A Study in Color

Shadow Box

When Edward went into the Air Force his friends gave him a party and had a GI Joe doll with his face stuck on the doll. This doll sat on our TV for 4 years while he traveled the world to Iraq, Pakistan, Germany and Mombasa. It was a constant reminder that our son would return safe to America. I decided it would be nice to use some of his mementos of being in the Air Force to make this shadow box. If you look carefully you will see all his stripes. There are maps of each place he was stationed. The buttons on the box came from his uniform.

There is foreign currency that he got from each country. The picture of him is when he was in Iraq. I think it looks just like GI Joe.

Paynes Prairie

This is our Alachua Savannah as drawn by William Bartram in 1973.

Right now it is the home to thousands of whooping cranes and sandhill cranes. Can you see them? Me neither. We were not at the right spot. Just wait.

A Seminole Tribe lived here in the 1700's.


Now it is called the Gator Nation. Go figure. Paynes Prairie was named after the Chief Ahaya the Cowkeepers' son Payne. Back in the olden days there used to be steamboats on this river. I have my trunk packed and I waited all day but the steamboat never came.

Spanish moss was everywhere. It gave a Gothic feel to the wilderness. Although Spanish moss lives on the air and not the tree, it does grow so thick that the sunlight cannot get to the tree to allow it to grow to its full potential. I think some of our school children have Spanish moss growing on them.

First Published Photo

The Observer, which is printed monthly for Alachua, High Springs and Newberry has published one of my photos. If you can read the fine print under the photo you will see photo by R. Celeste Beck. I am so excited to have my first photo published and to have it on the front page.

Color me beaming.

I was also asked if I would like to do assignment photos. I guess I am now an assignment photographer. That has a nice sound.
Does that mean I need a new outfit?

Here is the actual shot before it got translated into newsprint. It was nerve racking at first when I thought I was going to shoot Christmas lights at night. It is hard to capture the true beauty. I am quite tickled with the results.

This is just another shot of this house. It is quite beautiful and was great fun shooting. I kept getting in the road and of course Steve says " You are in the road." I told him his job was to make sure I did not get run over by a car.
He did a good job.

Christmas Cactus

The blooms of the Christmas Cactus are starting to open. The plant knows what day Christmas will be here and that is when it will be in its full glory.On Christmas all the blooms were open.