2018

 A few from today 4/17/18

Crow above

 Crow mentor

And I was given a tormentor

A crow above me

To buffet me 

Lest I should think more highly 

than an eagle should be

What I carried

 In the Tokina

Trying to vary what I carry

Today the D850 with 70-300 polarizer 

D40 with 11-16 polarizer 

GoPro Hero5

Iphone6

Extra 18-300 lens

Batteries, etc 

Two belt bags 

As usual, too much.

Little Shoals

 Little Shoals

Suwannee River

The River recedes 

Nikon D40

Tokina 11-16 2.8

Polarizing filter

6MP

Vivid setting

Lise

 Following a most satisfying time at Restaurant Carrel

Bouquet boy made his way to Montmartre

There in the field he met Lise Treholt

The lover of his friend Renoir

Girl Gathering Flowers 

Renoir

1872

Void of one

 Void of one

Is the scene one to stand alone?

Does the scene depend upon one?

One says,  for the one I so long

Another says, let’s rejoice ones gone.

CR 333

 It was one of those idyllic great days in April, akin to today, that the road led to Madison Highway 333, or Cherry Lake Road 53 to Quitman. Somewhere between Bottle Tree Trail and Barney Fife Blvd with Duval Pond and Sheriff Peevy’s place nearby, we came upon this scene. It was a car stopper.

All thy works

 All thy works shall praise thy name

Have you heard the Amaryllis play Holy! Holy! Holy! upon the fernaphone, have you walked quietly by Mary and the Christ child? If so, then you will never know why I sing the Song of Songs. All thy works shall praise thy name

Unless you've heard Amaryllis play Holy! Holy! Holy! upon the fernaphone, then you will know why I sing along.

Through the sloughs

 the slough is mere temporary 

 await at the edge of bog 

 flying ferns will carry

  over the cypress log  

through palmetto kingdoms  

above slash pine candles 

 to the dwelling of new sun 

 to water pristine beyond pure

No finish line

 No finish line

Johnclarestokes 

On the morning of the cloud Angels singing

The Thunderbirds taking wing

We were out at Mt Carmel gathering

The Chaplin he tried his very best

Not knowing who he laid to rest

The men in blue saluting one of the finest

friends a fellow will ever in life know

So many the miles we did go

Cameras, canoes, bikes in tow.

We both painted the same scenes

Listened to our Will McLean

Dove beneath the clearest streams

He could spot a chirp or a shard

Unearth history in any yard

Tell of the old Wellborn days hard

In Okefenokee we took my little son

Down River Narrows with Gators sunning

One of our many don't tell mamma son.

Lost in Osceola training for River Run

Hitching a ride with a hunter returning

Not concerned the daylight burning

Nearly a century you almost climbed

They were the best of times

Those hands joyfully raised crossing

That marathon line!

Tie rods

 Inside that quiet well coiffured facade 

Bouquet boy wasn’t all the world perceived

For he was more Vincent and Edgar and Magritte 

Than the marble faced triton among tie rods

Fulton Suwannee

Palmetto Trail, Big Shoals

It was mid April of 2011. Riding along the Palmetto Trail, I abruptly came upon a Forestry Service worker in his truck with bulldozer. He said, you may want to hurry on, we are about to do a controlled burn. I agreed and then something inside said, take his photograph. I asked if  he would mind if I took a quick photograph. He said it was OK. I took it, thanked him and moved on. On June 20th, 2011, Brett Fulton and Josh Burch were killed in the Blue Ribbon Fire in Hamilton County. Upon comparing newspaper photographs of the two men, I realized that I had taken one of the last photographs of Brett. The photograph now hangs in memorial at my friend Rick Bringger's Firehouse Subs in Lake City, Florida.