Sunburn, Seagulls & Alligators!

I recently returned from a quick, but wonderful trip to Florida with my wife! Fort Lauderdale to be exact. The Florida that when it is 70 degrees and chilly people wear winter clothes compared to New Yorkers!

As an Englishman, the normal color tone of my skin is a light, pale electric blue so I enjoyed getting sunburned for the first time since I moved to NYC nearly six years ago! Nothing wrong with walking in the 'west village' looking like a fucking lobster!

And there's nothing like the smell of crispy bacon cooking in the mid-day sun until you realize its yours!

So while I was toasting myself at 70-75 sun degrees (gas mark 9) and admiring the palm trees (the last palm trees I saw were in Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket." And even those we're imported to be filmed in the "Docklands" of London! Oh, to be an extra!") I started to follow the flying patterns of the local Floridian seagulls as they circled, swooped, and dived bombed their way through the hotel's palm trees heading for direct hits on the slow moving, heavy and fleshy targets of swimming humans!

To cut a long story short I framed these three shots with an (18mm - 55mm lens mounted on a Canon 20D) against a background of pure, azure blue sky, palm trees and settled back to try and shoot a seagull on its last lap heading out to the golden, sandy beaches that meet the clear Atlantic Ocean! Dive! Dive! Dive!

So without further ado here are the two shots titled - "Ginger", "Biggles" and "The Red Barron!"

More tomorrow!