So, I don’t photoshop pictures…mostly because I don’t even have photoshop on my computer. I do have iPhoto, and I occasionally use it to boost the color or crop my pictures.
But this picture? The above one of Catie crabbing in the far, far west end of Galveston Island? The one that’s in my top five of favorite pictures ever? No photo-editing at all. Gorgeous…and totally natural.
It’s not just the colors that make this picture evoke so many of my emotions. It’s the setting. It’s my daughter right smack dab in a place that’s so close to my heart.
This weekend we stayed at Pointe West, which is on the wayyyyyy west end of Galveston. Look at the map of Galveston below, most of Galveston’s commerce and history and action takes place on the East End, it always has. For me, memories, history, and emotions run deep on the west end–where there are (literally) no restaurants or gas stations or big amusement parks. Instead, there’s wetlands with lots of crabs, kids seining, and water everywhere–bays and swamps and marshes and beaches and lakes and even ditches that never drain properly. To live on the Gulf coast wetlands is to see waterways out every window of your house.
This unique topography means home to me. And, really, there’s no where else on Earth where the salt water smell mingles with the noises of the rare birds and the view of breathtaking purple and pink sunsets.
I know, I know, Galveston is what it is…with its seaweed beaches, oil spills, rif raf, snakes and mosquitos.
But for me, it’s home.
And for me, that picture is priceless.
Love it! And i love your blog! 🙂