Impossible Water And Offshore Lights

The Florida Keys stretch 120 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, so you can't really see the Keys without getting into a boat and heading out. Our 2000 visit to Cayo Hueso included a day trip in a little 18-footer, out to Sand Key Light and American Shoal Light. The banner above is some of that impossible water color, just west of Key West.

More impossible water color as we head farther west toward Sand Key Light. The amazing color is due in large part to the shallow depth, sandy bottom and coral surrounding the Keys.

Sand Key Light. There was a house built into that steel frame, but it burned to a crisp (the reddish bits are where the paint burned off), leaving only the skeleton and a modern cupola. The light marks a dangerously shallow spot (at low tide, it's a sand bar), and the snorkeling here is said to be world-class.

More impossible water color - at Sand Key Light. Photo by awesome bride [Maris].

Fins to the left, fins to the right... You can't go to and from Sand Key without running across a pod of dolphins.

Approaching one of my Happy Places - American Shoal Lighthouse, off Sugarloaf Key...

If we ever win one of those massive lottery jackpots, we're buying this thing. And living on it. (HEART)

Yeah, I'm King of The World. Yay, me!

Next, we take to the sky and find another simply amazing place.

Key West 101

More from Key West - October, 2000. We started off 100% tourist, photo-wise, but had a great time. The photography gets a little more serious in the next couple of posts. Above is the recently renovated Customs House.

I can't quite explain why I loved this scene at the Key West cruise ship dock, and felt so compelled to shoot it. Something about the colors, soft light and spacing. Dunno. When in doubt - take the shot!

Key West Light at night. Scarier than it looks.

Capt. Tony's - the original Sloppy Joe's, shot by [Maris]. More locals, fewer tourists, more character...

... and it's right down the street from the Toe Ring King! Oh, and there are chickens! How can you not love a seedy, end-of-the-road tourist-trap town with feral chickens (and Hemingway cats!) running around?

... and bars called Crabby Dicks! [Maris]'s shot.

The garden between La Mer and Dewey House - Southernmost Resorts. Another [Maris] photo.

Halloween in Key West! Booya!

Snowy Egret prowling the beach at La Mer.

Another obligatory sunset vista from Mallory Square. Nice.

Okay, friends. Join us next time for a seaplane excursion to Fort Jefferson, some 70 miles west of Key West, to see why it is Joe's Happy Place...

Route A1A To Key West

In October 2000, [Maris] and I drove from the Mid-Atlantic to the Florida Keys for a week in Key West and a week in Islamorada. 15 rolls of film later, we reluctantly headed home. This is the first part of that trip. Above, the requisite shot of Seven Mile Bridge, with the old bridge that once carried Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad visible to the right. Parts of the old bridge were blown up for the movie "True Lies." [Maris] shot; I drove. Good times!

Back Country waters - looking north from the Overseas Highway.

Okay, out of sequence here - two shots of the Cape Florida Lighthouse at Key Biscayne, about an hour before the Overseas driving starts.

I know, I know. WAY out of sequence - here's a better scan of my 1991 shot of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Key West. Couldn't help myself. I love this shot.

In 2000, we found an open window at St. Paul's, and a stained-glass photo op.

Key West Lighthouse!

Yours truly at the End Of The Road in Key West. [Maris]'s shot!

Another nice one from [Maris]'s camera. World-famous Sloppy Joe's, where Hemingway drank. The stuff on the roof will be used during the Fantasy Fest Parade, scheduled for the following week.

Even photographed through a screen, the beach at La Mer Bed and Breakfast is simply perfect.

The schooner "Western Union" as it passes the daily sunset celebration at Mallory Square in Key West.

Even with haze, the Mallory Square sunsets are almost always photo-worthy. Here was our first as Mr. & Mrs., but certainly not our last.

More to come. Thanks for stopping by!

Lights! Camera! Whatnot!

More lighthouse action. Above - Point Lookout, MD - 1999.

There's something irresistible about short, pudgy lighthouses. This is Piney Point, MD in 1999, complete with creepy fake plastic keeper looking out the cupola.

Long lens, weird light and weirder developing all conspire to make this print less than ideal, but for what it's worth, here's Spring Point Ledge Light in Portland, ME in 1998.

It's a pretty rare thing to have an opportunity to photograph one lighthouse from atop another lighthouse. That's what's happening in the shot above. This is New Cape Henry Light, shot from the top of Old Cape Henry Light, at Fort Story, VA in 1999.

Here is what happens when a lighthouse is subjected to war and neglect. This is Cockspur Island Light in Georgia, and it needs some work in this 1999 shot.

In the "difficult to find and not in the best of neighborhoods" category, this is Lazaetto Point Light in Baltimore, MD - 1999. [Maris]'s shot!

From the "reachable only by boat" category, here is Smith Point Light in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay waters. It's a little difficult for me to believe this was taken in 1999; it feels like yesterday.

Okay, gang. Gang? Hello? Anyone out there? Oh well. Anyway - back soon (after some more scanning) with Key West and beyond. Thanks for visiting!

Flora, Part Two

More flowery planty stuff. Above: Hibiscus - Baldwin, FL - 1999.

Okay, this is a terrible composition, but we were on a budget and didn't feel like paying to get on the grounds, just for a better shot of the Hemingway House in Key West in 2000. Love the tropicalness, though.

Crazy Cactus Tree - Fort Jefferson - Dry Tortugas, FL - 2000.

I guess I just really like lush tropical greenery. It's a weakness. This is Naples, FL in 1999.

Um, some kind of roses (?) - Chestertown, MD - 1998.

Bougainvillea - Naples, FL - 1999.

Cotton! [Maris]'s favorite kind of farm! This is somewhere on Virginia's Eastern Shore in 1999.

Weird flowery stuff - Rt. 28 near Dickerson, MD - 1999.

There. Thanks for looking! More lighthouses and other fun stuff coming...

More Lights On The Subject

Before we get into some Key West fun, I have a couple more batches of pre-2000 lighthouse photos, starting close to home with an early morning 500mm shot (above) of Sandy Point Shoal Light in the Chesapeake Bay off Sandy Point State Park, MD in 1998.

Even closer to home is the "lighthouse" on the Potomac River at Fort Washington, MD in 1999. Oh, it's still a navigational marker, still has a light and a bell on it, but come on. I kid. We've seen lesser towers than this one. By the way, that brownish hue near the top of the first photo is NOT muddy water - it's a light leak. My beloved Minolta. :( Also, the splendid composition in the second shot comes to us courtesy of my very own partner in artistic crime and everything else, [Maris].

This is a lighthouse photographer's nightmare. The Drum Point Lighthouse has been beautifully restored and moved from its home on the Chesapeake to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons Island, MD. The people crawling all over it are just a fact of life in the Summer, so we kind of had no choice but to include them in this 1998 shot. {dark, dark muttering}

Yes, I know you can hardly tell that this is even a lighthouse. It is Jones Point Light, on the Potomac in Alexandria, VA in 1999, and the better shots, in which its cupola is more visible, were victims of the aforementioned dreaded light leak.

Not all lights were built in permanent towers on land or rocks. There was also a fleet of lightships, which stood guard over nautical hazards, often in locations too deep to allow construction of permanent lights. This is [Maris]'s 1999 photo of the Overfalls, now residing at Lewes, DE.

Looking like a big black jungle gym, the Reedy Island Rear Range Light still stands over Taylors Bridge, DE. Or, it did in 1999. I assume it's still there.

Back soon with some more assorted flora and lighthouses, then it's off to The Keys!