Mineola Journal #9

We normally see mostly birds on Phillippi Creek (which runs right by our backyard), but occasionally Raccoons come down to the waters edge. This short video was made early in the morning (their usual time for a visit), hence the grainy look to the video.

11:11:11 Ceremony

This is a video of a 11:11:11 ceremony that was held on Lido Beach in Sarasota. I photographed this event with my Panasonic GH2 which is able to record both video and stills. The beauty of this camera is that as I am recording video, I am also able to make stills at the same time which is quite a trip. Enjoy

Meditative Music & Light

Mari has been attending a workshop with Linda Maree for a few months. Recently we met Linda and her partner David Gittens on Siesta Key beach and had a wonderful connection with both of the them. This video is from a performance that David and Linda gave at the Unity Church of Sarasota. David’s guitar is a 23 string guitar of his own creation and Linda is playing a Tambura. I took the audio portion of their performance and ran it through iTunes and did a video screen capture of the Visualizer which was responding to the music David and Linda played. Sit back and relax, but don’t close your eyes.

Mineola Journal #7

To me Ibis are the Jimmy Durante of birds with their long beak. They are grazers, often moving across our lawn in groups of 6 or more. I hope you enjoy this brief video. My homage to Ibis or is it Ibii.

Mineola Journal 4 – 6

#4 Great Egrets

Great Egrets are very commonly seen in the creek. They appear very tame and will walk right by with no concern. We also see Snowy Egrets and Cattle Egrets.

#5 Manatees

We do see Manatees quite often in creek off our backyard, but all we usually see is their nose coming up for air and a little bit of wake. On this day there was a lot of action happening because they were maiting.

#6 Great Blue Herons

Great Blue Herons are a very common presence here. Sometimes they will stand for hours in the same place doing nothing but standing and preening. As you will see, one of the Great Blue Herons had some kind of mouthful.

Mineola Journal 1-3

#1 Heron & Spoonbill

Since I purchase a new camera (Panasonic Lumix GH2) I have been making videos with this remarkable camera. These “Mineola Journals” are short videos taken in our backyard (Mineola is the street we live on). Our backyard ends at Phillippi Creek which is a long meandering creek the empties into the Gulf.

#2 Anhingas

We see Anhingas often in the creek. They have no oil in their wings like other water birds and so they have to dry them off in order for them to fly effectively.

#3 Reflections

Late in the day, with the sun low in the sky, interesting patterns form on the opposite shore.

Refections are so difficult to communicate through still photos. Video really is able to capture the mood of moving reflections.

Maggie, Lorna & Tony

I met Maggie, Lorna & Tony through Debbie (my sister-in-law) who had been dog sitting for Karen & Tim Stark. The dogs were very cooperative as long as treats were involved. The video is a homage to William Wegman who had videoed first his dog Man Ray and than later included Fay Ray.

What he did with getting them to move their heads had always tickled me and here in this video Maggie and Lorna revised the rolls of Man Ray and Fay Ray.

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Maji

I met Maji many years ago up north in Boston. Maji was one of the first participants in Dance Freedom which was a dance organization begun in 1968 in Cambridge. Dance Freedom is a smoke free, alcohol free, barefoot dance environment where any kind of dance is acceptable (as long as it is non harmful).

 

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Siesta Key Drum Circle

Here is another video slide show of photographs I made from a few trips to the Siesta Drum Circle at Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota (also included are a couple of photographs from Nokomis Drum Circle in Nokomis). Mari and I met sixteen years ago at a weekly event called Dance Freedom in Cambridge, MA and the drum circles down here have a similar flavor to them where anything goes dance wise. Although in the case of the drum circles here there are more watchers than participants. This drum circle according to their web page (www.siestadrumcircle.com) began twelve years ago.

I have seen a number of videos on the web (mostly through YouTube) of the drum circle. My hope is that the photos I made give people a different persecutive of the event and capture some of the energy. The sound was captured with my Canon G10 and edited and enhanced with Apple’s GarageBand.

Bird Land

Play Video

I never thought I would be photographing birds. In my thirty plus years of photography, I never had photographed birds before. Just now I went outside for a break and there was an Egret fishing in the canal behind the house not more than ten yards away. So the birds are hard to avoid here in Sarasota. I have put together another video slideshow of birds I have met.

This is the second slideshow/video I have created and any feedback would be appreciated. Enjoy!