Still Exotic to This Yankee

I have been in Savannah for eleven years now and palm trees still seem exotic, if not downright strange. When I walk Winslow in the woods it's easy to imagine that we're tromping through a jungle because, instead of spruces and birches, the woods here are full of palms!
     I did this sketch on Cockspur Island. The artistic challenge for me was to try and capture the intensity of the midday light in black and white, striving for a subtropical look with none of the color so strongly associated with scenes like this.