Friday Photo Challenge #3: The Good Earth: v.3.0 - "Where Broken Wings Fly Again"

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"I Know Why The Wild Bird Sings"
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)
In case you missed it: Check out my entry in Nicole B's Scavenger Hunt!

 Find out more here.

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Still confused? Don't worry about it, you're in good company. Here's the deal: Dr. Cason turned over the helm of Friday Photo Challenge to guest hosts this month, and Tinkerbell’s Momma Kat took it. I don't think she intended to carry it for the month, but that's apparently how it worked out. Anyway, she's got the link up and it's pretty sparse this month.

As host of the month, TMK also got to pick the theme, and elected "The Good Earth" as the raison d'etre.

So as my final entry for this theme, I've selected this pond at Theyland Stables in Raleigh. You've seen it before, but I think it was in black and white that time. In any case it wasn't this shot 'cause I don't reuse them on purpose (there's no reason to when you shoot as many as I do). My reason for choosing this scene is that Theyland, I've learned recently, is part of the Triangle Land Conservancy. I don't know so very much about the organization, but I will soon. Some of you may remember my first venture into this challenge when I presented a recently rehabilitated red tail hawk on her maiden voyage post-op during the New Beginning theme in January. Well TLC saw the photos from that day and it turns out they wanted two of them for their May newsletter/magazine including the one in the aforementioned post. Before you ask, no, I'm not getting any remuneration out of the deal, but still, it's nice to be published when you weren't expecting it. So it seemed fitting to give Theyland and TLC a nod in my final post for "The Good Earth".

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Friday Photo Challenge #3: The Good Earth: v.2.0 - "Home is Where the Garden Is"

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"Eden Never Had It So Good"
Hendersonville, NC - July 2006 (Click to embiggen)
In case you missed it: Check out my entry in Nicole B's Scavenger Hunt!

 Find out more here.

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Okay if you're confused, you're in good company. The good Dr. Cason turned over the helm of Friday Photo Challenge to guest hosts this month, and Tinkerbell’s Momma Kat took it for the first week, but apparently not for the whole month. And as of 7:45 AM EDT, nobody's drawn the assignment for this week, and it appears that the only post up for it is this one. So I guess that kinda makes me the de facto host... as the only player. But if you want to play along, leave a link in the comments and once a host is settled, I'll let ya know.

As the first host of the month, TMK also got to pick the theme, and elected "The Good Earth" as the raison d'etre. That much is staying the same, 'cause that's how this meme rolls.

So last week I picked a shot from a nature preserve because that's the best earth we have left on this panet and I hope to keep it that way. But there's "Good Earth" to be found closer to home too. In this case, it's not my home, but a friend's who lives in the mountain town of Hendersonville, NC. Despite not having the greatest soil for growing stuff in, she's managed to bring forth these retina-popping gardens, one of which is in this photo. Not an easy trick when most of the soil in your neighborhood is decompsed granite.

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Friday Photo Challenge #3: The Good Earth: v.1.0 - "Nothing But Footprints"

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"Unspoiled - For Now"
Beaufort, NC - July 2003 (Click to embiggen)

 Find out more here.

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This month, the Good Doctor is farming out FPC to guest hosts and the lucky one this week is Tinkerbell’s Momma Kat. (You might want to write that down, 'cause her profile points you to a different place.) As the first host of the month, TMK also got to pick the theme, which had me stumped for a while. "The Good Earth" can mean practically anything after all. Finally I settled on this shot of Carrot Island, one of the barrier islands protecting the waters of Beaufort Harbor.

I chose Carrot Island for a couple of reasons. First because it's a part of the Rachel Carson Nature Preserve, meaning it's protected land. Second because owing to its protected status, (and probably its relatively small size) nothing exists on the island that isn't naturally occurring and the only permanent residents there are the varied species of animals indigenous to it. Camping -- even primitive camping, which is allowed on some of the other islands by permit -- is prohibited on Carrot Island. If you're not a member of a naturally occurring native species, you're only allowed to visit for the day, then you get back on the boat that brung ya. This may be among the best kept examples of "Good Earth" remaining in this country because humans simply haven't been permitted to get their hands on it. Do me a favor. If you visit there, leave nothing behind but your footprints, okay?

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Friday Photo Challenge #2: Humanity v.3.0 - "Separate But Equal"

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"Black History"
Raleigh, NC - September 2007 (Click to embiggen)

 Find out more here.

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I can actually remember -- in my lifetime -- a day when doors like this weren't hung in a museum, but in businesses in my hometown. A lot of bloggers, a lot of people in general actually, are thankfully too young to have ever seen this kind of intolerance in anything but a history book. Thankfully, these doors are now a curiosity in the Raleigh City Museum and serve not to divide people, but to teach the lessons of history so that future generations will never have to repeat them.

Seeing this exhibit which I shot in the late summer of 2007 only serves to underscore the historic significance of last November's election. In forty years, the city that once relegated African Americans to the back of the bus, or their own "separate but equal" drinking fountains and restrooms voted in support of just such a man to occupy the nation's highest office. The election didn't bring an end to bigotry, but it did mark a point of progress in that pursuit.

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Friday Photo Challenge #2: Humanity v.2.0 - "Waiting for the Plane"

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"Waiting"
Raleigh, NC - June 2006 (Click to embiggen)

 Find out more here.

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This scene is one I'm sure has been repeated at airfields all over the country over the last seven years, but under much grimmer circumstances. Young wives, girlfriends, sisters waiting for their husbands, boyfriends, brothers to return home from foreign lands. And hoping against hope that they will return whole and healthy.

But on this hot June afternoon in 2006, the occasion was far more lighthearted. It was similar in that wives and children were awaiting the return of their men from another country, but in this case they were the wives and children of players for the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes who were one day removed from winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. An estimated 3000 fans lined up at the fence at the ramp of a nondescript general aviation hangar, as Canes fans have done every postseason, to welcome the team back home and shout encouragement for the upcoming game. It worked in this case as Carolina went on to win the deciding Game 7 on June 19th, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 to claim hockey's ultimate prize.

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Friday Photo Challenge #2: Humanity v.1.0 - "Wet Sheets"

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"One Man's Bench Is Another Man's Bed"
Rochester, NY - August 2005 (Click to embiggen)

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This month's Friday Photo Challenge theme is "Humanity". That is, something to reflect the human condition.

One of the things photography does to you is train you to see things that other people miss. Or to see them in ways that other people don't. The story behind this shot is one such case. I came across this scene in Rochester, NY on an August afternoon just after a rain. Maybe it really is just a soggy discarded newspaper thoughtlessly left on a bench. But what I saw was an unmade bed.

What do you see?

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Friday Photo Challenge #1: "A New Beginning" v.4.0 - A Host of Golden Daffodils

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"The Circle Unbroken"
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)

 Find out more here.

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This month's Friday Photo Challenge theme is "A New Beginning". And this isn't the shot I had originally intended to use in this fourth and final installment, but when I saw the scene it just fit entirely too well to leave it out.

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Friday Photo Challenge #1: "A New Beginning" v.3.0 - Not As Obvious

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"Beginning to Fly"
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This month's Friday Photo Challenge theme is "A New Beginning", and this female red tail hawk has just been given exactly that. She was found at an area riding stable grounded with a badly broken wing and taken to the Raptor Center in Charlotte, NC. After several weeks of treatment and several more weeks of rehab the couple that originally found her returned with her to the place they discovered her and released her back into the wild. About a dozen people were on hand to watch as she took her first flight outside the aviary in about three months. If you look very closely at her left leg you can see her stunning new ankle bracelet -- a federal ID band that can be used track her.

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Friday Photo Challenge #1: "A New Beginning" v.2.0 - A Little Too Obvious

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"Beginning a New Year"
Raleigh, NC - December 2008 (Click to embiggen)

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This month's Friday Photo Challenge theme is "A New Beginning".

I told you I'd bring them back. What, you doubted me?

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Friday Photo Challenge #1: "A New Beginning" v.1.0 - Before the Beginning

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"Beginning of New Hope"
Raleigh, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)

 Find out more here.

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This month's Friday Photo Challenge theme is "A New Beginning". I thought I'd give New Year's Eve a rest for a little while and rewind a little further to just before last November's election. The beginning of the beginning if you will. (But don't worry, I'll bring back the fireworks in next week's entry.)

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