Before my story – Dave is a great chapter in the TGO book – Click the Photo Page to see his new posting of woodpeckers and more.

My challenge to all you photographers is to figure out how to photograph the invisible.  Oh my, read on and I hope it will all makes sense to you.

The Great Outdoors

We have 100’s of photos that show off our wonderful community called The Great Outdoors (TGO).  The TGO Photo Club is taking on an awesome challenge – Select 14 photos from these 100’s that show why TGO is our paradise in Florida.  I say “in-Florida” because most of us have a “come-from” home and life elsewhere.

When we set up this Photo Club photo project we identified 3 areas that make our TGO great: Abundant nature, Beautiful 18 hole golf course, and a Special life style. These three are visible – but later on in this article I will be talking about the invisible.

The Great Outdoors

VISIBLE:  Our TGO paradise is visible to our camera.  We Photo Club members share photos of sunsets against the church steeple, sun rising over our golf course or one of our dozens of lakes, and the list goes on.

The Great Outdoors

The photos show deer, birds, a bird “showering” under a fountain, bobcats, nature trails, flowers, and the list goes on. The photos show our tennis courts, our motor homes, people biking, our

Florida homes with swimming pools, folks at bingo and card games, exercise classes, watching performances with resident actors, visiting at “Doggy-Park”,

The Great Outdoors

sitting at dinner in our Blue Heron restaurant, laughing in the bar at happy hour, and the list goes on.

The Great Outdoors

The photos show our folks entering our church, our tennis courts, our swimming pools, our roads –

The Great Outdoors

The Great Outdoors

safe for walking-biking-dog walking, neighborhood parties, our security gate, the Christmas parade, the Thanksgiving pumpkin decorations, and the list goes on.

The Great Outdoors

This is the visible part of the greatness of TGO – this is the tangible stuff our camera sees and your photographs show very well why TGO is great.

 

 

INVISIBLE: Now the invisible  part of TGO – how can you show, with your cameras, that TGO’s residents – it’s people – is what makes TGO great?  We are a melting pot of people – each with a life story.  All those different stories of life make every day a real joy.  Every encounter with a neighbor is like reading the next chapter of  a best-selling book on life.  These neighbors are far better than the many 100’s of  books I have in my physical and digital libraries. 

Every encounter is an audio book of life.  The neighbor “tells” his/her story.  Just listen – it is a wonderful chapter. Their experience is unique – they done so much – so many things that are new to the listener.

The Great Outdoors

My neighbors are men and women who were:  motorcycle cops, train engineers, fighter pilots, medical evacuation helicopter pilots, prisoners of war, executives in foreign countries, senators, owners of used car auctions, junk dealers, bicycle store owners, kennel owners, heart surgeons, family doctors,  athletic team doctors, members of US Seal Team, workers in our national parks, those still recovering from a long ago tragic experience, those still celebrating a long ago accomplishment, retired military, college teachers, college presidents,

The Great Outdoors

owners of schools for children, factory workers, coal miners, business advisors to large corporations, firefighters, professional golfers, retired priests, married priests, national news reporters, even a Democrat or two (Ha, Ha), professional news photographers, professional bowlers, ministers, professional auto racers (one woman still doing rehab due to a  professional racing accident), professional actors, builders, trained horse show woman, people born and raised in Germany, people born and raised in Israel, people who converted religions, spiritual people with no formal religion, and the list goes on.

Finally TGO people have become experts in new-found hobbies and are ready to tell you of it at the drop of a hat:

The next chapter at the drop of a hat

art, boating, kayaking, biking, bird photography, golfing, exercising/pumping iron, horsemanship, model plane flying, wood carving, writing, reading, singing, acting, dancing, and the list goes on.

These TGO friends and neighbors are the new library of best sellers. Each is a chapter in the TGO book. They are all about the “Joy of Life in TGO”.  They are what really makes TGO great and makes our life here in TGO great.

Ok, Photo Club members here is the challenge – make this TGO book –  this “Great People Book” – visible in the photographs you select for the office wall.

Oh my, as you swing through TGO, enjoy the next audio chapter of you neighbor.