit and seven minutes later you are home rubbing your ankles frantically, having completely forgotten the beauty left behind. Here's what it looked like in those few blissful minutes before the critters found my vulnerabilities:

Black And White

I ask myself why black and white and I answer because some days I like it. I suppose you could tell me I am a curmudgeon and Webb the Sailor ( I wished him happy birthday yesterday)  has  said I am tipping into that category of recluse. So am I curmudgeon when  I rejoice in being grumpy and yet  take pictures in color? It is a conundrum.

I like black and white as a foil to the explosion of color that is Key West on a sunny day. I  like the textures of the trees, a change from the deep dark greens you see in color photos.

I wouldn't like to be stuck in a colorless world, all shades of gray, but from time to time the bright sunlight yields interesting shadows.

I find myself seeing things in black and white too, or I get an idea that what looks dull in color may yield an interesting look in black and white, The reverse is also true.

Nowadays one can take pictures in color and "desaturate" them to reduce them to black and white but I prefer to see the picture in my mind, flip the camera to black and white and see what I see. 

And I collect a few pictures that please me, memories of a different kind of an afternoon in Key West.

And post them here on my memory page.

A hot tin roof would not look the same, did not look the same in color. The magic of digital gave me the opportunity to switch to black and white and record this image. Striking in my opinion:

And then - confessional moment! - there is the time I spot something I want to record and the camera is in black and white instead of color! Grr! In this case the seaplane returning from the Dry Tortugas.

Sunshine

While I am enjoying the slightly cooler weather after our sideswipe by the modestly proportioned Hurricane Eta I am fair fed up with gray skies and sudden unexpected showers of rain. I had to hunt around a bit but I found some pictures of sunshine and bunny rabbits and candy canes. Actually no but I was on Duval Street in real sunshine once upon a time. I remember it with joy.

The thing about Duval Street is that it's not really a place for people who need to buy normal stuff. By normal I a mean anything other than alcohol, medical cannabis and t-shirts with unusual sexual suggestions on them. If you need a knitting needle or a pair of lederhosen Duval Street is not for you. If you need bread milk and pistachios the nearest you can find a proper supermarket is Fausto's on Fleming at Bahama.

To penetrate this deep downtown requires fortitude, a mask if you can't stay socially distanced and a desire to see how vacationers look in their natural habitat. Upper Duval, so called despite the fact it is the southern end of the street, is a dozen blocks from the bars and beery smells of the sidewalks of Lower Duval (the northern end confusingly).

I like it much better as there is a slightly less frenzied tone to the sidewalks and I can look up and see witches' hats if I am so inclined.

This side street looking west to Bahama Village holds the promise of the key West you really want to see, narrow lanes much greenery and no hawkers bothering you as you stroll by.

You can even stop in the shade and make an impenetrable composition of fencing and blue skies and palm fronds and dazzle friends and neighbors with your artistry:

And if that isn't enough check out the nice colors on the buildings and ask yourself why sky blue looks so blue under the tropical winter sun. Keep coming back until you find the answer.

 

Armistice Day

 For Veterans

Anthem for Doomed Youth

BY WILFRED OWEN

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.