Dance After Dark Photography

I’m a little late, but Happy New Year to everyone.

New Year’s Day was supposed to be my big kayaking trip with Jennifer. Many of my fellow fogeys will remember Jennifer as the blond, curly-haired bartender from Barbarella when the stage was still out back. We hadn’t actually confirmed the time we’d be getting together, though at one point I suggested 8:00 or 9:00. I wanted to go early, which is why I didn’t go to any New Year’s Eve celebrations. I’d left a message for Jen the night before to call me when she woke up. At 10:00, I gave up and called her. As I expected, she’d gotten in late and was in dire need of sleep. No lasting grudge here, but if I had known I wouldn’t have waited around.

I went kayaking on my own. It was too late to try someplace new, so I went back to Wekiva Springs as Jen and I had planned. This time I rented a single sit-on-top kayak and took it up Rock Springs Run. Man, was that a mistake! It was good exercise, but paddling upstream in shallow water through a series of switchbacks is very, very hard.

Downstream wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. With the strong current I was definitely able to get some speed up, but with all of the twisting and turning I kept hitting trees. Cruising speed very quickly became ramming speed. Combine that with the multitude of sand bars, and it took me almost as much time to get back downstream as it had to struggle upstream. My arms & back were burning by the time I got back. At least I know it was a good workout.

I don’t think I like the sit-on-top kayaks. For a tandem, it’s not bad. For single, though, I’ll stick with the traditional sit-in. It wasn’t as stable side-to-side, but it felt more natural. I’ll just have to stick with higher shutter speeds to avoid blurry pictures, and maybe one of these days I’ll actually get sunlight when I’m out shooting. Yesterday was very overcast, and I got back to the canoe beach just as the rain started.

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