Duck catching rays at Ballast Point

Theme Day: BEST OF 2009 - Skywatch Friday Season 4, Episode 27

Today is Theme Day when we get to choose our best photo of 2009.

I took this photo for Monochrome Weekend of Tampa's Ballast Point Pier. It was a breathtakingly beautiful day, bright and warm. Giant puffy clouds filled the blue sky and climbed forever. The sea gulls were swooping in to try and score some fisherman's bait or a fish left on the pier. I also took this scene in color but I felt the black and white captured it best.

To see the Best Photos of 2009 from around the City Daily Photo world,
click here to view thumbnails for all participants.


Visit Skywatch Friday to see the beauty and wonders of the world's most magnificent skies...even the cold wintry ones that can be so gray and mysterious. It's always an amazing show and all brought to you by Skywatchers from all over the planet.

Skywatch Friday - Season 4 Episode 15

The sky and Hillsborough Bay were very inviting and relaxing today. The arc in the water just a few feet from the shore are a series of Reef Balls®, or Oyster Domes, part of C.O.R.E. (Community Oyster Reef Enhancement) program that I posted about earlier in the summer. It's a project of Tampa Bay Watch. The oyster domes, which are placed in this position, help replace and replenish oysters in some of our struggling waterways. Thousands have been placed along Bayshore Boulevard, Ballast Point and around MacDill Air Force Base. Before they are placed in the water and begin to work, they look like some strange, odd-shaped alien devices with holes in them. They have changed quite a bit since July and become even more encrusted with oyster shells. They begin to look natural and part of the ecosystem. (If you want to see what they look like at the start, before they become part of the life in the bay, click HERE.)

Visit Skywatch Friday to see the beauty and wonders of the world's most magnificent skies. It's always an amazing show brought to you by Skywatchers from all over the planet.

Monochrome Maniacs: The Sea Gull rules over the sky, sea and fishermen.

My camera and I are often drawn back to this pier for its variety of shapes, colors, people and wildlife. Something new is always happening here and in the park nearby. It's fun and alive. The sky and clouds are always in motion and dance behind all of the man-made elements in the scene until you hope all is in perfect alignment. Shooting in black and white makes the dance take on a whole different, final composition. The gull in flight would be the winner over his hardworking human companions who struggled to land even one fish.

Go see more of the world in black, white and grays at Monochrome Maniacs!

Fishing in Paradise (If You're A Fish): A Sunshine State of Mind

Florida would have a tough time today coming up with the name Sunshine State as rain continues to fall pretty regularly. After yesterday's great fun visiting with and sharing with you the story of Mr. Stan Good and his not-to-be-believed clocks and fan museum, I find the quiet and solidarity of this fishing pier shrouded in gray and drizzling sky a welcome respite. Even though fish certainly do come up to the surface for the anglers as rain falls, and they are of course just as interested in the fresh bait shrimp as they are when it's clear and 90 degrees, the fishermen aren't quite as comfortable in the water as are the creatures with fins and gills. (Although it might be worth our while to check out those gills as a possibility for the near future if the blue sky doesn't return soon.) As for me, I've never posted a black and white photo before but this day seemed to call for it. The many shades of gray, the white whites and black blacks perfectly define our mood sometimes. Right? And, the pier takes on another personality altogether. (Black and white does have its creative purposes.) Plus, some subjects just beg to be captured and defined devoid of color. The only question I'm left with is, Are the fish we can't see still in their vast array of colors?

Ask for RAIN and the skies open up.

This is still one of Tampa's prettiest and oldest neighborhoods and because of its lack of sidewalks, curbs and fancy street-striping, it still, thankfully, has the look and feel of old Florida. That's why these folks love to live here. It's a not a well-known place to many newcomers who call Tampa home, especially if they never ever travel south of Gandy and follow Interbay as it meanders along its brick pavers to this intersection. Low-hanging, moss-draped oak trees and sleepy lanes are close by the horse stables, Ballast Point Park and the Tampa Yacht & Country Club founded on the Hillsborough Bay in 1904. It is one of the sleepiest, quietest and least-traveled roads. Its low traffic count and out-of-the-way nature are why most everyone would agree it's near perfect. Don't change a thing. Certainly don't improve it. As so many of us in Tampa endure the current drought, we've been anxiously awaiting the Summer rains that begin in June. But as we watch helplessly as our yards and plants die, we find ourselves begging for the skies to open up and dump buckets of rain on us. Well, yesterday and today we got the deluge. Hours of rain. It thundered, and stormed and rained down 1, 2, even 3-inches of rain. Flooded streets overflowing curbs into yards. A most welcome sight. As I slowly made my way out in this afternoon's heavy downpour, I came to a near stop to slowly navigate the flooding in Ballast Point. It's a beautiful place to live and play, just yards off the open bay, but street drainage is not its big selling point. Caution. Stop sign ahead. Underwater. It'll drain off pretty fast and the old brick and asphalt will sizzle and stream as the sun slowly breaks through. Maybe. But who's complaining about a little shower. Ah, old Florida. Just keep those rain clouds coming.

Don't Dare Touch My Red chair Again

There aren't many better views of Hillsborough Bay, Davis Islands and the entire downtown skyline in all of Tampa. And, for the cost of a blue (or red) camp chair, and a giant Slurpee, it's free. Relax and enjoy the vista, the cool breeze off the bay, sea gulls swooping in on dinner and long conversation. Now how could life be better? The quiet conversation as you come closer to overhear is Chrysler's bankruptcy, its merger with Fiat, whether the kids' trip to Cancun will be cancelled because of the Swine Flu pandemic (that's it, no more pork chops for you Helen), when WILL they capture Bin Laden (Just send me in after him Ruthie), after we lost all our life's savings we can't even afford another Slurpee and on and on and on. And to think that in our grandparent's day all they worried about was the flu pandemic of 1918, a silly dust bowl, handsome Mr. Coolidge ruining our country and the Great Depression. Isn't life a hoot, Helen. What will this generation think up next? Silly kids.