Self Portrait

I'm not nearly as old as I look.  I've only taken on this appearance to avoid being carded at the liquor store.

The Nature of Stones

Season of wisdon

enlightenment comes abruptly

when minding the stones

Geology meets Abnormal Psychology

A twisted mind will often find items of peculiar interest while casually observing the trail of dark experience.

While neither the trails nor the experiences are always dark, my twisted sense of humor more often is.

I found this stone on the path to the Los Ebanos Ferry last year and immediately saw the humor in its shape.  During the past year, I've worked on several images trying to create something within, at least, the fringe of social acceptability.

How does a basalt stone get from its original home to the alluvial plain of deep south Texas?  What mystery of forces defined its shape?  Did it have its present shape when Mayans dominated this part of the continent?  Why was I the one to see it, pick it up and create the photograph?

There are three images of the stone in this illustration - they are all variations of the same photograph.

Weighted Man

Still Looking Goofy After All These Years

The photo on the left was taken by my big brother, Dick, in the spring of 1955 (late April, early May).  I am holding a Northern Pike that he speared in the creek behind Grandpa and Grandma's house.
The photo on the right was taken a few days ago by my friend Wes.  I am holding a Chinook Salmon I caught while fishing from his boat in White Lake.
I have the same goofy smile, but the hat covers my serious loss of hair over the past 57 years.  About three years after I posed for the photo on the left, I began wearing glasses.  Note also, the similar appreciation in haberdashery between then and now.
I don't recall fishing again until I was in my early twenties when I took up fly-fishing and it became a consuming hobby.

Salmon Fishing

Salmon fishing season has begun on the Great Lakes.  Large numbers of people come from all over the country to participate in this exciting event when the enormous fish begin their annual spawning run from the deep lakes into the rivers and streams.

An interesting contrast is the wide open spaces for boats on Lake Michigan compared to the elbow-to-elbow "combat" fishing on piers all around the lakes.

This shot of the two piers at the White Lake Channel was taken about 8:30 in the morning, two hours after sunrise - well after experienced fishermen have gone for the day.  Most of the fish are caught in the hour or so before daylight and an hour or so after.  Although, during my visit this morning I saw two people catch very nice fish, a salmon in the neighborhood of 15 pounds, and a Lake Trout that weighed in at about ten pounds.

Early Morning on the Muskegon River Delta

 

 

Morning Shadows

Dog Days of Summer

Already the dog days of summer are upon us.  In the mid-west Queen Anne's Lace is abundant in every untilled field, fence row and highway shoulder.  There is a tinge of yellow in the Poplars and the air smells of autumn.

As usual, I am not ready.  It seems summer has only just begun.  I didn't go trout fishing nearly often enough, as usual.  I didn't get as many photos as I had planned.  My plan for this blog was to update it with at least one new picture every day.  Too many things left undone.

Next summer...

Sunrise Over the White River

Cursing circumstances, whatever they were, I was wide awake a little before 6:00 this morning.  A glance out the window to check the weather revealed a low flying fog over the river and surrounding marsh.  There was a potential for spectacular sunrise photos so I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed to the fishing bridge.  Arriving just in time to capture this golden glow about ten minutes before the sun crested the horizon, I quickly set up the camera and took the shot.  It required some Photoshop work to reveal the minimal detail in the brush and reeds at the left as well as a contrast adjustment to intensify the golden reflections against the blue sky.  Maybe it was worth a couple hours of lost sleep.  Even so, I am beginning a campaign to move sunrise to about 11:00 A.M.  Anybody with me?