Crisp weather on Daufuskie Island - twentyish at sunrise. This morning I shot a series of the pool house and restaurant for Melrose place - the conditions were good for the location, and this brought me up to about 100 good shots to give them. The peninsula ahead in the photos is the tip of Hilton Head Island.
The problem with good conditions is that - well, I shoot a lot of shots. Then I sit down to start editing and wonder what I was so exuberant about. I shot 600 shots in three hours, and then was another four hours vetting and editing them. Along the way, Lorenzo and Alex helped me a bit. They are grounds keepers at Melrose, and have a lot to keep up with. They were amazed that I am comfortable in just a flannel shirt with a sweat shirt over it - this is not the kind of weather they grew up with in Mexico.
A bit later I went back for another visit to the "haunted hotel" with David and Tara who are visiting for a week from Tennessee. I think they and I are the only visitors here at the moment. Later they invited me over for dinner - David cooked some great spaghetti but Tara trumped him with home-made Reese's cups.
The evening photo shoot was of the horse stables, where I met a cat that was extremely insistent that I pet it. He is missing his tail and has a few chunks out of his ears - I have an idea he has defended this territory before.
Anyway, it seems about half the houses here either have blue bottles hanging from a tree in the front yard or have constructed their own "blue bottle tree." It seems that the notion of spirits being trapped in bottles (think Aladdin) and hanging bottles in trees goes back thousands of years to Egyptian roots. The Africans brought here figured that blue bottles are good lures to capture wayward and mischievous spirits - a sort of front line defense. (If you run out of blue bottles, other colors still offer some protection, just not as much.) Painting the underside of one's eves blue goes a lot further to ward off these pesky spirits, and hanging a colander over your key-hole at night is a further defense. I will write an article soon on Gullah spirit lore - it is a fascinating topic.
Anyway, all have a great Saturday.
David
If you are not getting the daily meditations or are having any problem signing up for this, email me by Clicking Here. If you would like to contribute to this journey, just Click Here. Thanks for your continued support !!
No comments:
Post a Comment