afraid of sunshine.

As much as I enjoy road trips and discovering new places to take pictures, there are two things I do not like. One of these things obviously being filling up my gas tank, and the other being a certain bridge I have to cross in order to get up the state. The Sunshine Skyway is on the way to Tampa, and it is the highest/most terrifying thing I have ever driven on. To add to my fear of driving on this beastly structure, I recently heard about the huge accident that happened in 1980.

The original bridge was hit by a freight ship, and it collapsed killing 35 people who's vehicles plunged into the water. When you drive on the new Skyway that was built to replace the old, you will see two "fishing piers" to the left when you are going north. Those are actually parts of the old bridge, and I find that eerie.

In doing some more research, I discovered that the freight ship is still being used. After the accident, it was sold and renamed. Who would really want to use a ship that was involved in such a terrible accident?

metaphorical snails.

Occasionally, I will take a picture that makes me reflect on my own life. Even if the subject in the photograph has no obvious correlation to me.

I came across a snail on the front porch of a friends apartment, and I sat and watched it trail across the cement. Every few inches, it paused to look back at it's path. With more reflection, I have realized that I can take a lesson from the snail. Keep moving, while still taking some time to look back at the past. Since everything does happen for a reason, right? Which made me think of a song by a band called The Format, called "Snails."

"Snails see the benefits
the beauty in every inch."

Look it up, it's pretty good.

And to think, all of these ideas came from a snail in a picture.

family: myrtaceae genera: eugenia

While spending a day wandering my usual spot, downtown Ft. Myers, I decided to take some pictures of the old Federal Building on First Street. I heard it was being remodeled into the Sidney & Berne Art Center, which should be a really awesome place to visit when it's done. There was only one thing I wanted to make sure they didn't to touch. Outside the steps of the old court house are two metal cylinder light structures with words cut out. I never paid attention to what the words actually are, but the friends who I was with that day mentioned they were names of flowers. When the light on the inside of the cylinder comes on, the words are reflected all over the outside of the building.

For the record, Eugenia is not one of those names you find on a keychain when you visit Florida. It is never on a personalized mug. On a whim, I figured I would look and see if my name was one of the words, since Eugenia is a type of little white flower. My one chance, you know? Much to my surprise...

awkward four.

Think of your ideal "other half." What makes them so attractive? Maybe you are into musicians, who make sure to play their music every morning for all to hear. Maybe they have an affinity for Dr. Pepper. Maybe you like someone who always has cash on them, I don't know. If so, I have someone you can meet.



I passed this man one morning on Duval Street in Key West. He was quite the musician alright, especially since there were no strings on his little guitar. I wonder if he even knew. He actually asked me to marry him (no joke), but don't worry ladies, I declined. He is still up for grabs.

polaroids facing extinction.

Nearly every childhood is peppered by photographs.

For 80's babies, these photographs are far from digital. Instant polaroids were definitely the popular photographic medium. Although I work primarily with manual and digital SLR's, polaroids have kept their place in my heart.

This being said, I was pretty upset when I heard the news. Polaroid is discontinuing their instant film, and they have already stopped producing instant cameras. This is quite depressing to me, because I would love for my hypothetical, not even in existance yet, children to have a few polaroids of their childhood. For old time's sake.

I guess I can stock up, famine style.



me, circa 1987

awkward number three.

The third installment of my Awkward series comes straight out of St. Petersburg, Florida. I took a trip there to visit the Salvador Dali Museum, and after I spent a few hours there I decided to venture downtown.

I was simply waiting to cross the street, minding my own business. Wearing two pairs of sunglasses, a white wig, and a fanny pack (YES! Again with the fanny pack) was a woman who decided to bestow some knowledge onto me. Lucky me.

"You should dye your hair blonde, my dear."

Oh jeeze, I thought to myself, she is definitely talking to me.

I decided to go along with it so I said, "Excuse me?"

Here came the response that didn't need any interjection on my part. It went somewhat like, "Dye your hair blonde, I said, or just get a wig like mine. All princesses have blonde hair. And wear all white. That's what princesses do to. Just look at Princess Diana. What a shame. Blonde hair. Us women will take over the world, someday. We are going to start with St. Petersburg. You just wait. I have to go, the light is saying I can cross."

emotion capture.

It's so dreary outside and I am feeling pretty nostalgic. Looking through pictures I have taken over the last two years has only added to the nostalgia. I don't know if someone who isn't a photographer can relate to this, but I can remember the exact moment that I took each picture. How I was feeling, what was going on in my life, who I was with-everything. It is such an odd sensation to look back at life when you thought you knew exactly how things were going to turn out. The people in my photographs that aren't in my life anymore, the times I can never go back to, as well as the ones that I would never want to. Each photograph I take involves a piece of me. I have an emotional connection with each picture and subject, even years after the photo has already been processed.

spandex, fanny packs, and muscle cars.

I like shows. Art shows, performing arts shows, musical shows... game shows, tv shows. But I can honestly say I have never enjoyed a dog show or a car show.

Luckily, I don't have friends that are into dog shows.

Much to my disappointment, car shows are somewhat of a popular past time. People have tried to convince me to go plenty of times.

"It will be fun!"

Oh, that familiar promise.

So, I gave it a few chances, and I am still not a fan. That being said, I was spending a day downtown (surprise, surprise) when I came across one of my favorite events. Can we guess what it was?

Lined up First and Dean Street were old vintage cars, including Mustangs and Bel-Airs. Those being the only two I know the names of. I almost brushed off the event entirely, which would have been quite unfortunate. What I saw made my day. Crouched next to a nicely polished red vehicle was a man who was...not so polished. Wearing a screamingly unmatched spandex outfit with camera in hand, this man was oblivious to the fact that people were trying to figure out his outfit, not look at the car. He even had a fanny pack and his hair slicked back into a pony tail. I watched him for a while, as he circled the same car to take pictures of it from every angle. Sounds creepy, but he gained the attention of everyone at the car show. I'm pretty sure some children were ushered away by parents, because of the obscene nature of the spandex.

So thank you, SpandexFannyPackMan, for making at least one car show of my life halfway enjoyable.

separation.

Port Charlotte, Florida.

A place often forgotten about unless you are from there. If you aren't, there isn't much of a reason to go. Unless your name is Eugenia, and you waste a lot of gas driving for the sake of getting interesting photos.

I spent a day taking pictures at the old rail car at the Southwest Florida Museum of History in Fort Myers, and I was pretty excited about it. Telling a friend from Port Charlotte about the old railroad station, he gave me directions without telling me where I was going. "GO HERE!" he commanded, "You will want to get pictures of this."

That's all I needed. A little bait, and I was hooked. The next day Doug (the Corolla... introduced in a previous post) and I took our road trip to Port Charlotte. For a while, I drove aimlessly, stopping to snap a few random pictures.

Finally, I made it to the destination on the poorly drawn map. Yes, he drew a map to accompany my directions.

I could not believe what I was looking at; I almost forgot to put Doug in park. The structure, which I later learned, is protected by a historical society. A piece of memorabilia from an ignorant past some would like to forget.

It is the Port Charlotte Train Depot. Judging from the signage on the outside, the building functions as an antique store during the day. But what really made my stomach churn was what still adorned the doorways.

awkward numero dos.

Fleamasters flea market is located off Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Fort Myers. It is where most of Southwest Florida's interesting population spend their weekends. Sounds almost like an advertisement, but don't kid yourself. If you weren't interested in taking pictures there, I wouldn't recommend going. Rude people, fanny packs, and food cooked on grills that don't know "clean" reside there. Unless you like that sort of thing.

But... the picture for the second awkward post comes straight from Fleamasters.




If that is a real location, I need to go.

rusty old things.

Lately an odd obsession of mine has been finding rusted, decrepit objects. Whether it is old vehicles, buildings, or fences made of hubcaps, I am all over it.

When one of my best friends moved into an apartment in downtown Ft. Myers, she decided to give me a spare key to her place. For a reason I couldn't even try to explain, one day I realized that the key unlocked a side door. After I got enough guts to walk down the creepy stairs, I discovered that it leads to an unfinished basement decorated with graffiti. There are several staircases that have been filled in with cement, which left me wondering what this building used to be. Turns out, it used to be an orphanage over fifty years ago until it closed down. Sort of creepy, yes, but it only got weirder when I figured out my key opened a door to a staircase on the side of the building.

YES, I had a lot of time on my hands that day.

The stairs were painted green and twisted up along all nine floors. They were unusually steep and narrow, and definitely not up to fire codes.

Another intriguing rust bucket I found was while a few friends and I were walking down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. It was just a random abandoned pink wagon sitting behind a building, but the weird thing was what was inside. I don't know if someone planted the plants inside of it, or it just started naturally, but it was interesting nontheless.

Further down the road, I discovered a fence constructed of rusted hubcaps. I don't know who had the patience or time to fit them together, because it stretched around the length of two properties. But I am probably not in a position to talk about people having too much free time.

(The last three photos included are of an old van that obviously made it's way down from Alaska to rust in a field located near the airplanes from my previous post.)