Thursday, February 5, 2009

Gallery Show, The Caribbean

All photographs were taken with a Kodak Easy Share cx7525 camera and are unretouched. Except for cropping, the pictures have not been manipulated in any way.
I Am a Lighthouse

I Am A Lighthouse

There is a song of the same name
Sweet, lyrical, sad
Encapsulating what lighthouses have been
To their humans
Guidance
Hope
Warning! Warning!
I will keep you safe…


I cannot for the life of me recall which Caribbean port we were steaming into when I took this photograph – only that it was hot, humid, and azure outside my window. I ran for my camera, went onto the balcony… and my lens fogged! I didn’t know until later, when I loaded the digital files onto my laptop, when we were once again at sea. I like the fog – misty like my memory, it softened the hard, sharp light and made it all seem a little…dreamy.
~~~~~
Dinner and a Show

Dinner and A Show

For just moments
Hardly long enough to be noticed
Nature took the light from the ship
The purple light that lined the deck
Flung it ‘round her shoulders
Tossed her orange hair
And danced along the horizon
Glancing coy and wanton
To see if anyone noticed

Between the Caribbean and Port Canaveral, Carnival Glory - I had my camera to take photographs of the family and friends who dined together every evening on this cruise. We enjoyed the view each night, but on this night? It was spectacular. There was no time to run out on deck – the light was fading too fast, I’d never make it. Instead, I snapped a few frames from my seat, blessing the luck that put me closest to the window that night.
~~~~~
Poppy Seed

Bird Pepper

Mace

Poppy Seed; Bird Peppers; Mace

There was a table in the market
End to end covered in baskets
Wrapped in colorful cloth
To catch the eye
Baskets full of spices
And herbs
With names exotic and familiar
Waiting, perfuming the air
A summons of scent


On ST. Maarten, there is an open-air market, although “open” is debatable – it is crowded with E-Z Up canopies, tables, and people. We walked through at a leisurely pace, not much enticed by the tourist-worthy wares we saw…until we came to the table laden with spices. Oh, what a palette of color and scent! The woman tending the table was large, broad, substantial. Her skin was chocolate, her teeth pearl-white, her eyes flashing with mirth. She smiled and all but sang when she spoke. I imagined that she soaked in the perfume of her wares, and her children would find themselves breathing a heady bouquet when they hugged her, cuddled close, and listened to her tales of the tourists in the marketplace, and the strange lady with bright blue hair who took picture after picture of ordinary spices.
~~~~~
Tandem

Tandem

We are free
On the sea
You and me
Weaving
Turning
Running with the wind
Together


Coming into port at the island of St. Thomas, I spied these two sailboats playing on the water. I’ve always loved sailing, and longed to be on one of those boats; they reminded me of when I was a girl and would sail a sunfish out of the harbor to open water. You don’t need a passport on the waves…

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