Meaty

I’ve forgotten why we had wandered up to this part of Southbeach but I found this to be an interesting building.  I wasn’t sure at first what it was until we crossed the street and found that it was a very expensive steak restaurant.  For the prices they were charging I sure hope the meat was quality… too rich for us but they did have some fantastic offerings.

This side of the building (not including the traffic cone) had a great island vibe to it.  Which version speaks to you?

The Sunrise, The Moon and The Lifeguard Hut

Once past the hotel swimming pool and onto the beach, there was more to behold as the moon slowly said farewell to us and to the rising sun.

The Sunrise, The Moon, The Palms and The Pool – Color Version

Sometimes you just have to stop and capture that moment in time for it will never exist again.  Yes, I know that there will be other sunrises and moons etc. over this swimming pool but there will never be an exact moment like this again.

 

The Sunrise, The Moon, The Palms and The Pool

One day we actually set our alarm to wake up in time for sunrise on the beach.  We had to walk past the hotel pool in order to get to the path to the beach when I saw this and knew I had to capture this wonderful moment.  It was the best sunrise of our stay as the other days the sky wasn’t as alive.  This is an example of high ISO when you are shooting hand held in a low light situation.  The ISO for this shot is 5K and while in the past this would’ve made one horribly noise filled image, today’s modern cameras can handle this and higher without too much damage to the image.  Some people even like a certain amount of noise in their images for that old film effect.  Plus, there are so many noise reduction programs and other ways to reduce noise in Photoshop and Lightroom.  What was important to me was capturing this oh so brief moment in time no matter what the ISO was.

It and the rest of the shots we took that morning were worth getting up at 5:30 in the morning on our vacation.  I will share the color version with you tomorrow.

Shot details:

F3.5 – ISO 5000 – 1/40 – 35mm – Canon 5D MarkIII

 

 

What do those flags mean?

Once the lifeguards are on duty they somehow or another assess the situation of their duty and put out the appropriate warning flags so that we the public don’t harm ourselves.  This is what the flags mean courtesy of Tripsavy.com

• Red flags with a no swimming symbol indicate that the water is closed to the public.
• Red flags without a symbol indicate a high hazard from surf and/or currents.

• Yellow flags indicate a medium hazard from moderate surf and/or currents.
• Green flags indicate a low hazard with calm conditions. Beach goers should still exercise caution.
• Purple flags indicate a hazard from dangerous marine life. These flags are used in conjunction with another colored flag indicating the current surf/current conditions.

While we were there we did see on weather.com that there were rip current warnings and a couple of days the water was a bit rough.  Yesterdays lifeguard photo was on a yellow and purple day.   Each lifeguard hut has the warnings listed on the back of them as shown in this photo.   I asked what the marine life was; jelly fish were out there.  I’ve been stung once before – not fun!

 

On this day the flags were red (no symbol) and purple; rough waves and rip currents.  Interesting factoid – no two beach huts are decorated the same.  Have a ripping good weekend everyone.

 

 

 

Las Palmas

Unless you are quite the world traveler (and most definitely before the age of media inundation) there are some things in this great wide world that you may have never seen in person.  I recall my nieces, then very young who were born in the Philippines where my brother was stationed, being totally amazed that ice (hail) fell from the sky during a storm one day.  We had to stop them from going outside while the hail was falling because they wanted to see what it felt like – they probably wouldn’t have liked the sensation.  I remember my anthropology professor in college who was born and raised in Hawaii; somehow in a lecture he told us how he didn’t know what a fireplace was when he had to identify it on a standardized school test as a boy.  He was trying to tell us that just because someone has never seen nor experienced something that doesn’t lessen their intelligence.

The first time my very young offspring saw a palm tree was during a road trip to Disney World.  We had stopped at a gas station and one was there on the lot.  They circled and patted the tree examining it like little explorers before asking me what was it.  At the time I believe the only palm trees they had ever seen were in books or in cartoons.  That memory still makes me smile but now palm trees mean I’m someplace warm and hopefully – but not always – with an ocean nearby.

 

 

The ocean…

I grew up around rivers and lakes which while nice never enthralled me.  When I finally saw an ocean I was overcome with the beauty and enormity of it all.  Staring off into the horizon where the sky kisses the water;  that was and still is a beautiful scene to me.  As much as I love swimming and splashing in the ocean, I can be quite content just sitting there listening to the sounds of the waves; sunrise before the masses descend upon the sand is the best.  Of course when it’s a crowded beach there are a lot of sounds that do not fall under the header of ‘peaceful’ but such is humanity and a beach on a warm sunny day.

So whenever I can, I try to visit an ocean and feel renewed.  Plus fresh seafood is definitely a major bonus.  Cannot beat that!