galveston, oh galveston
This weekend, Marcus, Alex and I drove down to Galveston. I had great plans to get down there and grab some shots in the bright morning light (like I did a few months ago), but apparently the weather wasn't having it: much like the clouds behaved during the night of the supermoon, as we made our way down to the coast, they rolled in, and the sky became really overcast. Plans for shots of bright blue skies were totally scuttled.
I've mentioned before: I'm not a big fan of Galveston beaches. On a good day, the waves are muddy and there's trash on the beaches. On this particular day, the beaches were also covered with jellyfish and Portuguese man o'war. And having tangled with a tiny Portuguese man o'war in my youth in Trinidad rendering me still scarred from the experience, I shuddered repeatedly as we picked our way across the beach (and I made Alex stay far, far away from the shoreline).
Still, we were there, and I had my camera, so I grabbed a few shots. Besides, there was a ton of seaweed ...
... which made for interesting pictures, I'll admit.
Then, just as I started really getting into taking the photographs and not minding the beach so much, a lone fisherman gave me a new reason why my commitment to never going into Galveston water was a good one.
I mean, I'm a scuba diver and all, and am totally cool with coming across sharks in the deep ocean; however, when a short man wading in thigh-deep water can snag a baby hammerhead, it's time for me to draw the line. I think it has something to do with me being comfortable going into a shark's habitat because I don't plan on doing anything to piss them off, but once they start encroaching into my land-based world, that's just unwarranted aggression, or something else completely illogical? Anyway, the point is that while that little one probably couldn't do much damage, who knows how far away his mama, dad, and mean-spirited cousins were.*
But.
To be totally honest and despite man o'war, I will come clean and admit the three of us had a great time. Marcus had packed us a surprise picnic, and it was lovely munching on good food, listening to the waves and feeling the warm breezes. And even though I didn't get the shots I was hoping for, I did get some cool shots I didn't expect.
* Second admission: Even though they frighten me, I'm totally fascinated by sharks. So I couldn't help feeling really sad when the fisherman tried to remove his hook to let the shark go, but he wasn't able to do it. Poor tiny thing.
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Heads-up to those of you in the Baltimore/Towson, Maryland area: I will be speaking at Towson University this Wednesday at the University Union -- I just learned it's absolutely free, and open to the public. Details can be found here. If you're in town, I'd love to see some friendly faces.
Images: Photographed with my Nikon D300, 35mm lens. First image: aperture 1.8, shutter speed 1/800, ISO 200; Second image: aperture 4.5, shutter speed 1/5000, ISO 200; Third image: aperture 1.8, shutter speed 1/800, ISO 200; Final image: aperture 1.8, shutter speed 1/1250, ISO 200.