Nothing new with this shot; I've made hundreds in the past few decades, but I never tire of the Gulf Coast's natural beauty. This was shot a couple of weeks ago, but in spite of the way things look here the Gulf is not doing well at all. The corexit poison has sunk most of the oil that gushed for weeks into the gulf from the Deepwater Horizon, but now that oil is on the sea floor. This of course has BP and the government saying all is well because there is almost no more oil to see. But on the sea floor it sits and is now making its way into the food chain. And you can't smell the saltwater anymore. It's replaced by the sickly sweet smell of the corexit. They put a sweet scent into it figuring it smells better than its natural state. There is so much more too. The sand no longer squeaks under your feet. The fishermen say every time they raise their anchors they are covered with oil, even though none is visible on the surface. The seagulls are almost all gone and the pelicans have moved into the intercostal waterways. And on and on. . . . But with this shot I can pretend that things are as they used to be. It was a lovely afternoon, and the incoming sea breeze was strong. But the sweet aroma in the air instead of a fresh saltwater scent was a bit disconcerting, to say the least. marshall