The Crystal Coast, Salt water on my feet

Like A Nova Scotia Summer Day Except In November

Sometimes the weather plays tricks on you.  You get a sense that you are in a place where you know you cannot be.

That happened to me a few days ago, I had just returned from a walk in the fog and we got in the car and headed across the bridge to Emerald Isle.  With the cold weather that visited us recently, it was no surprise to see fog on Bogue Sound.

However the light, temperature, clouds, and colors conspired to make me think that I was back in Nova Scotia.  Nova Scotia seems to get more than its fair share of foggy days.  Here near the Carolina coast we get a few visits from the fog fairy each year, but blue skies are a lot more common.

 A day in when the temperature is between sixty-five and seventy degrees Fahreheit even in November is not that uncommon here along the Crystal Coast.  That is especially true since our average high temperature in November is sixty-five. In the first twenty-five days of November 2014, we managed twelve days within that range.  We even had some sixty-five degree low temperatures.

However, you would have to be in the middle of the summer in Nova Scotia to experience temperatures in that same range.  This past summer, which was a warm one in Halifax, saw every day but three get up in the sixty-five to seventy degrees Fahrenheit range.  However so far in Novermber of 2014, Halifax, Nova Scotia has only managed three days over sixty five.

Another thing which made me feel like I was in Nova Scotia was the water temperature.  After our cold snap, the water in the river and sounds dropped into the upper forties.  That is not far off summer water temperatures in Nova Scotia.

Beach days in Canada's Atlantic provinces do not come easily.  It is however a great place to go to escape the worst of the the heat of summer.

Most of our fog in the marshes disappeared today because the shallow marsh water rapidly equalizes with the air temperature.  While it stayed in the mid-sixties all day, it has started to rain this evening as another nor'easter is about to spin up off our coast.

We will see some rain, maybe even a lot of rain, but our air temperature will not be so cold that we have to worry about snow. Nova Scota will likely go from rain to freezing rain then to snow and then back to rain with some more snow thrown in for good measure.

While there are not any spruce trees in Nova Scotia that are the height of our pines, at a distance our forests look similar.  In fact even when the fog is gone, the blues and greens of Bogue Sound remind me a lot of Nova Scotia from the air.

Sometimes when a quick front passes here on our coast I am also reminded of the power of the weather both here and in Canada.

While the climate along the Crystal Coast is about as different as it can get from Nova Scotia, there are elements of the weather that help me drift back to those very happy years in Canada that are the basis of our book, A Taste for the Wild, Canada's Maritimes.

With that in mind, I will enjoy our North Carolina foggy days which let me relive the seventies and eighties when I was living in the different but similar world of Martime Canada.

A labor of love

There are things in life that add passion to our lives. Taking pictures is one of those things for me.

Photography has been something that has been very important to me for as long as I can remember. Another thing that I love is living by the water here on North Carolina's Crystal Coast.

I am also a writer and have written a number of books including some featuring the Crystal Coast portion of North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.  The books have lots of pictures but due to some inherent challenges in creating electronic books with really nice images, I shied away from trying an image focused book.

With the advent of Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, you might wonder why someone would even bother trying to create a book of beautiful images. It is not really hard to explain.  I live in an area with such amazing natural beauty that I feel that photos of such a special area also need to be special.  Today everyone takes pictures, but even those of us who work at it only get a handful that really deliver a message.  I have shared some neat photos on Pinterest but it is just not the same as having at your finger tips a book of photos carefully put together to show an area. 

Somehow a picture like the one of the waters of the White Oak River at the top of this post just does not get noticed as much as it would in a collection of photos that show more about the area and offer additional context.

I do know how to take great pictures and I enjoy sharing many of them in my blog posts and through a variety of social media channels but it is hard to get a real flavor for our area with just a few pictures parceled out over a year and placed all over the Internet. I tried in our book of pictures to really show the area from several spots at different times of the year.

Many people encouraged me to do a collection of my photos that would provide a real feeling for our area and give visitors a taste of what they might find.  Finally I gave in and started working on the project around Thanksgiving.  It took a lot of time just to go through my photos and pick the right one hundred photos.

The book is designed to go on any of your electronic devices including iPads. With Kindle Reader software you can whip your iPhone or Android Smartphone out and show someone one of the pictures that might have moved you.

I decided to limit my choices to the over 40,000 pictures that I took in 2013. I also wanted to have fewer words than I have in most of my blog posts.  The book, 100 Pictures, 1000 Words, A Crystal Coast Year, took a lot more effort that I expected.
It was very different work than I put into the over 300 pages of our book, The Pomme Company, and it involved much more technical work. 

While The Pomme Company was lots of writing, our picture book of the Crystal Coast was lots of finnicky image resizing work and an amazing amount of HTML work to get the images to display properly on a variety of devices.I am very pleased with the results of all my work.

If you have never been to the Crystal Coast, the book will give you a wonderful look at our area from the White Oak River to the Croatan National Forest and The Point over at Emerald Isle.You will see the area through the eyes of photographer who appreciates light and the uniqueness of images that require many attemps to get just right.  The book is one of the best tools to convince your partner to come visit the Crystal Coast, and it really does represent a lot of work even before I started assembling the pictures for the book.

It would be hard to count how many green heron images that I took last year before I got one that I really liked. Then there are the egrets and other herons that all present different challenges. Getting a great shot from a kayak rocking in the waves when the light is just right is also no easy feat. I do have the advantage of hiking miles and miles along the beaches and through the marshes and woods of the area.  Most weeks I hike between 15 and 20 miles but I have hiked over 42 miles in a week. 

I see a lot of territory on land, but I also spend a lot of time on the water in my kayak and in our skiff. I see our area when it is at its best and worst, and I  have found photos that I like even in less than ideal circumstances.  Some great shots are even taken under dark stormy skies.The Crystal Coast is a wonderful area with enough blue sky to please almost anyone.  There is plenty of scenic beauty here to keep me busy for many years, but I think this 2013 collection of pictures will be hard to top.

I am happy to have mastered the challenge of putting together a Kindle book which really shows off the area and I will do another in a year or two, but it is hard to predict what my lens will see in the future and I might even turn my efforts to a different area.

Readers of the book will find a link to a site where they can order full-sized versions of the images in the book for their personal use for 99 cents.  Print shops can get a single use license for an image for $9.99.  I hope people will enjoy the photos and find a place for them in their homes. Considering the cold weather that has gripped the east coast, I suspect seeing beautiful scenes of our waters and especially the beaches might help everyone survive all this cold weather with a smile.

You will also find less words in the book than are in this post. Of course the pictures in the book do most of the talking.

How to review the reviewer

In this day of the Internet and social networking, it is popular for people to rely on information that they find in online forums. Some people have decided that it is better to trust someone on the Internet than work with a professional whose paycheck depends on doing a good job.

Whether people just do not just their ability to judge people in person or they just feel more comfortable on the web, using information from the web is part of today's life. Yet, the Internet is no different than any other information source.  You need to evaluate not only the information but also the source of the information.

While it is true that the Internet is all about marketing so also is much of the information you find in the world of print. You need to use your best analytical skills on Internet information.

So how do you tell if someone is a reliable source of information?

First people who communicate a lot on the Internet often have public profiles which let you look at their resumes and comments about them made by people who really know them.  It is my first choice when trying to figure out whether or not someone has anything valuable to add to a conversation.

Some of the forums keep people's names hidden behind "user handles" but usually you can figure out who someone is. I have found the value of the information is often inversely related to the difficulty of finding out about the person.  In other words if the person is well hidden and hard to research, their information is likely suspect.  If someone is easy to find and open about their qualifications, then it is usually safe to assume their information is good.  Someone who has a good public reputation likely wants to keep it that way.

After trying to find a public profile, my next line of defense is to look at the actual information that has been provided.  People, who are pushing a particular idea to the exclusion of all else, usually are unreliable sources of information.  You want to get your information from someone who has a broad enough view of the issues to provide you with the best possible information. Good information usually ends up providing you with a few options.

Those, who can only see one possible response to a question, often have not had the experience to offer more than one answer.

As a Realtor®, it is not unusual to receive criticism that you are just doing something in order to get someone to buy a home in your area.  This suggestion is probably about the only thing funny going around in the real estate business these days.  First, only someone who is clueless about the way people buy homes would make the suggestion. 

People are very picky these days about their home purchases. What I say on an online forum has to match reality, or I lose credibility and clients quickly.  You just do not trick people into buying homes.  Buying a home takes weeks if not months or years. There are multiple opportunities for potential buyers to evaluate their real estate agents and quickly ditch them for another one.  My job and income depends on providing accurate information.

People end up contacting you only if have some sense of trust by seeing that what you have said matches what they have seen.  Or in the real estate world if you happen to have a property that interests them, they will sometimes call without any thought to what real estate agent they are calling.

It is important to remember that multiple people can look at the same situation (or house in the case of real estate) and come up with different scenarios and thoughts.  That is just human nature.  People who write a lot and work at being impartial try to remove their biases but it is hard to accomplish.

Still by having my opinions out on the web, I am putting my opinion out in the public sphere where criticism and discussion can happen.  There is some similarity to the world of open source software which believe that software code should be open for inspection, criticism, and improvement.  I welcome intelligent discussions of different points of view.  It is healthy for all of us.

I do end up with people contacting me who see things similarly to the way I do.  It provides both client and Realtor® with a better relationship.  Not surprisingly some of my clients end up being very good friends because we see the world very similarly.  That is not always the case, but it is a very pleasant experience when it does happen.

So what are some of the danger signs in Internet information?

The biggest one is the personal attack.  It someone resorts to attacking someone's imagined motives, it usually shows that the person does not have much of an argument worth considering.  There are exceptions to this rule, I have seen people call down people for business practices that give all professions a bad name.  One I saw recently involved a real estate agent using his kids as bait to get potential buyers in his office.  I am sure the agent is probably sorry he ever did that now.

Still if someone is attacking another person for imagined motives, you can likely be sure the person is not a trusted source of information.

One of the best ways to figure out is someone is giving out good information is read several pieces of advice that they have given.  If they are well reasoned, well supported, and sounds reasonable, there is a good chance that they are useful.  If someone backs up the suggestions, then that is another clue that the information is good.  If someone offers a counterpoint but has little to support it, that also adds credibility to the original information.  If you cannot find real support for a counter view, the first information looks pretty good.

When all else fails, ask the person tough questions and see how they respond.  If there is no response or the response is weak, you have your answer.

The Internet is a challenging spot, but among all the conflicting information there is good information, you just have to know how to find and verify it.

Speaking of good information, check out my recent post on how to be a good local expert for the Crystal Coast.

City Data forum challenges

I have been a member of City-Data forums for almost a year as dsobotta.  For the most part I have enjoyed doing posts there and answering questions.

Today I got banned from doing posts or responding due to "repeated deliberate" violations.  This apparently was the offending post.

The only thing that I can tell which was cut out was a link to email me if they had more questions.  Since I had seen others use the same email tool that is available, I assumed it  was okay.  I guess not.

Since I cannot respond on City-Data, I have chosen to respond on my own turf where I control the rules.  I welcome any of the moderators to comment here.

I thought I had been very cooperative and tried hard to work within the guidelines and with the moderators.

However, being a Realtor® adds some special forum rules which I have struggled to figure out.  I completely understand that my posts are not supposed to solicit customers, but the rules seem to go well beyond that and have a good deal of subjectivity.

I went to the considerable trouble to create duplicate content at a Crystal Coast site and strip out all advertising. It was a lot of work which consumed my spare time over a few days, but I was glad to do it because it was a good way to share my pictures and information about the area.

Not long ago, but prior to my banning, I got a note that all my posts were being searched for offending links to that site.  After the investigation I got this note.

The only link I really find questionable is the southern outer banks link.

I know you don't list your realty company with it but you do have an about us and how to find realtors even though those don't take a reader directly to you.

In spite of it just being questionable, all those links were purged which I thought was a little extreme since I could not even find where it took people to Realtors® other than me. As a Realtor® sending people to my competitors is something you would not normally do.

However, I did not complain I just stopped updating those sites since I could not longer use them.  That is why the content is not the same as my Coastal NC site.

Actually even on that site you have to go to the last page to get to any information about contacting me as a Realtor®.  I did that for a reason.  The reason being that the site is more about being an information source for the area than it is about being me being a Realtor®.

I have a number of pages and sites which are directly related to me being a Realtor®. Squidoo, My ActiveRain one, the one on our company website, Point2Agent, Zillow, and GMAC's website among others.

Never on my time on the City-Data forum did I refer someone to one of my real estate sites.  I also participated in the broader NC and Virginia forums when topics came up where I thought I had some information that would be of use to people.

However, at this point, I can no longer post on City-Data because of "repeated infractions."  I tried to respond to the message from the moderator so I could understand what I had done, but they also cut my storage so that the only way that I could respond would be throw away most of the positive emails that I had stored.

In the end it does not do any good to argue (or maybe even cooperate) with moderators.  I will go serve my  banishment and evaluate City-Data forums again in the future.   I have my doubts as to whether or not I will come back.

I have actually ended up helping a number of City-Data folks but most were not as real estate clients. 

I have helped people decide whether or not this area is a nice place.  Many have ending up liking our area but have had some challenges that have prevented them from moving to the area, or they have found a place that they liked better.  Lots of times I show someone the area, and they have to find a job.  I am even helping a couple of people on their job search.

I like to meet people, and I enjoy showing our area so I am certainly glad for the people that I have met through the forum, but I would not call it a business windfall.

My newly chosen career in the real estate world is an unusual one.  We actually pay to work for real estate companies, and hopefully make up the money when we sell property.  That normally works pretty well.  It does not work well at all in a market like today's when you are a new agent.

As a side note, if I could make enough money to live on with my pictures and writing, I would give up real estate in a heartbeat. Unfortunately everyone has a digital camera these days and most writing like I do is done for free.  Real estate is one of the few places left where we old guys can work.

I know people who have been in the business for a year and have sold only one property.  I have done better than that, but it is hard going months without a paycheck.

So could my efforts on City-Data be considered trolling for clients?

Well based on the results, I would say hardly. 

The three clients that I am working with right now have come from the following sources.

1. A walk-in to our Cannonsgate Office.
2. Someone who was driving around our neighborhood looking at flyers, and I threw my body in front of their truck to answer questions.
3. A call-in to our Cape Carteret Office.

None of those people have ever heard of City-Data, and one does not even have a computer.

So suspending me from City-Data probably is not going to hurt my business.   Unfortunately I will not be able to post those pictures that people seem to love so much.

For that I am very sad.

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Update

Once again City-Data has put me out to pasture. According to one of the moderators I was up to my old tricks again.  Apparently my sin was suggesting that someone send me a private message if they had any specific questions.  When I told the person I was communicating with what had happened this was their response.

WOW, I am shocked.  I am so sorry this happened.

It is not shocking if you have seen how some of the moderators stalk the people really trying to provide good information to people.

I sent a note to the moderator but as usual there is no response back.  My response is this post at View from the Mountain.  It is an accurate assessment of social networking.  Unfortunately most online forums still value themselves far more than their real worth.