We do love our life cycles particularly those we conjure up out of nowhere. What’s so special about resetting a calendar? Does it have more import than the sun bouncing off the bottom a couple days ago or than messing with clocks and our biorhythms back early November? Not at all but we insist on trying. Journalists let us know what was important perhaps to remind us of their importance. Photographers trot out their ten best of the year – definitely to remind us of their presence. English majors spin a couple rooting apples into a metaphor for the great metaphysical forces at work as this year wanes. One apple resists rotting as another hurries along. Weeds tells us no deep freeze has visited. It aint over yet. The discerning eye knows the one visbile twig is actually a pruned branch. The trees above are ready for a new year.

The only certainty here is that the year will end, the world will not end (that’s for next year) and it will all start again in a couple days.

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I provide the ghosts. I trust you folks will have your own choices for seasonal delights well in hand.

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Things fall apart; they wear out. We don’t like it when boat systems or car systems or household systems fail. Frustrated? Tired of a new problem all too often? Grab a camera or hang out with your favorite photographer. Deterioration, decay, rust, mold represent – photographic opportunities and challenges. The Folly Beach city manager may have at some point evaluated my groin. How much will it cost to rebuild? Has it done its job? Should the city rebuild it?

I have other issues. What length timed exposure will soften the background without blowing out the exposure? When will shadows line up with its axis? Will the tide bury it under water? Will the sky co-operate with some texture? Do I even know what I am doing? Not really but that’s no impediment. A little practice (maybe 8 to 10 hours), three trips to the beach and a dozen shots to dial in the exposure and to get a selection of background variations.

Then life is in proper perspective. It’s not about me and the old groin and the challenge. It’s about the image – looking out, enjoying the what a gray day can do for us and the moment created by the image. We have always said the underlying principle of our sharing Post Cards is the premise: the world out there is fundamentally more interesting than we are. This old groin’s deterioration fits the bill – certainly more interesting than mine. Enjoy.

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Back when we had a weekend home down on the south shore of the Potomac late fall and early winter sailing was such a treat. We just had to find a sunny day with light winds. There was always one more such a day and one more after that. Seems a similar phenomenon occurs down here in South Carolina.

Pick a warm sunny day and head for the beach. Light winds are not a requirement. It was blowing a stink yesterday afternoon out at Folly Beach. Some folks hid behind makeshift wind breaks. A surf board seems to do the trick. Others made like it was perhaps a July afternoon, that is they set a beach chair facing into the sun & wind and enjoyed a good book. Wind surfers did what wind surfers always do when the wind is up. They flew back & forth and about. But it wasn’t a July afternoon. The sun is low in the sky. Contrasts are stronger. Beach humidity creates a yellow patina. But just look into the sun or point a camera into the sun and the world becomes an almost monochromatic mood piece.

And there will be another day like this at the beach. And then another.

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