Sepia Scenes #4: Pierless Beauty

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"Fishing Pier in Atlantic Beach"
Atlantic Beach, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)

"Kat"
Raleigh, NC - September 2006 (Click to embiggen)

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All along the island of Emerald Isle, you'll see scenes like this one. Every town along the island's only highway has at least one fishing pier. Some have more than one. The catch can be virtually anything from here. Flounder are popular, as are spot, bluefish and drum. Sea bass, mackerel and tuna are less common, but not unheard of. Even large bill fish (marlins and the like) can be taken from the piers or the surf on occasion. The coastal waters of North Carolina aren't very far removed from the Gulf Stream (only about 12 miles at Cape Hatteras) giving the area a wide variety of fish from both the warm water of the Gulf Stream and the colder northern currents.

At this particular pier, a handful of sharks spent the summer hanging around feeding off discarded bait and the fish drawn by it, but shark fishing is expressly prohibited on this pier (and most others I suspect). I imagine the issue is less about the safety of the patrons than it is about the liability insurance issues but that's just a guess. On any given day, you'll find anglers of all ages, shapes and sizes lining the rails hoping to land a big one. And frequently they do.

And since Mary The Teach suggested trying a portrait this week, I decided I'd throw one of those in too. Although technically not a formal portrait, this is one of my favorite shots of a local singer I've featured many times before on this blog.

This is Kat, from Sugar (The Band). Sugar is unique in that the same band performs under two different names. As Sugar, they're one of the area's favorite cover bands, but they also perform and record as The Design, in which guise they do all original material. It's a different kind of approach, and I give them credit for managing to keep the two identities straight.

This shot is actually cropped from a photo I took of Kat on stage at an outdoor show. Obviously this isn't the composition or setting you'd use for formal portraiture, but you try getting someone with this much energy to sit still long enough for that!

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