Author: onajide

I was looking for the 4ft alligator that hangs out near the edge of a small lake in a public park but, when I stopped to see if I could take its picture I noticed a 3ft. iguana on the tree branch about 3ft. from my hand. As I tried to ease out my camera to take a picture it, and a second one, got another 2ft. or so away from me. They are rather skitish. Their population has grown out of control in the park next to the botanical gardens. They eat up the flowers off the plants. The gator was in a bad position for a decent photo so, no pic.

I took a couple selfpics but, I don’t like them because my neck was crooked in a strange way while I was sitting on a fallen Aussie pine tree. We need to remove them all but it won’t happen. They are, however, being removed and replaced with native species. I took some picture of mangroves because they are a magic tree. More about the mangroves when I post some of the images.

Okay, I admit these images are not that good. I thought they would be better but, I didn’t use my tripod. It was in the trunk of my car and I should have remembered I had it. Anyway, both images were difficult to take (if I can use that as an excuse). The bee-looking insect was about the size of a small housefly on a branch that swayed in the wind while I stood in 90 degree sunlight, sweat literally running down my body as I tried to take a decent pic. The other image was surrounded by more leaves full of the insects and I was not interested in finding out if they would jump from their location onto my then sweating body.

Tonight was much better for picture making. I went to some gallery openings and saw some friends and chatted up the evening. I’ll post some of the pics over the weekend from the mostly drawing works I shot at several galleries on Thursday and Friday.

I admit to searching for photo ops to post here. These are probably not the most interesting but, I like them because they have a slight abstract quality. I got some better (I think) pics yesterday of some insects but, I’ll save them for tomorrow or the day after.

In the last one hundred years, moving away from the Victorian Era, we have become more at ease in our (Western culture) dress. During the period pictured above people would wear something appropriate for getting wet but, not what you see here. The family whose life was documented in an album of images I bought at a garage sale was not a poor one. They lived in a nice house, travelled to Catalina Island (a luxury), dressed well, and apparently had money to document themselves in photographs over a five year period with good images, names and dates, and locations.

My family photos don’t go back that far in time. The older ones I have are from the 1920s-30s. Most of them are from the 1940s. My father and his older brother were avid photographers and took lots of family pics. Between them we can provide a pretty good documentation of our lives in Ohio and California. I was never good at family snapshots but, I do have some from 1959-64 that I’ve recently searched through, and made prints from. I told me aunt in Ohio I would send her some pics, including her pregnant with her youngest daughter. Of course, I didn’t take that picture. 🙂

A recently new friend hosted a pool party & BBQ last night at his home. He and his partner are very nice. There were a other few people I had previously met through the Black & White Men Together group. This was supposed to have been somebody in NYC’s birthday. They (whoever they were) were flown down, stayed at the Eden Roc (historic hotel on Miami Beach) then, had this pool party. At least that’s how I understood it. Only a couple of the several guys from NYC were friendly, the others went off into some corner of the yard and kept to themselves.

I know I’m not a person to go walking up introducing myself to people in such a cases unless I’m the host. I was really bothered by the lack of friendliness. I was the only one in the pool for a long time. After I got out and ate something and tried to get involved in some conversation did I hear a splash and then I got back in the pool. I preferred swimming to being ignored. I was actually getting upset and then I just said, fuck them.

It seemed most everyone there was coupled with somebody and, that’s often the case at BWMT gatherings since they have social gatherings in people’s homes. I’ve met a number of friends thru this group but, I haven’t become a member nor do I want to. Maybe my reason(s) aren’t valid but, I don’t want to be a member of a queer group and I find some of the members not the kind of people I would like to associate with if I met up with them on the street. Even though I’ve found a few people I do like being around I continue to be uneasy around many queer men.

One interesting and funny thing happened last night though. One of the guys I met a while ago and haven’t talked to much started talking about my swimming lessons. Then he said I should give him lessons, as he inched closer. I wasn’t thinking much about the moving closer until he said it several times. He must have had too much to drink for real because there just ain’t no way I’d be interested in such a lame, last minute come on. He’d been there as long as me and stayed aloof the whole time. I had thought about drinking to loosen up my talking too but, you know what, that’s a bad idea. Drinking around friends is one thing but, drinking because you think it’s gonna help in a social situation is foolish.

Even though I’ve met some nice guys at the BWMT functions, I’ve only gone to bed with one of them. He was there last night but, I don’t think we could be anything more than friends (that don’t have sex). Hearing him talking to one of his friends about one of his sexual exploits while we were hanging out for the day was definitely a turnoff. The only other guy I was attracted to was with his partner. Oh well. I guess bars are the only place to meet guys even though I don’t like bars.

Tonight was the meeting of artists for the exhibition, “Nepotism.” We took a series of photos for the museum but I wanted to get an inside view of the artists as they gathered for the second photo shoot. We had wine, beer, cheese, crackers, and veggies with dip. Seeing friends and meeting artists I didn’t know was fun. Everybody seemed to love my piece even with the map tack installation. Some people spent a lot of money on framing/ mounting which I cannot afford. Actually, my current financial situation is a depressing one better left for a post of the “reality check” type. Enjoy the fun evening.