Sliding Sunrise
This is the back-story to a recent work in my “Photo Transformations” series. We moved to Florida in 2016 to be closer to my mother, who was in her late 80s at the time, and recently passed away at age 91. Moving to Sarasota from our home in Atlantic Highlands, NJ was a big change of lifestyle for us at the time. I still miss mountain biking and my weekend scenic motorcycle rides with friends. But learning to like your circumstances is a virtue, and one that we are getting to practice.
Reverse Snowbirds = Sunfish?
Florida is the land of the snowbirds, people who spend their winters here during the high season. Understandable, since it’s usually a sunny 75 degrees. But during the summers, they flee the Florida heat and spend their time up north in cooler climates. We have many neighbors like that, gone after mid-May.
If anything, we trend the opposite. For us, it’s upside-down, we have learned to love the summers here.
Turns out it’s the time of year, Robyn and I feel most at home here. There is not nearly as much traffic, the beaches are beautifully empty, no waiting for tables in restaurants and parking spaces everywhere. It’s really the only time of year the place truly feels like ours, like home. The tourists, traffic, and snowbirds arrive around November, and by Christmas it feels overpopulated.
These days the summers in the rest of the country seem far worse, fraught with fires and high temperatures in regions unaccustomed to this. Mind you, here we have not hit full Hurricane season yet, when the favorite pastime shifts to watching spaghetti model forecasts of tropical waves moving through the Atlantic.
But the winters are high season, and besides the brilliant sunshine and temperatures, one of the many benefits is that we get the occasional ground fog. This, as a photographer, can make sunrises and sunsets pretty special. On some November mornings, when I see the pre-sunrise dense fog swirling around outside, I can head to a nearby lake called Jiggs landing, only a few minutes from our house.
Before and After Sunrise
This is where the original source photograph was taken, one November morning, watching the Jigg’s landing sport-fishermen head out into the golden waters. With the sun rising behind the docks, the morning ground fog takes on a swirling, mythical feel.
About the Transformation
I was looking for something to elevate and connect the spiritual feel of movement in this scene, inspired by the calm, gently swirling morning fog.
The Finished Artwork
Sliding Sunrise Animated NFT
I’ve made this artwork available as an animated NFT on the OpenSea marketplace as part of my transformations collection. Please consider supporting us by bidding on one of only 5 available editions — and unlock a glass print and some special content in the process.
Moreover, please know we partner with organizations to help produce, promote and market independent artists through a series of grants, including an art and marketing school specifically for artists. More about this in upcoming blog posts.
This NFT Includes the following unlockable extras and benefits:
- A 23” large format glass print, ready to hang, shipped to you. Archival glass prints look amazingly deep, and are provided by Fracture.
- A super high-res printable version of the artwork.
- A super high-res printable version of the original photograph.
- High-resolution animation video.
