The Letter S - Illustrated

Swansboro Storefronts

I took a drive to Swansboro, which is 20-30 minutes down the coast from where I live in Morehead City (North Carolina). Founded in 1783, the “Friendly City by the Sea” offers an historic downtown district overlooking the water and numerous opportunities for coastal recreation. Looking through the photos from the day, I realized most of them could be labeled with the letter "S," starting with Swansboro itself.



Sign (for a restaurant)



Sunlit Scene

Sun Sculpture

Stalker (he had something in sight and looked about ready to pounce)

Staircase (and Swan - the flowerbox)

Stemware (digital image from a photo of a window in an antique shop)

Stacked (or Shelved - the librarian in me!) I wandered into this boat storage facility - nobody was around. Oh, right - Storage too. That was fun!

Previous illustrated letters:

The Letter C - Illustrated

The Letter D - Illustrated

White Egrets

There's a small pond near where my sister lives, and she had told me how white egrets often gather in the trees surrounding the water. I saw a really large group of them once, but (of course) didn't have my camera with me that day.


I visited the pond another day, saw several egrets, and took these pictures. Half of the white spots in this photo are the egrets and the other half are their reflections in the water.


I was a ways away from the birds and was disappointed that I couldn't get any good detailed shots of them, but that was compensated for by the beautiful reflections in the pond.

I was using the zoom feature on my camera to take most of these pictures.

One of the egrets decided to change location and I got this shot as he was lifting off from the water.

I visited the pond another time, but the egrets were elsewhere that night and the trees were empty.

Decisions, Decisions

Should I get my nails done? Maybe have a pedicure? What do you think??

The Letter C - Illustrated

Clouds

Cobblestones

Colorful

Crossing

Chocolate

Caution

Casey Cockatiel (like I'd leave him out....)

Calm (Captured on Campus at Carteret Community College - a virtual flood of C's)

Misty Haze

When I went to the beach on New Year's Eve, I was too early for the sunset. I headed down the beach for a walk and in the far distance I saw what looked like fog. It wasn't the kind of day for fog, so I figured that it was some kind of haze. I hadn't seen anything that looked quite like it before. During my walk, I'd stop and take pictures, sometimes using the "zoom" on my camera. When I got home and worked on the photos in Photoshop, I got some really interesting effects.


Using "auto-levels" on the first picture, I came out with this blue version.


Using the first picture again, I clicked on the "equalize" function and got this neat picture.


Here's another of the original photos - I'm getting closer to the buildings in the distance.

Auto-levels gave me this version.

And "equalize" produced this golden image.

I didn't walk this far, so I must have zoomed in for this photo.

Auto-levels.

And "equalize." This one makes me think I'm in the Sahara rather than at the beach!

One last image. I wasn't the only one out for a walk on this beautiful day! When the sun was setting, I took the photos that I posted a couple days ago in 2009's Last Sunset. I really couldn't have asked for a nicer ending to the year.

2009's Last Sunset

I went out to the beach yesterday afternoon and was treated to a beautiful sunset.


There was a good wind so there was plenty of wave action.

The sun was reflected on the wet sand.

One of these four people had been in swimming. I asked his friends if the guy was crazy (I was wearing several layers and gloves), and they explained that he was down from Minnesota.

I had a lovely walk while the show continued.

Happy New Year, everyone!