Great photos! Those dogs are perfect.
thanx ha. trying to get used to the new digital. i was worried that it didn't have a view finder but i got it anyway because i thought i wanted the 28mm lense, which i'm now really glad i have. my research indicated that the viewing screen wouldn't be a problem in sunlight. i stupidly believed my research because it turns out this is as big a problem as i thought it might be. also the viewing screen is a problem because i don't keep reading glasses with me when i'm shooting pictures.
fortunately, as it is all digital, if i frame a shot too badly i can edit later if i want (haven't bothered so far). takes away from the art of picture taking but adds art to "developing," i suppose.
i'd been following the little dressed doggie trying to get a good shot and then the other dog came along. they tried to greet each other but the owners kept walking in opposite direction. so i asked them if they wouldn't mind letting the dogs play for a minute so i could take their picture.
nice pictures. Thanks for posting. Is there any sign of the real estate market turning around?
yes, in miami it is turning around and around and around in a whirlpool of a downward spiral. i don't see recovery (read: flat prices) there for a few years yet. though i would imagine miami beach recovering before miami and the rest of miami-dade county. it is, after all, miami beach and still very desirable. but even just riding along the boardwalk, i was astonished not so much by all the empty buildings but by all the new ones still under construction.
north of that in fort lauderdale where i am you don't see many empty buildings like miami has but we do have more than our fair share of foreclosures. the bottom very much depends on the area here. i think my area has bottomed out as there isn't much for sale. other areas nearby have the residents worried that 2008 will continue to see declining prices.
north of us in palm beach county, though year over year is still down--and of course will be for at least another year--the last two consecutive months have shown slight gains. a false bottom? hope not. tourist season? perhaps. only time will tell.
DW and I spent a few days in South Beach a couple of years ago and loved it. We have considered going down for a couple of weeks with the dogs. Great restaurants, great ambiance. It always amazes me how many people speak Spanish down there -- it feels like a foreign country.
wolfpuppy was a frequent patron of the
News Cafe - Restaurant Cafe - Miami Beach - Open 24hs on ocean drive where the waiters brought him his own plastic dish of water. it is certainly like a foreign country there. though mostly spanish, really, all sorts of languages. though now that i'm taking conversational spanish classes, i find myself listening more closely to the spanish speakers and i try to make sense of what they are saying. in the past it just sounded more like a white noise that put me to sleep.
I like the picture of the guy with the hat and microphone. Is he a street performer?
yes, a sit-down rap singer who agreed to pose for the camera. there were three other people i wanted to photograph but couldn't get myself to do it. one was a very old shopping cart lady sleeping in the shade of the wizard of oz trees at the bass museum. her cart was as full & colorful as her face was empty and pale. like all the things from the street that she collected, she'd been thrown away onto those same streets. i could not look at her long enough to frame a picture without breaking into tears. i don't handle sadness well, as my last few wounds have yet to scab me over.
another lady had this rawhide face that you might find in a leather-bound book of classic caricatures. she was headed down lincoln road, coming from the direction of the beach where she has spent decades tanning. i could not determine her age. she was either in her 60s or her 90s. nor could i tell if the sun aged her too fast or preserved her too long. she seemed so alone in her world that i could not take her picture without intrusion upon the intimacy between her & her tan.
just a block later i came across a painter of colorful abstracts of geometric design. the paintings reminded me a little of my
Retroland | Spirograph only painted rather than inked. the artist was in converstation with another street vendor. his facial expressions were "slow" and it did not make sense to my eye on first sight that this "slow" person could create these intricate designs.
on further inspection in considering interrupting their conversation to ask permission to take a picture, i noticed him working on a current piece, painting with his feet. hanging out from his short sleeved shirt were just stubs of arms with no hands. so much joy in his paintings yet my heart sank. he deals better with pain than i. but then, he's had more practice.
I think that's a self-portrait. Better ride your bike more, Lazy.
bitch! (actually this miami beach trip was me getting myself to bike more but there's so much to look at along the way that i didn't do much biking.)
No topless beach bunnies?
sorry hfwr, while i aim to please, the new digital camera doesn't orient that way. some say it is the programming but i suspect genetics.
