Don't Worry! It Is Just A Cloud! Maybe?

   It is strange how we sometimes look at things and see beauty then can see something entirely different when we try to look back at the same object.  Just yesterday, the clouds in late afternoon sky appeared to frame the hidden sun in a perfect manner.  I spent several minutes photographing the clouds as I was enthralled by what was set before me.  The magnificent view was enough to leave me spellbound for a good ten minutes until the wind shifted and sent my lovely vision askew.  Nothing could prepare me for the photographs that I viewed today.  What popped out at me was not what I saw yesterday....not at all.

  In the photographs, I found a face with deep set, hollow eyes and a rather horrified looking grimace of a mouth.  What?  This was not what I saw at all!  Thinking perhaps it was just a quirky incident, I looked at the other photographs...yep, just the same.  That face was still staring at me as if it was trying to tell me of some terrifying incident that was to come.  Do the clouds know something?  Are they harbingers of what is to come with the pending storms potentially heading our way? Should I be worried?  

  Life has a way of making some of us ponder things far too deeply.  I can live for the moment in most circumstances but, occasionally, I get a gut feeling that usually bears truth.  These clouds, however, are just that...clouds.  

To Capture A Ghost!

  It never fails that folks who claim to have captured a ghost, Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster or Elvis on film always present a very blurry photo.  In the picture, the "proof" is obscure, to say the least.  Most of the time, it is downright difficult to even distinguish anything in the photograph.  Hey!  I am good at that type photography!  A lot of my photos are blurry, distorted and hard to decipher.  I figure that I should be famous by now!

  Actually, there are things on the Bayou that are unexplainable.  Sights and sounds during the wee hours of the morning can send chills up the spine.  Couple these with a good old fashioned tale and things can get pretty eerie!  Now, I am not saying there are things out there but I am sure not saying that there aren't.  Lets just leave it at that.  

  There are tales that at some point in history this very area was a not so savory place to be.  The Bayou was known to be home of a good many large alligators that left little evidence if a "body" needed to disappear without a trace.  Folklore says that the bayous are all haunted because of such transgressions.  Personally, I have yet to come across any evidence that proves or disproves the accounts but one never knows.  Then...back to the photography skills...a photo taken this morning may be "proof"!  A "ghost" appeared in my photograph!  I was taking pictures of the sunlight playing on a rising mist covering the marsh and somehow captured my apparition!  The ghost is in one photo and not the next!  Where did it go???  

  To be honest, the wispiness of the low lying fog can appear to be many things.  This is what brings tales of Will-o-the-wisps, swamp ghosts and water spirits.  The early morning mist carried by a soft breeze can conjure all sorts of mystical thoughts. (We won't mention that a cloud blocked the sun's rays at an opportune time making the marsh a lot darker!)  My "Ghost of the Bayou" needs a believable tale to go with it.  Perhaps, this shall become the basis for yet another Clue Hunt on the Bayou!  Then again....maybe it really was a ghost!

Can't Quite Figure...

  Several years ago, I owned a camera that folks were beginning to say was possessed by some evil entity.  The camera would switch itself on and off again and again, take pictures without any help from me and sometimes have photos on its memory card that were not even from here!  The on and off again problem was explained away as moisture messing with the electronics.  I can understand that as, here on the Bayou, the humidity level is great.  The snapping of pictures could also be from the same thing but that taking of pictures from other places is uncalled for!  The photographs in question were of a white dog that closely resembled our Ms. Ez at the time but, on closer inspection, things were not right.  The dog did resemble ours but that was NOT her bed and that was NOT my wall!  We joked away the problem by saying it was our resident ghost at play.  No problem.  Now, however, the current camera is starting to take rather weird photos.

  While looking at photos from a few days ago, there was one that I did not remember taking.  It is of the light post, of all things.  Yes, it is our light post but I do not recall being so obsessed with it that I needed a photograph of it.  Still, there it was.  I am pondering if this camera is now having the same moisture buildup that the other one did or has our ghostie decided to become a photographer?  Either way, when the camera starts acting this way, I do get some interesting pictures!  A light post...now go figure!

Oh, Moe!

  Moe, the heron, comes to visit every day.  He stands patiently on the end of the pier while I do my chores.  Once I get to the pier, he flies to one of the posts and waits for me to ready the net.  As I begin to throw the net for his meal, he flies to the pier and follows me.  With him just a few steps behind me, I am always afraid that the net will hit him but, so far, he has been agile enough to avoid it.  After a good mess of menhaden and mullet fill his belly, he flies back to the post while I fish.  He knows if I catch a catfish or croaker, I will fillet it for his dining pleasure.  It has become quite obvious that the bird is spoiled rotten!  Still, I like him and he does pose rather nicely for photographs so I have no qualms about the extra work it takes to feed him.

  Today's photo session was going well except that one picture turned out rather weird...cool...but weird.  The lighting is strange, the contrast is strange but what in the world caused all of those concentric circles??  Out of a dozen or so photographs, this is the only one that is strange.  The others are fine.  I had not changed the settings on the camera nor even changed positions while photographing Moe.  Other than him doing his usual "posing", everything was exactly the same.  

  I have no idea what caused the difference in the results but whatever happened, the picture is rather unique.  So, either I can look at this as a huge mistake with no explanation or I can see it as "art".  Sometimes, mistakes can be beautiful in their own right.  I guess this is one of those times.

Feeling A Bit Shaky

  Mark and I were up before dawn.  It was pitch black as we walked down the old board path to the pier.  A flashlight came in handy as we carefully watched our step.  The boards were slippery from an overnight rain but we were more concerned about stepping on a cottonmouth.  Those critters are out and about on warm, wet nights.  

  After about six o'clock the sun finally started brightening the sky and the horizon was washed in pink. The gazebo across the Bayou was so pretty on the calm waters with a backdrop of a large thunderhead.  Since I cannot resist a chance to take photographs of anything deemed worthy, I set my camera up on the old, pier post and took a shot. Hmm, that was not very clear.  I tried again.  I was beginning to ponder what was wrong with my camera when I realized that the pier was actually skaking a bit.  My photographs were wiggly!  I turned to find Mark throwing the net as he was trying to catch bait.  Aha!  There was the source of the shakes!  

  For anyone not accustomed to self-built piers on bayous, they are a bit wobbly at times.  Instead of the posts being sunk in stiff sand, ours are situated in soft mud....mud that never ends. You can literally take a long pole, shove it in the mud and never come to anything solid.  It is mush!  The posts are in the mud a good twenty feet but will never feel solid.  They shimmy a bit with each step, wave or strong wind.  I can always tell when someone is walking up behind me on the pier even though I never face them.  Vibrations can be felt in the pier boards.

  All of this shimmying makes for some weird photographs but, in a way, I like the "ruined" one.  It reminds me of some abstract painting.