Featured Photograph 6/16/2007

If some of my photographs are more favorite than others, this is the favorite. It is hanging in my grandson’s room. It was sent as a donation to a silent auction for a co-worker whose son was critically injured in a canoeing accident. It probably will be one of my first editions to sell out. It says serenity and peace to me. And it is of one of my favorite animals, the cat, the panther.

Unfortunately it is not a Florida panther. Florida panthers are very rare and very endangered. It is also, unlike the majority of my photographs, a captive panther.

Her name was Sheaba. She went to live at Grandfather Mountain after she grew too large and too wild to be someone’s pet. She was graceful and she was beautiful and she has now passed on to a better world. I just discovered this while doing some research for this blog and so I don’t think I’ll write anything else today.

http://www.grandfather.com/about/archive/sheaba.php

The phone rang at 10:30PM. The caller-id number was 999-999-9999. That’s a new one, better answer that. So began my first experience with a reverse 911 call. My husband picked up the phone and then turned on the speaker in time for me to hear – “at this time there is no need for further evacuation but we urge people in the area to prepare for the possibility.” A brush fire has come close.

One thing I’ve found about moving to Florida is that it puts you into real contact with nature. Back when I lived in northern Virginia (basically Washington D.C.) I had the opportunity to visit Kansas. I was talking to a person there about tornados and why exactly one would live in Kansas and he said “I guess every area of the country has its weather issues, what do you have in D.C?” Uhmmm, traffic? Seriously, traffic is really bad in D.C. and every once in a while we would get a snowstorm that would paralyze the city for a few days and cause people with bald tires to think they had 4-wheel drive, but for the most part, weather isn’t really all that noticeable there.

But it is noticeable here. Today, Barry the tropical storm has come to visit. The fires are out.

Featured Photographs - 5/28/2007

These are two of my favorite photographs. A patron at a show once asked me, "aren't they all you're favorites?" Well, some of them are more favorite than others and these are two of them. If I had to choose I'd say I like "Sun Salute" best because of the bird's raised foot but I love the colors of "Sunrise After the Storm".

As you can probably tell they were taken a few moments apart. It was a couple days after Katrina devastated New Orleans. It was a morning of mixed emotions as I traveled the road to Merritt Island on a long overdue photo trip. The trip was not going well. I had gotten out of bed in the dark in order to catch sunrise but low lying clouds completely obscured it. Now the sky was dreary and any color from the sun was behind the clouds. I was thinking of going back home to my warm bed but grabbing a little piece of hope I reflected that, every time I made the extra effort, whether it was getting up before dawn, traveling unfamiliar roads, carrying heavy equipment. Every time I stepped out of the familiar in search of a photograph, God blessed me with something beautiful.

The day was completely awake and the sun slightly over the clouds when I passed a busy boat ramp with cars and people. And I saw the bird sitting on top of the pole looking out over the water. I thought to myself, “No way, there are too many people and cars, I’ve passed my chance to stop, that bird will be long gone.” But then I thought about what I had reflected on earlier and I had to try. I turned around, found a place for my car, hurriedly gathered my equipment, and walked over to take my shot. For a few short minutes, in the midst of the people and cars and boats, it was just me and the bird and the sun. "Sun Salute" was one of the last taken and you can see the sun is going back behind the clouds again. A minute later and I would have missed both shots. As I finished up and put the lens cap on the camera, the bird flew away.

These are two of the photographs that were gifts from God, the ones that almost got away.

The proceeds from several prints of "Sunrise After the Storm" were donated to New Orleans relief through Peter Cohen of ExplodingEye.com.

"Sun Salute" was included in the Crealde Student Art Exhibit in 2006.

Keep your eyes open for the gifts....

Alison