On the last day of the Siesta Beach Sand Sculpture contest, I strolled through these amazing creations taking pictures of them. This particular example had such interesting textures that it fascinated me. It was not the winner but most certainly exhibited the creativity of the artist and his painstaking attention to detail.
On the last day of the Siesta Beach sand sculpture competition, I strolled through the artistic creations taking pictures. A professional camera crew appeared at one of these sculptures with all the reflectors, props and staging personnel. It was fascinating to watch this process. One of the show’s assistants told me it was a crew from Harper’s Bazaar taking pictures for their anniversary edition to be published in the Spring of 2017. Their model was directed to pose in various stances “with a ball”. She was very creative with a variety of postures using her prop. I captured several but liked her expression in this instance.
During a photo shoot in Sarasota around the Palm Avenue area, I spied this sign outside what appeared to be a hair salon. It most likely refers to a hair style preference . . .(?)
Part of the definition of “abstract”, pertaining to art, is this: “. . .Having only intrinsic form with little or no pictorial representation”. Driving past Sarasota’s Ringling School of Art and Design, I realized that there are several of these representations in a parking lot on the edge of its campus. Above pictured are a few of them. I have been trying to contact the school in quest of the artists’ names and perhaps a bit of information surrounding them . . . no luck yet.
On a recent photo shoot at Sarasota’s Island Park, a group of us took pictures before the sun rose. Along the bay front path, we encountered some quaint and quirky decorations. Bikes (which have seen better days) were spray painted in pastels and embellished with sea birds perched on them. They were scattered throughout the park and added interest for the early morning walkers and runners. This particular bike had a bromeliad in its basket and some wooden fish ‘swimming’ around it. Our leader told us these bikes had been painted and decorated by a staging person from one of our local theaters.
Thought I might do the most risqué picture first 🙂 Worked with my mirrorless digital camera to capture this one. The top (lid) is off the jar and the dryer lint catchers are spilling out. You can see the small tentacles on each of these lint-catchers.
Recently, I took a trip to Big Cat Habitat on a rather humid and hot afternoon. It was great fun taking pictures of the tigers basking in their pools. Sometimes, it is a challenge to focus so that the fences and gates ‘disappear’ from the picture. However, this noble looking tiger posed nicely letting me capture his portrait. So (tempted that I may be to apply a little Photoshop touchup) here is the tiger — Straight Out of The Camera.
You never know who — or what — may appear on your lanai on a moonlit night !
It was a beautiful night with full moon casting light on the lanai so I decided to experiment with my Canon M3 (mirror less) digital camera. A stuffed white rabbit posed on a child’s white rocker allowed some little light along with much increased ISO, a shutter on “Bulb” and cooperating aperture. Though shades were drawn on windows opening onto the lanai, some light from inside the house seemed to have filtered onto this scene. Most surprising to me were the different shades of “white” that were captured.
Front view of the landfill Caterpillar
Last Saturday, I took some things to the e-scrap collection at the Lena Road Landfill in Manatee County, FL. Beside the road leading to the unloading area, I spied this monument commemorating days gone by. There sat the very rusty Caterpillar “pulling” its serrated disks that once were used to break up — or break down — materials dumped in the landfill from garbage collections.
Beyond and around this machine one can see hills created by heaping that garbage, breaking it down and continually shaping it into the hill-like structures seen in these pictures. Of course, this machine preceded the huge crusher machines of today. It has been several years since this rather small Caterpillar workhorse-on-tracks was driven over those heaps of waste. It appears to have been worked long hours in all kinds of weather and now shows its age with 50 shades of rust in its worthy retirement.
Nesting dolls seem to be universal but, from my investigation, appear to have originated in Russia. While traveling, we have discovered many countries have their own concept of these dolls. Recently, while visiting the Greek Glendi Festival at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church near Sarasota, I discovered many sets of these dolls showing the Greek versions. The first picture shows the largest doll of a set that, when opened, contains the smaller one which, when opened, contains a smaller doll, etc.
Revealed below is the entire set of five dolls. However, some sets contain even more characters not necessarily identical but the shape is usually constrained by the need to fit into smaller and smaller containers. Thus, features, clothing and colors are defined by painting on these vessels.
52 Weeks Of Donna's Life 