Travis McGee novel real life location
Monday, August 18th, 2008It adds an exciting dimension to read a book and absolutely recognize the location being described. Sort of a “been there, if not done that” feeling. I was reading one of my favorite authors John D. MacDonald’s Darker Than Amber and on the very first page had a “been there” moment. The fifth paragraph reads:
I was sitting there under the bridge in a skiff with my friend Meyer. We were under the end of the bridge nearest the town of marathon, and it is the first highway bridge beyond Marathon on your way to Key West - if you are idiot enough to want to go to Key West.
I’m on the first page of the novel, and I realize that it is talking about the exact spot I made a KAP (kite aerial photography) flight from. Further, due to the technical difficulties, the one and only semi-decent shot of the day was a photograph of the exact spot. That was very cool.
John D. MacDonald lived in Florida for a time, and weaves real life Florida locations and commentary (such as overdevelopment) into his novels. Mention slip F-18, and any fan of the Travis McGee series will answer “Busted Flush, Ft Lauderdale”. The Busted Flush is the name of the houseboat that the main character Travis McGee lived aboard. He also had a faster runabout and would rent skiffs to be able to access more remote locations such as the one on the opening page of Darker Than Amber.
- the Muse
The small panel color study on 5″ x 7″ canvas board worked great. The customer liked the form of the initial design:












There are many great vintage film cameras out there that can be found at very affordable prices. One with a particularly good lens for its price is a Konica Auto S2. The Konica Auto S2 is a rangefinder camera with built in meter and shutterspeed priority auto exposure. Unfortunately, the sensors in these cameras are reaching an age where they stop working. Mine failed while in storage. I now have a camera in mint condition, with maybe 200 rolls of film, and no meter. This camera might bring at most $30 or $40 on eBay. I thought of selling it, but it was my second camera and my first new one. I’ve owned it now for over 30 years.
Most of the pictures from this shoot I converted to black and white. This allowed me more lattitude to salvage some detail in deep shadows without worrying about funny colors appearing. But this picture of Kat with Orchid Pool only worked in color. It used to be that you had to choose BW or color and even the ISO (or ASA) before you shot with film. But the digital darkroom provides greater flexibility after the image is taken.