Show me your favorite beautiful photos please!

[melave]

You all take such beautiful pictures!! i am not that handy with a camera

These might not be beautiful but they give me pleasure to look at as they bring back memories. The first 3 are from where i live and the last was a beautiful morning on our recent trip to New Zealand

 

[lknvrb4]

Here are a few of my favorites from our trip to Montana last summer.

 

[dragonfly411]

Marcy - Don't you just love Pebble Beach? I loved it! Your photos are awesome!
Melave - I think your photos are absolutely stunning! I love the downward view of the river.
lknvrb4 - I hope to make it to Yellowstone someday, it's so pretty, and so untouched.

Here are a couple from this weekend, we stayed at Chassahowitzka springs and boated out of the Chassahowitzka river to the gulf to go scalloping. I don't have a clear picture, but we had a manatee come right up to the boat where I was sitting with my feet dangling. She and I had eye to eye and she bumped our boat and tried to bump my foot but I moved (there is a hefty fine if you touch them). I think she was looking for lettuce. We also saw a dolphin all the way up by the springs, which is about 5 miles inland from the gulf. I guess he was exploring. We had beautiful weather and it was a much needed getaway after the past two weeks.


I plan to paint this first one, it is an abandoned fishing boat in the grass flats. The gulf coast of Florida is the equivalent of the bayous of Louisiana. All along the river are old houses, some in use and some abandoned. The people here live off of the bounty of the land. They have solar panels, and water barrels and they catch and grow and forage for their food. They are close to fresh and salt water. Mullet, red fish, flounder, crabs, shrimp, scallops, trout, whiting, and drum are all plentiful and are easy food sources. They can also hunt rabbit and when the season is in, deer, as well as year round wild pigs. Some islands are high enough to allow vegetable gardens, but many have to grow vegetables in boxes, or drive their boats to the nearest town to get fruits and vegetables. It is a totally different lifestyle, and being here is like stepping back in time.


Here is an old abandoned "house". Some are little more than shacks.


The salt flats. Palm hammocks sprout up on the higher bits of ground. Wild pigs, snakes, birds and gators find shelter in these. The alligators have acclimated to moving in and out of the rivers since there is food to be found along the salt flats.


I am most at home when I am on the water, on the coast. The rivers are fun, but I feel at peace when I am on salt water, and I can smell the salt air and feel the wind and hear the waves. The gulf is it's own unique environment, and it brings me tranquility. I actually find myself torn as to whether I favor the gulf or the Atlantic more. The Atlantic has flats as well, and I get to hear the ocean crashing. I think that's what wins me over, but it doesn't have the scallops. I try to tell myself that that is why I live in the middle, so it's a short drive to either, but as I'm getting older, I find myself more restless to be close to the water. That's something SO and I are having to consider for the future.

 

[marcy]

Dragonfly, we loved Pebble Beach. I would go back anytime. Your new photos are great. That is cool you paint. I have no artistic skills.

 

[Tuckins1]

All my pics are on the other computer which is inaccessible for the time being. But here are some beautiful pics my sis took in Kauai last year... the last one is my very favorite, but the canyon shot is a close runner-up, and of course the requisite rainbow pic:

Are these pipcs from Kauai? We went there last summer and went to the canyon, too!

 

[lovebug1031]

These are awesome pics!

Here are some i've taken - first two in Bermuda - the lily pads were at a local botanical gardens and the last one was in Salt Lake...these were all taken with my iPhone!