pish pish pish

Tampa Audubon Society member Mary Keith contemplates the numerous chirps and whistles and tweets above her while strolling through the wooded area around Lettuce Lake Park Saturday morning during the annual Tampa area Christmas Bird Count. "I'm still better at identifying the birds by sight," said Keith modestly, although she estimates that she can correctly pick out about 100 birds by sound.

Mary told me that when they call to the birds, that's called "pishing" because the sound they make is pish pish pish. Ideally, the birds will come out to investigate the noise and show their colors. But sometimes, it has the opposite effect, and the birds go into hiding because they fear it may be a predator or because it simply "pished them off." That little laugh, some really strong coffee and seeing the sunrise in a some serene setting made the 5 a.m. wake-up call almost tolerable.

first day of winter

Britons Nick Dawson and his son Edward, 4, spend some time enjoying the warm weather of a Florida winter while walking along the shoreline during low tide at Ben T. Davis beach.

Lake Panasoffkee

180 miles round trip to Lake Panasoffkee.

For a wild goose chase.

That included a run-in with a possible murderer.

And did not yield a single good photo. (Thus the need to stitch together 20 medicore photos.)

Topped off with a $210 speeding ticket.

:sigh:

Shane

Shane Sheil is a boy who needs a family, and fast. He's about to "age out'' of the foster care system. Since the age of 12, he has bounced from home to home. Now he's 16 and is hoping to be adopted so he can have what he imagines is a normal family life -- cookouts, fishing trips, a house with a fenced yard.

To Cuba, With Love

Note to the Cuban government:

Politics aside, I am really enamored with your country, its people and the culture. I'm currently half way through a 900-page book on Che Guevara and love the Buena Vista Social Club (movie and CD). And I have a feeling that 90 miles south of Florida the light is even sweeter.

I've got some good ideas for stories to photograph in Cuba, and just need access.

So, if you could you please stop denying my request for a journalist visa I'd really appreciate it.

thanks,

-m

The 10 Commandments

This was a pretty funny story, actually:

There’s a six-ton granite monument on the steps of the Dixie County courthouse. County officials approved the placement of the slab, which features the Ten Commandments. Atheists and Agnostics around the country are decrying the move, calling it the most flagrant violation of church and state separation since Judge Roy Moore refused to remove a similar monument from an Alabama courthouse. Now, the atheists and agnostics threaten lawsuits. But they’ve got a problem. So far, they’ve been unable to find anybody in this town of about 17,000 residents who takes issue with the monument and is willing to lend their name to the suit.

Von and Delma Perrine of Old Town saw news of Dixie County's new six-ton granite 10 Commandments monument on television while on vacation in Ohio, so once they got home they decided to go to the Dixie county Courthouse to see it in person. "I wouldn't mind having it on my own property," said Delma Perrine. "It's a good reminder."

In the Middle

When you're a photo student, workshops are the best way to meet people. To show your work. To get feedback. To get a job. And most students tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform. I know I did.

It's nice to be in a different phase of my life now.

One of my friends said it best this weekend. She said: When I was younger, I was always so jealous of all those people having fun at workshops. Who were they? How could I do that? I always hated having to kiss ass, I wasn't good at it. I never really wanted to be a speaker or a judge or anything. I just wanted to be in the middle, having fun.

And, that's exactly what we did this weekend in Atlanta.

There was such a good group of people present. And the cool thing is that we're all at about the same point in our lives and careers. We have similar goals and equal amounts of drive and passion. We were still talking about work and showing work, but the difference is that nobody was looking for work, or to be discovered or to impress people.

So instead, there we were in the middle.

We'd sit in on the judging and listen to some speakers in search of inspiration and then we'd have these amazing conversations over beer and photography. Because the pressure was off, it became fun again.