Early morning down at the Beach

Part of the boardwalk that's under repair

I woke up or rather I couldn't get to sleep due to a few coughing fits. Not just small hacking but a series of short coughs followed by black edges creeping up on your vision because you're not taking in enough oxygen. Add to that vomiting, coughing up small amounts of blood and sweating like you were trapped in an electric blanket turned on high, I decided to get out of bed a take a walk.

At first I thought about going to the hospital but the long wait in line turned me off that idea. What if I wanted to go back to sleep. I decided to go later on in the day. It was about 3:30 in the morning and since there aren't that many places to walk to around where I live I made my way down to the default location, the beach.


My feet on the boardwalk

For the most part it was pretty dark. Especially the entrance as none of the lights were on. It was like walking through a forest with a paved path. With the only light creeping in from the street far away you could only make out what was in front of you for about three meters. The rest was darkness.

There were the odd couples holding hands walking down the boardwalk or sitting on the bench or doing who knows what in the darkness of the beach itself. I kept to the boardwalk and walked toward the life guard station. The odd voice came out of the black void every now and then. A girl talking about her bank account, a guy talking about a girl he wanted to marry that was dating his friend, another guy talking about how to cook steak - barbeque or frying pan, a girl laughing. It was like tuning a radio. I'd hear snippets of different conversations permeating through the darkness as I walked down the boardwalk.


The rock area

I eventually got to the rock area, a place where people (perhaps with too much spare time) balance and stack rocks on top of one another. This is when I realized I should have brought my tripod and maybe a few flashes. In order to take the shot using ISO 200, I got on my stomach to shoot while using my camera bag to steady my camera. I received a few stares from people passing by as I was there for a few minutes trying to get the right composition. "Who cares?", I thought to myself just as long as they don't step on me or worse kick me.


Looking down the boardwalk at Leuty life guard station


Shadows


A bad hand puppet.


The Leuty life guard station up close

I continued down the boardwalk trying to find things to shoot. I even went as far as trying to make shadow puppets with my free hand. It was about 4:45am when I looked at my watch. I decided to walk up to Queen street and walk from there rather than to back track on the boardwalk.

On the way home I noticed movement coming from a tree trunk. Three, at least I counted three, raccoons were climbing up a tree. They were all pretty small so I thought the mother would be some where close. I slowly took my flash out to attach it to the camera when the hissing started. I looked up and there was another raccoon up in the tree hissing at me. I took a quick picture then walked away. Probably scared the poor little guy.


A raccoon up a tree