For Wes Disney

I took a few workshops from Wes Disney when I lived in Vermont. His teaching and curiosity were and inspiration. He had a wonderful picture, done with an 8x10 camera, of a very similar lifeguard's chair. Every now and then I take one just to keep him in my memory.

Hieroglyphics Ponte Vedra Beach

Foam, Ponte Vedra Beach

Beach dancing, Ponte Vedra Beach

This couple was jogging and the man would change strides every ten yards or so. He started to do sideways crossover steps and the woman followed suit. It sure looked like dancing.

Low tide, Ponte Vedra Beach

Teacup sun Ponte Vedra Beach

She's back!

My wife has just returned from walking the French route of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a spiritual journey that she has wanted to do since she saw the movie The Way with Martin Sheen. It took three weeks to go about 200 miles, mostly up and down and she walked every step. My hero!

Early morning thunderstorm, off shore Ponte Vedra Beach

Blue chair, Ponte Vedra Beach

With a nod to Mike Johnston

Birds seen today

 Willet and boaters

 Pelicans

Three Carolina skimmers and two Royal terns. They go to the same barber.

Pelican and cormorant PVB

Shadow, PVIC

The value of other's eyes. PVIC beach

I have photographed bird tracks in the sand since we moved here 23 years ago. I was walking with my friend, John, and my wife. I stopped to take a picture of the little prints and Janie said "Look, those tracks look like little palm trees." Never saw it until then. Thanks honey.

Large, bald man, New Year's Day, 2016, PVIC

No children were scared this day.

Sunrise, Ponte Vedra Beach

It was 70f (21.1C) yesterday on the beach. Not bad for the last day of November.

Beach family, PBV

Morning P.V. Beach, March 9th, 2015, 69F, calm. One reason we live here.

A line in the sand, PVIC

I am always amused by people who ask why I walk on the same beach two or three times a week. "After all, it's just sand and water, isn't it?"  Well....yes and no. Both of those things are very susceptible to movement. Wind moves both of them and water moves sand. Over the past year the prevailing winds have allowed the beach to slowly creep up. The white line is the edge of a seawall in front of the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club (PVIC). A few years ago, our granddaughter loved to run and jump off this wall. There was a three foot drop to the beach. Now, when we have a Nor'easter, the beach comes over the wall. Nature is never static.

Sand sculpture, P V Beach

Right next to the one below.

To Wes, Ponte Vedra Beach

Wes Disney was a photographer/artist/muralist in Burlington, VT when I lived there. I attended two of his workshops to my great benefit. His were unconventional workshops. I arrived at my first one, having been asked to bring recent work. At that point in time I printed every day in one of two darkrooms. So I brought the most recent 200 prints in two ratty old paper boxes. Everyone else brought carefully assembled portfolios. The first night we all ate copiously and drank beer and wine until the wee hours. We had a lot of laughs and, being a gregarious person, I was in the middle of  the give and take. We all stumbled up to bed and Wes stayed up and went through our pictures. When we came down he had everyone's portfolios assembled separately. There were some wonderful prints and good groups. Mine were nowhere in sight.....gulp. Wes critiqued everyone's work and then said that mine was a different problem, he couldn't choose.

The group of pictures I had brought were everything from work prints to finished work. I have never concentrated on one area of photography, probably to my detriment, but love trying every part of the discipline. Wes led us into the rec room, the workshop was in the early Spring at a summer camp, and, there on the ping pong table were all of my prints. Still he never critiqued them, just suggested people look at them.

That night we had an even better evening, good food, good laughs and great wine. Still no critique. Yikes. The next day was the last and we were all scheduled to leave by 2:00. At 1:00 Wes asked me to take a walk with him. We went around a corner and there was a barn in a field with a boat on a trailer around which the snow had blown. He asked if I saw anything and I said the the boat looked as if it was at full speed through the snow. He then said that he had looked for two days to find an example to show me and the boat was it. He said that I spotted it in a minute. Then he said that I should use my sense of humor in my photography and walked away. Done. Over. That was my critique. I spent a month trying to make funny pictures before it dawned on me that he meant use my quick wit and stop trying to be Edward Weston, or Irving Penn, two of my heroes, and take what I saw in a flash. It changed my personal work entirely.

Wes had a wonderful print in his studio of a lifeguard's chair, taken with his rickety old 8x10 camera. I loved it and never was smart enough to buy one. Wes got melanoma and died in 2000. I still miss him. This picture that I took last week is the latest and closest attempt to recreate that print. It doesn't come close but it keeps Wes in my mind.