Floridiana Gloriana

The gazebo| Lake Lochloosa

This is a pretty place to sit and read, but I couldn't seem to sit still that day. It was a perfect, warm February day. We didn't even need jackets. I just wandered up and down the lake's edge, taking photographs. I couldn't believe how radiant, how lucid it all was. It was like a religious experience. Perhaps it was a religious experience. I felt really a part of things. I also felt that by taking pictures, I was preserving them in some way.You can see yourself what I saw. Maybe I'll go back there someday.

Sunset Over the Gulf | Cedar Key

Don took this photograph of the sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico just before Christmas 1997. We had just had dinner at the wonderful Cedar Key restaurant, the Captain's Table (one of my favorite restaurants on earth), and when we walked outside, this is what we saw.Cedar Key was Don's favorite place to photograph. We took a lot of pictures there. We especially liked taking pictures in winter because---a few years ago---the winter weather was reliably clear, the light has a special clarity you don't see in our humid summers, and the sun set came early so we didn't have to wait around forever to get the late afternoon/early evening light that we both preferred. This is another photograph that really captures my idea of the colors of a Florida sunset. I realize that sunsets everywhere are much of a muchness, but the ones here have less of the bloody reds I was used to in North Carolina and more shades of coral, apricot, and peach color. There is something delicate and slightly washed out about them that I really love.

Travelling Back to Old Florida | Suwannee

"Winter Canal" by Damozel

A winter's day on a canal not too far from the mouth of the Suwannee circa 1997: a beautiful view along a canal. I chose this because of the view up the canal, the lacy look of the trees, and the beautiful blend of browns, greens, and greys. Most winter days are sunny and on such a day this scene would be totally transformed (beautiful still, but not the same). This sort of light is (or was then) fairly rare. I find the starkness and simplicity of color very lovely; it reminds me of Japanese paintings. In the summer it would be a mass of green and the reflections and shadows would make it hard to see straight through to the end.

A View of the Bridge over the St. Johns River---Palatka Florida

This is one of my favorite photographs of the bridge over the St. Johns River.  This is from the little central Florida town of Palatka.  I took it from the riverbank, where there is an extensive park.  According to Wikipedia, the name comes from an Indian word meaning "cow crossing" or cow ford."  It was initially developed by the Spanish. 

Palatka is a very pretty old town, with beautiful old houses.  The atmosphere is what I'd call "sleepy"; it's an honest-to-God mainly unspoiled southern town, despite being not so very far from the coast.   Apparently---I am going by the same article---it went through its golden age in the 1880's.   Presumably this was the period when all the beautiful old homes were built.

Besides the riverbank park---which is rather a sad place these days, as it seems to attract a number of homeless people, poor things---there is Ravine State Gardens, certainly worth a look if you are ever near the town.  I went there once with my friend Rumcove.

IMAGE HOSTING BY FLICKR.