Friday Foto (Limited Edition)

Today I got a real treat for you. I know I have neglected you some this week, so sit back and relax. Today you are going to take a trip down to Taylor's Fish Camp. One of my favorite, untouched sects of land left on St. Simons Island.

Driving down the gated road that was once open to the public, I remembered the last time I was at Taylor's. It was the summer of 2002 and I was taking my three cousins out on a boat ride. We pulled into the camp and started chatting with the owner as he attached the lift chains to our boat and hoisted it up into the air. We were going fishing, and I conveyed to him that I was going to be teaching the boys how to throw a cast net. We geared up and as one of my cousins removed his shirt, the lift came to a screeching halt as the operator/owner stared with disbelief at the pierced nipples donned by my Californian kin. He said nothing for what seemed like a minute, found the lift button again, and with a spit said "Son, you and them rings gonna be trouble near a 20lb cast net."
That was Dan, I met him today, four years later as I photographed the surroundings of Taylor's Fish Camp. Dan has owned and operated the camp ever since he took it over from his Pa, who ran it all his life, bought from the Taylor's, who ran it since God knows when. The lift broke down shortly after we last put in and was never fixed. Dan said he was tired.
As I set up my shots, trying to capture the memories of weekends spent putting in and taking out, cleaning fish and buying bait at Taylor's, a car drove up and out jumped Peggy, Dan's wife. Peggy and Dan are the kind of people you don't really find anymore. They call lunch dinner and dinner supper. They refuse to sell out to the corporate world, stating as long as they are alive this land will be there. Dan fishes daily and his boat is adequately equipped with four poles, two cast nets, a twelve-pack and an oxygen tank and respirator. Peggy paints daily the view from her front door.

She asked me if I wanted to get a picture of a deer. No, not really I thought, I have plenty of those. But, a chance to converse with her as she drove me in her car was what lead me to say yes. I hopped in and we drove 20 yards and got out. She grabbed her pack of cigarettes and said, "Come on, let's go see Danielle." She got out of the car and bent down and started calling for Daneille. I looked around half expecting to see a mutt of some sort come bounding through the bushes when to my surprise a full-grown doe came leaping toward her. They collided like a dog to his master. The cigarettes then came into play. Apparently Danielle has a nicotine addiction. She eats them straight up. Danielle is the offspring of a deer that was hurt and then nursed back to health by Dan and Peggy. Peggy would take a bullet for Danielle, she told me so.
I was invited to come back whenever I wanted. I will. To me, that was the best afternoon I could have asked for.


PS... Does anybody know what today is? No, Sinko De Mayo is not it... they already had their holiday on Monday. (btw, that was stupid)... no, today is NO PANTS DAY! For real, I'm sitting on raw haunches right now, how 'bout you?