8 posts tagged “florida”
My one-man diversity and community outreach roadshow took me this week to Orlando, Fla., for the National Urban League conference. This trip, all my exhibit pieces arrived together, enabling me to set up a fairly appealing -- although minimalist -- exhibit. About 1,000 people a day came by and asked, "What are you giving away?
The answer: free portrait photos and a 64MB memory card.
That's not me in the suit. The Geico gecko seemed to like the photos. I don't think he could hold the memory card in those Mickey Mouse-like fingers.
Orlando is built purely for entertainment and tourism: theme parks, premium shopping outlets (note the absence of the word 'discount'), giant hotel resorts where your dining choices are hideously overpriced in-house restaurants or the snack machines, and nonstop marble surfaces that mostly amplify ambient noise. The cavernous Marriott World Center Resort is tidy, mostly. If you wanted a convention center glued right onto a hotel, this is your place.
These events are elaborately planned and staged, then rearranged for last-minute visitors, like Presidential candidates. But for me, they always raise questions.
Where do conference managers go to buy giant scissors for ribbon cuttings? You just don't find these at the outlet mall.
Does the gecko believe in marketing alliances that link Kodak with an auto insurance company?
Some companies have NASCAR race cars in their exhibit. Very nice idea -- one that I pioneered with Kodak's "Drive for Diversity" driver about four years ago in Washington, D.C. Just call me a trailblazing motorhead...
Conference attendees like to ask how much my high-speed digital thermal printer costs. I tell them: about the price of a reliable used car. If you have a scrapbooking business, the Kodak GS Picture Kiosk might be your cup of tea -- assuming you're generating enough revenue to afford the $100 replacement roll of photo paper and dye ribbon.
The team from our Event Imaging Solutions group had better hardware, cameras, and software, so I asked them in to shoot and print the portraits for attendees. 1,200 photos in 3 days. Try running that though your home printer. Or, perhaps not.
Today, after a few more photos, I get to fold the tent and "run for the bus" -- hopefully bypassing the huge crowds expected when Sen. Obama stops by to speak. (I heard his talk at NCLR in San Diego, two weeks ago; I think I'll let the news media summarize the Senator's salient points while I dash for the airport.)
At the end of the day, Sarasota's best traits are that it's not Orlando. Or even Tampa. You're about as far from mouse ears and mock-toberfests as you can get. The attractions are family owned (like Sarasota Jungle Gardens) and quaint.
And while the community is remarkably clean, you'll run across the occasional reminder that no area is immune to unemployment and homelessness.
I was preoccupied by the big clock in the park near the end of Main Street. But only after downloading the pictures did I notice the homeless man sleeping on the bench (shown between the clock's legs).
These are not my photos.
I purchased a Minolta film camera at a garage sale in Sarasota, FL last weekend ($1, including a snazzy black case and the original instructions). The film inside yielded family photos that appear to be from Dec. 2002 and March 2003 -- Christmas and winter break visits, perhaps?
I don't know anything else about the family. I think the seller of the camera bought the camera at an estate sale and was re-selling it to clear out her inventory.
Any of these people look familiar? Or this backyard pool and lanai, perhaps?
A few glimpses of Sarasota that don't have much to do with flamingos or beaches or T-shirt shops. I get out early, before visitors and pedestrians clutter the sidewalks and storefronts, spoiling my photos.
Tourism boards sometimes hate when I do this "dawn patrol" photography. But Sarasota's budget axe fell on 27 police department employees a few days before I arrived. They probably had more important crimes to fight than a lone photographer packing an SLR.
I promise you, there will be a palm tree shot in the next few days. But over at Turtle Beach -- Siesta Key's less-popular twin -- they've done a good job roping off the more fragile native flora. The light was right, and I was packing a 300 mm lens, which helped blur out the background nicely. You can't do this with a pocket digital camera, friends.
I wouldn't presume to do a sequel to any Alfred Hitchcock film.
But if I did, I might base it at Sarasota Jungle Gardens, where the flamingoes have no fear of humans.
Nor are they concerned with such obstacles as police barrier tape...
... or restaurants that take their names in vain.
This particular flamingo followed us halfway out of Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Good thing our rental car had a sunroof.
It's not difficult to see wildlife in Florida.
Flamingoes? No problem. Herons? Got 'em by the the bushel. Gators? Just about every waterway has a reptile to spare.
But turtles ... mating?
This gives an entirely different interpretation to the phrase, "Coming out of your shell."
All things considered, I'd rather have the flamingoes.
You didn't know me when I had a serious -- some would say, irrational -- preoccupation with flamingoes.
Good thing, too.
Because it became somewhat annoying. Inflatable flamingoes, flamingo tiki lights, flamingo mobiles, fake flamingo noses, flamingo sweatshirts. I was insufferable.
I even wrote an article about obsession with all things flamingo in Rochester, NY. Which consisted of a few plastic garden ornaments and a deco-motif clothing store on Goodman Street. The local Sunday magazine bought the piece, thinking it was perfect to lighten up an otherwise dreary winter weekend in upstate New York.
Luckily, I grew out of it. Sweatshirts get paint stains. Inflatable items develop leaks and wither.
Then, the phone rang. The folks at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens had an idea for a publicity photo. I had some free air miles.
I can't disclose all the details yet, but suffice it to say -- the birds welcomed me back. And they had no idea I was coming...
Not truly postcards -- just the photos promised in the earlier post.
Here's the Anna Maria city pier restaurant -- slightly distorted by my panoramic Kodak V705 camera. Can't you just see Bogey tying off his boat and waiting for Cuban gunrunners? (Rent a copy of "To Have and Have Not," his 1944 film with Lauren Bacall. Doesn't follow Hemingway's book at all, but it's a terrific movie.)
Meanwhile, behind this decidedly un-resort-like structure, a few vacationers yammered on about how cold it was up north. The guy in the middle, wearing green, went on about the miserable Saratoga, NY weather. Vacation tip: when you go someplace warm, don't take your cold-weather stories with you. Enjoy the sunshine and ocean, willya?
Of course, if you're going to live on an island near a beach, a terrific road cruiser is essential. Ragtop? Definitely. Tailfins? Even better. Except some people just get carried away...
We tried to catch a sunset at Siesta Key Beach, but a front blew in with an overcast sky. So I concentrated on beach scenes. (Yes, I was shooting the sandcastles, but admittedly wanted to snag the camera-phone goddess in the white capri's, too.)
And, of course, no Florida excursion's complete without a sampling of the latest alcoholic incarnation from that fine brewmaster, Jimmy Buffett. I haven't seen Landshark Beer in the cold, cold north yet -- but I suspect it'll arrive in time for boating season.
