Sand pattern, Ponte Vedra Beach

This picture is more to illustrate a story than anything else. When I walk the beach here, on Fridays, I am alone. As everyone around here knows, I always carry a camera. The sand on our beaches is a mix of grey, black and a greenish blue. When we have a long stretch of calm weather all of the shells and rocks get slowly covered and the layers of sand mix about into wonderful patterns. They are probably more flow charts than patterns, dealing with the weight of each shade.

So, when there are these patterns, and I'm alone, I walk along and photograph interesting ones. To the average beach walker this looks strange, this big bald man photographing what looks like grey sand. Occasionally I get stopped. Last Friday a woman walked up and asked me what I was taking pictures of. (I should mention here that these patterns are visible, but are much more subtle than the files I post. You can see the pattern, but just a little. I add a bit of contrast to bring them out.) She was almost angry about the waste of time I was manifesting. I told her about the patterns and how I saw them change every day. Then she looked down and "saw" what I was seeing. She got into it a little and, within a minute was saying"Look at that one, it's like feathers!"

Part of the fun of taking pictures is showing people things the way you see them, usually from a different way of seeing. But the real fun is when you get someone to look at something they've been looking at for years and see it differently.