Floridiana Gloriana

'Flyby' by James Good | Florida Keys| Creative Commons

Entrancing---and unique--- as I find James Good's Miami cityscapes, it's really hard (in fact, impossible) not to get sidetracked by his other work.  This, for example:

'Flyby' by James Good |To see his other photos, click here | To see the full-sized version of the photograph, click here 

I do not own the rights to this photograph, but am using it in compliance with a restricted Creative Commons license which allows limited noncommercial use.  Do not save or download it without consulting the terms of the license (shown here).

'Sunrise---Amelia Island' by Patty O'Hearn Kickham | Creative Commons

Another gorgeous photograph of Amelia Island from a contributor to Flickr's Creative Commons.

'Sunrise Amelia Island' by Patty O'Hearn Kickham/Memotions | website |  click here to see her other photographs |  Click here to see the full-sized version of this photograph at Flickr |

I do not own the rights to this Creative Commons photograph, but am using it in compliance with the terms of the license.  Please don't save or use it without first consulting the terms of the applicable license (here).

Dawn at St. Augustine Beach | St. Augustine

As I've said before, people normally don't think of the "rockbound coasts of Florida," but when thinking of North Florida, maybe they should.  This is St. Augustine Beach just after dawn.  It is incredibly beautiful in the early morning light.  I don't think I'll ever forget this walk I took one morning in late autumn.  The gold and blue tints really were paradisical.

You really can't walk along the beach at high tide, as you can see.  I once got caught on the beach at high tide at Jacksonville Beach and had to scramble up the rocks.  Not a good idea.  I don't know what it's like at St. Augustine Beach; we left that morning.

A Walk Across the Water | Keaton Beach

Of the photographs I've taken in various parts of Florida, this photograph of the rocks at Keaton Beach is one of my favorites. The sun was getting low in the sky, which really brought out the yellow tint of the rocks. When Don and I used to visit, there was no walkway, and people used to climb all over the rocks to fish (someday I'll post a photo that I have in my files somewhere showing how it looked). This is picturesque in a different way. I love it that yuo can see the houses in the distance  You can see these rocks in  the background of the first "panoramic" photograph (below); here,  you can see much more of the Gulf.

Panorama | Keaton Beach

As I've said before, while the Nature Coast is beautiful, it doesn't have the glamorous beaches that most people expect to find in Florida. For a Floridian, the smaller beaches are well worth a look, particularly if you live in North Florida. I am astonished at how many of my fellow North Floridians have never explored the less populous areas of the state. People who moan about overdevelopment and the proliferation of chain restaurants really need to check out some of the unspoiled areas of the nature coast.

This is a photograph (almost 10 years old) of Keaton Beach, another small beach on the west coast of Florida. We really stumbled on it completely by accident. This photograph was taken the first time Don and I went there, which must have been around 1997, when Don and I were there. The light wasn't great and doesn't really do justice to the yellow tint of the rocks and sand and the blueness of the water, but I think that the photograph is well-composed and I like the beach umbrella in the foreground and the sense it gives you of the scope of the beach.

Palms, rock, water | Citrus County

I'm not sure of the exact location of this little cove. Within walking distance of the beach, I think. In the background, you can see cedar trees. Cedar trees are a frequent feature of the northwest coast. Another reason I love this part of Florida's coast so much. One never thinks of "rockbound" when imagining the coast of Florida, but there are places along the northwest where it is quite rocky. The shores in this part of the coast are often grassy rath er than sandy; beautiful to look at but not so nice for swimming.

Gulf Beach Palms | Citrus County

 
What really impressed me most about that part of Citrus County was all the palm trees. Is there such a thing as a 'palm barrens'? Because that's what we saw driving out to the point. I don't ordinarily photograph clumps of trees, but this particular one has an unusuall dimensional aspect. Perhaps it's all the different greens that give this effect; or the depth of the shadows contrasting with the brightness of the sun on the palms in front. I don't remember taking this photo; I'm thinking Don must have, though it isn't the sort of photograph he usually liked either. At any rate, I find it really beautiful (or perhaps more accurately, I find the scene it evokes really beautiful).

Green Bucket | Fort Island Gulf Beach

   I am particularly fond of this photo of a little boy---my stepson, actually---which I took at Fort Island Gulf Beach almost 9 years ago. I love the earnest, dedicated expression on his face and the combination of the primary colors in his shorts and shirt with the green bucket and blue-green hat. It was one of my late husband's favorite photos.

This particular long-ago little Floridian (he is in his teens now) was having a wonderful time scooping up water from the gulf and using it to make a moat around the sand castle he was constructing with his sister. He stumbled into the foreground of a landscape photograph I hadn't intended anyone to occupy, but in the end turned out to be the one thing that made the photo worth keeping. I don't usually take photographs for general display with people in them (at least, not intentionally) but sometimes they turn up in the photo and end up being the main interest.

Because this is really just a detail from a larger photo, the quality ain't great, even by my amateur's standards. Never mind; as in so much else in life, it's the thought that counts!

Lifeguard Tower | Fort Istland Gulf Beach

  Fort Island Gulf Beach is small but photogenic beach that Don and I stumbled on years ago when we were driving along US 19. It's in Citrus County, near Crystal River. It's one of the small Nature Coast beaches. It's located near a nuclear power station which stands in startling contrast to the incredibly beautiful wetlands and palm forests that surround it. When I visited, there were eagle nests all over the place.

You find the beautiful broad beaches of most people's imagined Florida further south. You can see breathtaking photographs of the amazingly beautiful southwest Florida coast in the very useful beach guide here (the photo showing the white sand of Caladesi Island and Madeira Beach are alone worth clicking for).

But North Florida Gulf beaches are usually small and comparatively unimpressive in scope. The sand of many of these beaches is a rich brownish yellow color that I find particularly beautiful as a counterpoint to the clear blue of the Gulf, but does not have the paradisical effect of the white sugar sands further south or in parts of the Panhandle. Nevertheless it is charming in its way.

...we're still here.

I haven't heard any reports from other parts of the state, but after many a school and early work closing, the hurricane really didn't do more than dump a lot of water on us and move northward. It was grey, rainy, and (for awhile) sort of windy, but not worse than we usually expect on a summer afternoon. As someone said, the threat of intense storms increases as the season progresses, so I am not being smug or anything. At least it cooled things down a bit.

It's very peaceful now. I can hear the frogs trilling in the creek out back---a very pretty sound and audible even over the air conditioning. I'm hoping the weather stays sufficiently comfortable to make a trip to the coast possible over the weekend. The place I have in mind is about as different from Key West as it's possible for a place to be. It's comparatively unknown and undeveloped.

There's a reason, after all, why the west coast (or at least the part that's in northern Florida) is known as "the nature coast." The above photograph was taken in December---what I call a Florida "white Christmas." The sand at that particular beach was just as white and fine as it looks. At another west coast beach I visited it was yellow. And on the northwest coast it's the color and texture of brown sugar. For the white sugar sand you have to go to the right places.

The water of the Gulf is different from the Atlantic. In the places where it's shallow it's a clear, glassy green when the sun shines on it, a bluer tint where the water is deeper. In the Tampa Bay area, there are places that will knock your eyes out, but in the north the effects are subtler.