North Florida Pictures: Sand

Friday, October 28, 2016

Backhoe tracks, Ponte Vedra Beach

As I took my morning walk on the beach, I followed the track of a backhoe as the tide came in. Amazing how many different stages of erosion there were.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Crab music, Ponte Vedra Beach

A fairly long explanation and a call for help from a music reader. Years ago I went to see Emmet Gowin give a talk about Frederick Sommer. Sommer was a wonderful artist who made incredible photographs, painted and generally experimented with any medium he could. A friend showed him the score of a symphony and he was taken by the beauty of the notes and lines. Thus inspired, he either drew or painted some fairly abstract scores (he had no knowledge of writing music). Another friend, a musician, decided to play the art and it, apparently, sounded like music. I am wildly paraphrasing here. This is all from a lecture from 40 years ago. Anyway, a few years later we went to a Sommer exhibit at a museum and met the man. He was in his eighties, vital, active and interested in everything he saw or heard. A real treat.

Anyway, I have always loved sand patterns and these crab tracks reminded me of music, then Sommer, then the story. I look at them and imagine the music would be very crablike, scurrying and percussive. Maybe a musician out there could see what it would sound like.

Monday, February 22, 2016

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.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

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.