"Travelogue: Iron Mountain Sunrise, Black Hills"

Admittedly, I'm 'out of order' this week...I blew yesterday, 'forgetting' it was Thursday...and here it is Friday with my new input towards a 'Fried Fridays' blog....so here I am deciding what to do...

I vote nature photography, hence "travelogue" entry. Could've easily done a Fried Fridays that would have contested Leona Helmsley's $1.4 million mausoleum burial site up against the NAACP President's comments, per Michael Vick and dogfighting, where he said "it was only a dog"...both are worthy "Fried Fridays" contenders.

Last week's travelogue blog was the moon setting over the Norbeck Overlook....what transpired was I arrived there, shot some moon shots (west), then walked 200 yards to shoot the sunrise from another rock outcropping (today's pics), and then went back to shoot some early sun shots from the Norbeck Overlook. Needless to say it was a wonderful and blessed morning, and I heard one single car in a 3-hour period, making it even better! Morning is my time of day, hands down...




"The morning light, which rains its quivering beams
Wide o'er the plains, the summits, and the streams,
In one broad blaze expands its golden glow
On all that answers to its glance below."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"Early morning hath gold in its mouth."

- Benjamin Franklin

"I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature, if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you, know that the morning and spring of your life are past."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Travelogue: Sunrises, Amelia Island, FL"

(REMEMBER: you can click on each pic to enlarge)

Fresh from last weekend are these images I had a hard time paring down...given the opportunity I love looking for form and texture, well beyond the traditional postcard-type of picture. Mind you, there are a couple of those as well...just thought I'd give you beach lovers something to dream about...

SO much is going on in the natural world at this time of day....the birds are active, searching for an early breakfast, gliding in the gentle breezes, all enjoying the relative coolness of a new day...

Without storms at sea, the ocean begins the day rather placid, still in anticipation of the day's winds and tidal pulls...and the transition from dark to purple-esque dawn to orange-y sunrises is always a joy to watch, as are the ever changing textures...

When I look at a scene, I naturally start with the 'big picture'...but it is a valuable thing to teach yourself to look at parts of the big picture...isolate certain aspects of the environment...focus on it and just look at it by itself...

...note the colors, the textures...note the unique form that makes it look 'different' from the other parts of the scene...then put the camera to the eye and capture that wonderful essence...

One nice thing about my job is that even on 'vacation' I naturally wake up before sunrise, a time of day I dearly love as so few people are up and about. It helps to know your camera, and what it means to adjust your EV settings, or go to selective priorities for certain effects, though for the 2nd of the 3 sunrises I realized my camera had 'magically' switched into monochrome mode...

And yet, even in that after-the-fact realization that something got terribly screwed up, there were some images that made me smile, even in black and white....and I know enough to know that even if something appears to be a 'lemon' there is always a 'lemonade' to be made from it...

And so I've included 3 of my 'oops!' images that I thought looked pretty neat in black and white, anyway...figured you might like them as well...you certainly can't call them 'normal' but as a great bumper sticker I've seen says, "Why Be Normal?"...

3 consecutive sunrises, all with consistent spring weather which helps heal the Soul...finding the uniqueness of each day, for that is what each New Day is: a Gift. A Gift not only to be enjoyed, but to be shared with others...which is the whole impetus of why I bother to write this blog at all...


As my daily mantra says, "Each new day give thanks, help others, and make a difference."

Go in peace, friends. Thanks for stopping in.