Harbor Lights

A crop of a photo shot last winter during the early morning hours of the waterfront in front of the Pier. It was as still as it looks.

For the photo, I moved up the brightness and nudged the contrast.

A St. Petersburg Story

So this past weekend, there was apparently a mint shortage in North St. Pete. It took two stores to get some, and I almost missed some in the second store. In talking with other people looking for mint, I know of at least three grocery stores that were out of it. For a moment there, it sure looked like the after-work mojito was in jeopardy.

Is everybody drinking these? Next time, instead of making simple syrup ahead of time, I'll shop for the mint. On Wednesday.

TBay Around the Net

Tampa Bay, the Body of Water:

• Stormy Bay (tpl108/photo)
• Dolphins (clorenz41/photo)
• The View from Weedon Island Preserve (mbarrison/photo)

Golf Courses and Jim Morrison

Looking toward the Renaissance Vinoy Golf Club on Snell Isle Boulevard in St. Petersburg. The Mediterranean Revival style of this historic landmark is accented by a Moorish style of architecture, which brings to mind the minarets of UT. Wherever you look for the Moorish influence, its presence here imparts an other-worldly feel here. Jim Morrison, who visited the Tampa Bay area frequently, by hitching rides from FSU down to Clearwater, was right:
"To me, it was a strange, exotic, exciting place"
(See Photo # 10 of Photo Gallery).

Doors of Perception

I do like back alley doors. Like the way we all hide certain character traits when we present ourselves to the world, alley doors often have more character on the surface than their doorway cousins on the street. This one's in St. Pete--and it has that icon of the Florida landscape: the shopping cart.

Also:

• More: Alley Doors
• More: Shopping Carts
  

TBay Around the Net

This week's Friday tour sees red:

• St. Pete Beach (LINDAC928/photo)
• Target (BB/photo)
• Red Sony (Fabricio Buonomo/photo)

Snell Arcade

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Snell Arcade is located at 405 Central Ave., in St. Pete. There were 18 images used to assemble this panography (some of the individual shots are included below this post).

• Learn to how to make a panography
  

Ubiquitous

Signs of construction loom over an alley in downtown St. Pete.

TBay Around the Net

The Friday tour post:

• Waterspout in Tarpon Springs (dohrmanoriginals/photo)
• Saddle Creek Trail in Lakeland (Mc Shutter/photo)
• Oldsmar flea market (kellogg/photo)
  

Are They Playing Chicken?

At Lake Seminole Park, they don't want you feeding the squirrels. I've highlighted my favorite, which sounds like one of those absurd product warning labels.

Storm Triad

TBay Around the Net

Because I'll never post any sunrise shots of my own:

• Sunrise over Tampa Bay (wyndl jones/photo)
• Nice B&W dawn (MIAinFLA/photo)
• Lastly, one at Ballast Point (RUSewCrazy/photo)

Found Photo Series, No. 8

This photo of Sloppy Joe's in Key West was found in a St. Pete antiques store. I scanned this photo before, but now I can't find the actual. If memory serves, there was a note on it saying it was taken in 1983.


Also:

• Found Photo Series, No. 7
• Found Photo Series, No. 6
  
• Found Photo Series, No. 5
  

Holga Two

This was taken in late May-early June in Straub Park, and it has since joined the Legion of Toppled Statues there. All that remains of this one is its base.

I'd never viewed the park's statues as anything special before, but in putting this post together, I've proved myself wrong, as they have an interesting background.

The Park and Art have had a checkered relationship.

TBay Around the Net

Friday! Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota, click away...

• Mmmm....Blueberries! (Addie Foto/photo)
• They Had a Problem with That Before (Nyati Amita/photo)
• Night in Sarasota (jfrobenalt/photo)
  

The Wright(ish) Stuff

Whispering Waters in Old Northeast. A 2/2 there recently sold for $239,000.

Blue-Gray Bay

On Tampa Bay, as storm clouds begin moving in.

TBay Around the Net

This week's Friday tour goes aerial:

• Busch Gardens (BGTGuide.com/photo)
  
• Sunshine Skyway (Gary Sibley/photo)
• St. Armand's Circle (Gary Sibley/photo)
  

Free Time

The Bank of America Tower, blenderized through Paint Shop Pro's pattern maker.

Storm over Gandy

Crossing onto the St. Pete side of the Gandy Bridge, an RV outruns a storm building over the bay this afternoon.

TBay Around the Net

This week's selections are from Polonoid.net:

• Clearwater Beach (doublespeak/photo)
• Surprise under the Sink in Homosassa [sorry, Dr. Shooter, I'm still trying to decide if that's mounted or not] (Dr. Shooter/photo)
• Going, going... (doublespeak/photo)

Holga One

The Don CeSar Hotel, taken with a new Holga.

One of Many

Just another condo crane <yawn>. On Beach Drive in St. Pete.

TBay Around the Net

Here's your Friday tour:

• Toucan Sam (Brian Cassella/photo)
  
• Dunedin Egret (alfuso/photo)
• Heron's Bad Hair Day (st0l1/photo)
  

Beach Drive

Along Beach Drive in St. Pete, at The Moon Under Water. Taken on a recent Saturday--a hot one, too--following our tour of A Taste of Pinellas, in nearby Vinoy Park.

TBay Around the Net

Here's your Friday tour of Tampa Bay photos:

• Cup of Fire, Thonotosassa (dulcelife/photo)
• Rocky Point architecture (dshalock/photo)
• Coney Island Grill, St. Pete (calebism/photo)
  

Almost Through

The move is almost complete, but...

Maybe It Will Return

...I've had to sell my boomerang table. It just didn't fit in the new digs. Too bad.

Prop

Inside a lifeguard stand at Picnic Island, where a propped palm frond that I didn't prop served as a handy photo prop.

Also, this blog's first wireless post.

Extra link: the Googled phrase "picnic island lifeguard" produced this article. Very unusual for the beach!

TB Around the Net

• SiM war on the beach (photo/Annik Rubens).
• Harbor lights from the downtown Marriott (photo/sherermaddness).
• Bradenton Beach sunset (photo/RebeccaSaylor).
• Lovely retro in Lakeland (photo/BEERandBONES).

Shadows and Light

One of the Ca d'Zan's many stained glass windows. In the background is Sarasota Bay, just beyond the veranda.

Also:

• More Ringling Mansion.
• Inside the Ca.

Rooftop View

A view of Pass-a-Grille, from the roof of the Hurricane.

Blech!

Moving.

With photos in reserve, I'll still be posting, albeit sporadically. After two weeks or so, posting should get back to normal, unless I can't find the box I packed my camera in.

Please bear with.

Thicket

Shot from the stairs of the observation tower at Myakka River State Park.

Termite Towers

A huge termite tent, shot this morning, at a 55+ condo on 83rd Avenue, between 4th and MLK.

Found Photo Series, No. 7

Well, as stated before, the Found Photo Series really has expanded to any image that can be put through a scanner. This is another New Orleans menu, found in an anitques store on Central Avenue in St. Pete.








Also:

• Found Photo Series, No. 6

• Found Photo Series, No. 5

• Found Photo Series, No. 4

Sponge Haulers

At the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs.

Squatter.

A month later, and the lizard living in my bathroom ceiling fan is still there. Before I knew what was there, I could hear something moving around in the bathroom ceiling. I denied hearing anything--I just didn't want to know. Then, I started to see dust on the toilet seat just about every morning. After removing the grill and dusting it, I could see the lizard sticking its head out from behind the fan unit. It still finds dust to kick out of the fan. Speaking of which, I only use the portable fan now.

Also:

• Previous Lizard Encounters
  

Scenecape No. 4: Vintage St. Pete

Clockwise, from top left, checker players at Williams Park, the St. Petersburg Alligator Farm, and Central Avenue at night. Vintage images pulled from postcards at eBay.

Also:

• Scenescape No. 3: Ybor
• Scenescape No. 2: Crescent Lake

Hairdresser on Fire & Fish Face

All's good working Morrissey into a post title. These masks are on display in the Circus Museum at the Ringling.

The Tampa Bay Area as depicted on one of the panels from an old nautical map of 1982. Interesting are the fish havens marked out by John's Pass toward the bottom of the map, as well as unfamiliar place names like "Turtecrawl Point," south of Bay Pines.

David Looks Goliath

Looking past David's foot at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art courtyard.

On Flickr, some complete photos of the statue replica at the Ringling.

Gawking Like a Tourist in Manhattan

Inside the Ringling Mansion, looking up before the skylight: an example of the tapestries (Flemish, I think) in the mansion, and a detail of the carved wood ceiling.

Sarasota Jewel

In front of the Ca d'Zan mansion at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

At the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Piers. On the horizon, a barge heads out to the Gulf of Mexico.

Extremity of Sky

At Fletcher & Sons, Pinellas County.

More Pianos in the Sky at Flickr.

Bumper Crop

An array of bumpers at an automobile salvage yard somewhere in Pinellas County, between Ulmerton Road and the Solid Waste plant.

Winter Sunset

Hillsborough River downtown.

How Many Bathrooms?

One-room schoolhouse for sale last month in Cortez.

Scenescape No. 3

Ybor City on Seventh Avenue.

Also:

• Scenescape No. 2
• Scenescape No. 1 (16th Street)
• Dali-scape
  

Mugging for the Camera

Even though I wanted the palm in this photo at Crescent Lake, it still reminds me of someone that inadvertently inserts themselves into your photo, or the ham who mugs for the camera behind an on-the-scene reporter.
In the background is a water tower that may not be long for the city.

Also:

• Leaning Palm
• Sunset w/ Palms
  

In That Order

At the bait and tackle shop in Pass-a-Grille.

Ionic Sunbeams

The Port Tampa City Library.

More from Cortez

In Cortez, crab traps, boat parts, and boats seem to stack up wherever you turn. Even the most neatly maintained yards maintain a touch of the sea with nautical rope fences, or anchors sitting in the front yard.

She's a Hagg!!

Worth a stop. Argh. On the way to Bradenton Beach, along Cortez Road, is the Sea Hagg. On first glance, it looks like a roadside attraction and really is in its own right. A good mix of kitsch and some great work by local artists. The collection of nautical items is so large that it puts to shame even the most hyper-display of seafarin' garb that so many seafood restaurants love...

...like this enormous selection of buoys.

A View of Old Florida

The fishing village of Cortez in Manatee County. The shack in the background is built on stilts for cleaning fishing nets.

The Skyway, High Above the Busy Little One-Way

In between the sections of fishing pier on the Pinellas side of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Straight ahead is the pier's bait shop; the bridge is visible to the left.

La Septima

Ybor's Seventh Avenue, with one of its characteristic
street lamps, reflected in a cigar store window located across the street from La Tropicana.

Bonus link is an article on Ybor in the Fort Myers News-Press that was part of a series on the Florida Cuban Heritage Trail.