Tangle Foot

I was watching the fishermen along the Gulf side of East Point, Florida arrive in oyster boats with their enormous net bags of fresh oysters. They immediately went to large sheds to unload. After a day on the water the oystermen are covered with mud from harvesting as though it‘s a protective layer. The long black aprons they wear seem an inadequate shield from the layers of Gulf of Mexico silt, sand and tiny broken shells

One oysterman caught my eye as he left one of the sheds. He wore a slouch hat at a rakish angle and work clothes with a long black apron. On his bare feet were thick leather clogs. Sparkling blue eyes looked up at me from behind wire rim glasses. I asked if I could take his picture and introduced myself as a photography teacher. He said his name was Tangle Foot. Looking at his feet I knew why. The many years of oystering have damaged his feet.

 At 60 he is a veteran of a hard life on the Gulf.  A happy smiling man, Tangle Foot lives in a town in the northwest panhandle of Florida with a population of 979 people. He is proud to be called an oysterman, but was quick to tell me about other parts of his life.

He continues to fish and practice his passion of making beautiful fishing lures out of found material and paint from K Mart. The lures are expertly crafted, looking just like the very expensive ones seen in tackle shops.

Tangle Foot is a talker. He tells me about his 6 year old granddaughter who calls him Poppy.    She has a little pink rifle she thinks she can use to shoot alligators but of course very small alligators.  He told me she had already gone ‘gator’ hunting with him. He quickly pulled from his red checkered shirt pocket some pictures of a pretty little girl with a head of blond curls with her 6 inch ‘gator’, a little pink toy rifle in one hand and her arm around her Poppy’s neck. Tangle Foot was of course holding the alligator.

As I left I said I would send him a copy of one of the photographs of him and he immediately gave me his address. I asked for his name and he said, "Just put Tangle Foot.  The Post Office knows who I am."

Sun Seeker

Nature is amazing in its diversity. The glorious yellow of this lovely Hibiscus is just stunning to a visual person like me. Added to the color are all the many other images within images the back lighting of the sun created. Shooting close and cropping the resulting picture only emphasized the many colors, lines, and shapes. If ever there was a flower to make my heart sing this was it!

Refreshing Shades of Green

Green is the color of spring but in Maui the hills wear green year round. Here the light and shadow created I don't know how many shades of green, but it made me smile. I photographed these hills because they were beautiful and showed an entirely different view of Hawaii.

Reaching for the Light

How insignificant and simple an image can seem but still have something to show us...  alive in the harshest conditions.  Look at the vibrant color of this single spear of green. In a tiny patch of a great sand dune there is light and shadow.
This photograph is full of lessons for me. It is about reaching for the light, with tenacity and assurance, believing I will reach my artistic goals by overcoming the roadblocks in my life.

Balcony Shadows

Light and shadow can be found everywhere if you only you look!
My artistic process or creative journey starts by seeking the light which for me is the single most important part of art photography. With light you have line, texture, shadow, shape, and form .You see things you once walked right by without a notice.
Ocean City Maryland is famous for its beaches but visiting there I noticed the buildings along the beach because the late afternoon light was playing on the concrete and glass. I saw shadows and reflections of the balconies and the blue sky.  Some windows had the curtains closed and others were open. I learned that day to not only look around me but to look up and be prepared for a surprise.

Muriel: The Blog Begins

Today is the birthday of my blog about photography and how photography has changed my life.  It took many years to say the word artist and art photographer out loud.  When people asked me what I did, I would say teacher instead of artist.

I hope that the creation of my blog will allow me to expand my vision still more by seeking and seeing images in new and challenging ways. Living, growing and expressing myself as an artist  is a passion which I want to share. Writing a few sentences about my  pictures draws people closer and they  learn more about what the artistic part of me was trying to say.   

The available light from the window was all I needed on a cold day in winter to start my egg project. I soon was in an artistic zone not really seeing anything else in the room. I had white eggs, brown eggs, brown and white eggs, eggs in a nest, eggs in a Zen garden with beautiful black round stones, a cracked egg shell with a whole strawberry resting in the shell. I saw how the light produced additional shapes within the shadows themselves.