If you have never experienced a sunrise you have not experienced one of the most spectacular color shows you will ever see. Not only is it a show of color but of life coming to life into a new day. You can return to the very same spot and it is different every time. One of my favorite things about it is the birds waking up and singing and beginning to move about. They never seem to have a care in the world, not worried about the news, weather, stock market, or anything else but sing a beautiful song.
In the fall of 2010 I started shooting what was going to be a mini documentary of Bluff Drive on Isle of Hope in Savannah Georgia. I wanted it to incorporate pictures from the past and show a matching scene of what it looks like now, kind of a then and now type of thing. This is a huge task and responsibility to do a project like that, try to make it fit into a five minute video, and go it alone… Bluff Drive even though it’s only a few blocks long could take years to tell and show its beauty. There has been thousands of photography’s, artist paintings, and even Hollywood movies picturing “The Bluff”. The change that happens in just six minutes of that show of color I was talking about at sunrise will make you hold your breath the entire time. Kind of an Alice in Wonderland experience thing or a Jimmy Hendrix purple haze moment. Ok I am getting way off track and only the “experienced” will even know what I am talking about.
This video is only me throwing a few quick clips into a time line and rendering them out. One day I hope to get back on the project. For more information on Isle of Hope please visit this website and by all means if you are in the Savannah Georgia area do take a slow ride down what was once Shell Road now called Bluff Drive. Come early and park your car and walk slowly down the bluff then late that afternoon come back and do it again. That within itself would be more than worth coming to Savannah Georgia. Isle of Hope
The Prayer Flags location is one I came across a couple of years ago while biking the McQueen’s Island Historic Trail for the first time. The trail from the parking lot located at the entrance of Fort Pulaski to the prayer flags location at the end of the trail is six miles. It makes for a nice twelve mile out and back bicycle ride. There is also a parking lot located in the middle, three mile before you get to Fort Pulaski which cuts the round trip down to six miles.
Not only are there prayer flags but an assortment of stuff that the rivers wash up along the edge of the trail. People gather these items along their way so they can hang them in the Live Oak tree along with the flags. Most of the hard hats, large rope, bottles, drift wood, old fishing rods, you name it looked very familiar to me growing up around the rivers in the Savannah area. The six to eight foot tidal rise and fall each day pushes up all kinds of trash to treasure. It looked like some kind of art exhibit to me but the flags looked out of place. What are the flags all about I thought to myself? So I climb off my bicycle and up onto one of the picnic tables and begin to read the flags. Wow I thought, people are writing some kind of prayers. It did not take long to see that most of the flags had messages that were very sincere and very serious. The people writing these words believe in a God that is listening and cares. I believe the flags were put up first by someone who believes in God then other people began to hang all the other stuff. I must admit from a distance is does look like some kind of abstract art exhibit but it does not take long to see that the flags reveal something much deeper. It is people crying out to God for the need of a friend or family member or someone calling out to God for help themselves. You may find it strange for people to write a prayer on a flag and hang it in a tree and expect God to know it or respond to it. I think that the important thing is that we call upon God. How we do it is not so important. I know when my children send me a text or email and I read it on a computer or phone screen the important thing is that they let me know what is going on or what it is that they have need of. There does come a time when talking is good, but the important thing is to communicate often. God Himself once wrote messages on stone tables and gave it to Moses. I guess we can think of that as today’s email or sticky notes.
Around the end of 2010 I had decided to make a movie with the flags. So in February of 2011 I packed up my camera gear into my Kata backpack, grabbed my tripod and slider, put my bicycle in the van and headed down to the middle parking lot. With 35lbs of camera gear on my back I made the three mile bicycle ride and begin filming. It was a beautiful Monday morning to enjoy the outdoors but very few to no people on the trail that day. So as I was finishing up with some last shots in rode Melanie and Chris and we greeted each other and they were about to head back out when I ask if they minded being in the movie. They both agreed so I ask them to ride back in and around the tree and have a seat on the end picnic table, all unscripted and unrehearsed, one take and it was over. I can’t thank them enough for being so willing and for Chris serving our country in the military, what a beautiful couple, Thank you. I don’t always have a microphone on my camera but this day I did so I could read the flags out loud. This way I would be sure as to know what was on them. Not sure how or if I would use the words that day but later I decided to ask some friends at church to do voice over’s of the prayers for me. Of course they were very willing too, so out came the MacBook and GarageBand and the rest of the story is in the film. Thank you, Melissa, Kelly, Lindsay, Zac, and Jonathan for being such great friends.
Thank you all for viewing my videos and reading my blog.
If you are in the Savannah, Georgia or Tybee Island area be sure to go out and enjoy the McQueen’s Island Trail.
As the temperatures dropped down into the low 20’sF for a couple of nights I knew that some of the fountains would get ice in them. Wow, this may be as close as it gets to looking like winter other than some types of our trees losing their leaves. During December at night temperatures are usually in the 40’sF so there is not much chance of a white Christmas here in Savannah. So I grabbed my camera and headed down to historic downtown Savannah hoping to catch some winter looks being that’s the way we generally picture Christmas. It was 22F degrees with the wind blowing above 12 knots and had been gusting 16 to 22 knots during the night. Yes! Good chance that people will look cold and along with all the Christmas decorations and people shopping it will look like Christmas in the South. With the store fronts decorated, red bows, and garland on the light poles, it reminds me of being a child again on Broughton Street during Christmas. Ok, there were not so many people in 22F degree weather; after all we are more use to being in short sleeve shirts and maybe a light jacket in December. Then I could not wait to get home and open my camera to see what was inside, as if it was a tightly wrapped Christmas gift. Cool, people moving very fast, a mother taking the hand of her daughter, I like that “love,” now that’s what Christmas is all about, love. I wonder how many times Mary took the hand of Jesus when He was growing-up. There were so few people shopping and I was wanting to video people with big shopping bags full of presents. Look, a man with a bag, oh, it’s a little bag not sure this will get the point across I remember thinking as I pushed record. But to my surprise when I opened my camera I found that little bag was from Paula Deen’s. Paula Deen, you know The Lady and Sons Restaurant lady and Paula’s Home Cooking on the Food Network channel, that may be a little bag but it will have some big surprises inside and delicious too. Quick stop over into old City Market and see if people are shopping there. Humm, kind of slow here too, but the horses look warm. Speaking of warm, one warm day I believe I will take one of those horse drawn tours of the Historic District. I am starting to get cold and ready for something warm to eat so made a trip over to Clary’s Café. It was a great choice for lunch, a cup of hot chicken soup with lots of vegetables and half a turkey sandwich. Now I’m ready to face the rest of the day, so it’s off to River Street. Stopped to talk to one of the street musicians, I’ll be back to film him another day but it’s getting late so a quick shot of the River Street Sweets candy store, yumm world famous pralines and a nice big Christmas wreath over the door. Once upon a time I had my workshop above where the candy store is today. I looked up at that old window and remembered sitting in that window many mornings watching the river and the tide going and coming, waiting on no one, just doing its thing. Being it’s getting late I’ll cross the big bridge and film the sun setting down behind the cityscape from Hutchinson Island and maybe a boat will pass too. That should be a great way to end this video. END THE VIDEO! WITH A SUN SET! Oh no you don’t, you haven’t got to the real Christmas story. So the next day I began to look for a live Nativity. Yes, Google to the rescue, a link to the White Bluff United Methodist Church on White Bluff Road, their website provided me with a phone number. Quick phone call and a very nice lady answered the phone. Lois was her name and we had a very nice talk about the importance of the Nativity and the fact that that is what Christmas is all about.
