Jim Caldwell and Fred Rodgers posted episode 40 of their Fotobug podcast today. It’s located here: http://fotobug.podbean.com/2011/12/04/fotobug-elusive-image-episode-40/, and you can also subscribe via iTunes.
One of the things they talk about this time is the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida and they interview me for the show. I got to tell them about my Bobcat encounter from a couple of weeks ago.
It’s a good show – you should add them to your regular listen list.
I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about you. I apologize for the irregular posting, but I’ve been busy with little time for photography or blogging over the last week or two.
Lynn and I visited Mike and Sara for Thanksgiving and Mary joined us, so we had a very nice family holiday. Wisconsin was different from Florida. The day we left it was sunny with a high in the 80s. In Wisconsin, it was overcast with a temperature in the 40s, and because it’s so much farther north, the sun set at 4:15pm – making the days shorter than at home.
One thing that was hard to ignore was all the geese – they were everywhere, and you could frequently hear them honking even while inside. This surprised me, since I thought they all migrated south for the winter. When I researched this, it turns out that many do stay in Wisconsin year round. I wonder what they eat and how they stay warm when the snow gets heavy?
Fox River shoreline near Kaukona, Wisconsin; Canada Geese in the distance
Mike drove us over to Manitowic on Lake Michigan where we went through the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. It was interesting to learn that the shipyard here made submarines during WW II. They moved to the Gulf via the Mississippi River.
Shipbuilding scene, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum; Manitowic, Wisconsin
There’s a WW II diesel boat that you can tour.
The USS Cobia, SS 245, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum; Manitowic, Wisconsin
The “Christmas Tree” aboard the submarine USS Cobia: the red and green lights on this panel show the status of hull openings
On the way home, I convinced Mike to stop and let me make a photo of this scene.
Lake Michigan Shoreline; Manitowic, Wisconsin
Here’s one previous post I wrote about Wisconsin. And you can see other photos from Wisconsin in this set on Flickr.
In some other news, the Fotobug podcast interviewed me last night. We talked about my trip to the Circle B Bar Reserve a couple of weeks ago and the bobcat photo I made. It’s supposed to come out this Sunday afternoon (December 4, 2011) and I’ll post a link to the episode when it goes up.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
Last weekend, I went over to the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida with Kevin M., Lutfi E., and Frank B. I almost didn’t go – we checked Flickr for new photos from the area and didn’t see much being posted. But I remembered seeing yellow flowers blooming there at this time last year and wanted to see them again.
Early morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve – The yellow flowers are Burr Marigolds. These are all over the Circle B Bar in mid to late November.
Sunrise sure does happen early since the time changed. We met at 5:15am to drive over and arrived just as it started to get light. I find it very hard to predict how sunrise will look. Weather and clouds can shift over the time / distance of the drive. But this morning turned out nice and I managed to make a good image or two.
Sunrise at the Circle B Bar Reserve
The bird population was a bit disappointing. We saw the usual suspects, including Anhingas, Cormorants, Woodstorks, Ospreys, Herons, Egrets, Coots, Moorhens, and Whistling Ducks. I attempted a few bird photos, but none came out blog worthy. Here’s a landscape that includes a few birds:
Tree and Woodstorks
So – I didn’t see any new birds or make any great bird photos, but I did make some landscapes I like. Enough to count the trip as a success. And then…
A jogger came by us and told us about “a Bobcat up in tree about 300 yards away on the right past a palm tree”. That got my photo adrenalin going! I’ve seen Bobcats in the wild three times or so. In one case at dusk I was able to get a single underexposed, blurry photo before it moved off a trail at Orlando Wetlands. In my experience they take a look at you and then they’re gone. You only have a few seconds to make the photo. So this situation sounded exciting.
We took off down the trail – and Frank and I walked right by it! Lucky for us, Kevin was trailing us, saw it and called us back. It was very well camouflaged and it sure helped to have multiple sets of eyes searching. There was no one around at first. The Bobcat looked healthy, and appeared to be resting and watching from about 35 – 40 feet up. I was really happy that I had my long lens and flash with me. It was backlit against the sky and a real tough exposure without flash. We made some photos and moved on down the trail. When we returned, there was a crowd gathered and it was pretty famous on Flickr the next day! Judging from the photos in the Circle B Bar Flickr pool, it’s a good place to see Bobcats.
Bobcat in Tree, Circle B Bar – I’ve seen Bobcats in the wild before, but I’ve never been able to take a good photo of one. We saw this one resting up on a branch and it posed for a while. In this image, I think it was trying to figure out how to get through the crowd of humans at the base of the tree.
So the moral of this story is: You won’t make any good photos if you don’t get up and get out there. You’ll never know what you could have seen if you don’t make the effort to go out and see it. You may be surprised and if you are, I hope you’re ready!
You can view other photos I’ve made at the Circle B Bar in this set on Flickr.
Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving. Even with all the problems we have in the economy, country, world, and our personal lives – we can each find many things to be grateful for.
I’m thankful that you stop by and read my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
I had another opportunity to fly up to Reagan Airport early last Sunday for a business trip, and spend a few hours in downtown Washington D.C. on the National Mall.
The Washington Monument in infrared
I brought my Olympus cameras, including my IR modified E-PL1. I’m really enjoying the way it lets me see things differently. So much so that I have to be careful not to over use it.
I also brought an app I discovered for my iPhone: The NPS National Mall and Memorial Parks app is very useful – I highly recommend it if you travel to Washington D.C. And it’s free! (Update, October 2020: Doesn’t seem to be available now.)
Using the app, I followed the “4 hour tour” and saw several memorials that I haven’t been to, including the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. I also went by the Jefferson, Lincoln, and Vietnam War Memorials and of course – the Washington Monument.
Breadline and fall color, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial – Washington, DC. The inscription reads:
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
I was talking about my visit with my friend Patrick and he said something that really resonated with me: These memorials are named in honor of our famous founding fathers, or events from our history. But when you visit them, one thing you notice is that at each there are words / thoughts written in the stones that make up each monument. And it’s really these ideas that we should remember. Maybe a periodic tour of the monuments along with a test on every inscription should be required for members of congress.
I was also surprised by how much color remained in the foliage – quite pretty. And I was grateful that the weather was so different from my last visit. This time it was partly cloudy and cool – very good walking weather.
And just because I can’t resist, here’s one more IR photo. This one’s a false color image of a small Japanese Pagoda located near the Roosevelt Memorial.
Japanese pagoda on the west side of the Tidal Basin, Washington, DC. Given to Washington DC city commissioner Renah Camalier by Yokohama Mayor Ryozo Hiranuma in 1957 and subsequently donated to the city. This pagoda may be from the Kamakura period (1192–1333).
You can see other photos I’ve made in Washington D.C. in this set on Flickr.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
I’ve had some requests for an email option to Central Florida Photo Ops. Starting today, I’ve enabled a subscription service. You can sign up by entering your address over in the right sidebar, and I’ll send you an email whenever the site is updated.
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Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
The Armistice ending World War 1 was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919 to commemorate. President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1953 renaming it Veterans Day and extending the holiday to honor all veterans and their service to our country.
Especially in today’s world, those who choose to volunteer for the military endure long periods far from home and loved ones. They live under conditions without comforts that all of us take for granted. They face danger and overcome fear to protect our freedom and way of life. And they give their all – in far too many cases sacrificing life and limb.
To all veterans and active duty service members: Thank you. You honor us with your service.
Fallen Soldier Battle Cross Sculpture in the Winter Springs, Florida Veterans Memorial Park – The Fallen Soldier Battle Cross is a symbolic replacement of a cross on the battlefield or at the base camp for a soldier who has been killed.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
From “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon
Previous Veterans related posts:
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
Well, the weather report for this morning was clear, cool and windy – but whoever arranges the weather didn’t pay attention. They got the cool and windy part right, but it was very cloudy on the east coast with occasional light rain. We persevered and ended up having a great time at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
We arrived a bit before sunrise and had time to scout new locations along Peacock’s Pocket Road. I brought an Olympus E-PL1 camera that I had converted to Infra Red by LifePixel. I’ve dabbled in IR before – both film and digital, but this is my first experience with a modified digital camera and I think I’m going to like it. Here’s a sample:
Somewhere along Peacock’s Pocket Road – In the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Infra Red capture, converted to B&W
Our next stop was the MINWR Visitor’s Center. Painted Buntings migrate to the Refuge in the winter and are often seen there. Sure enough, there was one – and I was able to get a photo, although the light was very poor. These are amazingly colorful little birds!
Painted Bunting – At the MINWR Visitor’s Center. My first sighting and photo of one.
While there we also saw another bird that I didn’t recognize. It turns out this is a White Crowned Sparrow and they’re supposedly quite rare in Florida. My second life bird of the day!
White Crowned Sparrow – Sighted at the MINWR Visitor’s Center even though both iBird and Peterson’s guides say this bird isn’t found in Florida. My first sighting and photo of one.
Before heading home via Cracker Barrel, we also took a turn round Black Point Wildlife Drive. All together, we saw a large variety of birds: Ospreys, a Bald Eagle, Great Blue Herons, Tri-Color Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, Coots, Grebes, Grackles, Vultures, Anhingas, Cormorants, Moorhens, Painted Buntings, White Crowned Sparrows, Wood Storks, a Raccoon, and more. Another wonderful visit to MINWR!
You can see more of my photos in this MINWR set on Flickr.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
I thought about going to Orlando Wetlands Park on Saturday before it closes for the winter (in mid-November), but the weather was quite bad. This morning, I wanted to get up early in search of a sunrise but instead had to deal with a migraine headache (I need to be much more careful about restaurant MSG). So anyway, no new shots to post this weekend.
Instead, let’s go over a technique that can be quite useful in certain situations. Normally I shoot in RAW format and use Lightroom to adjust color balance globally over the whole photograph. This works well in most situations, but sometimes a photograph can be improved substantially by correcting white balance selectively.
How do you do this? The way I do it is to open the photo in Photoshop, duplicate the image in a second layer, and adjust the white balance globally in each layer, but for different areas of the photo. So in layer 1 the sky may look good, but the ground may be off – while in layer two the opposite is true. Then I blend the two layers together using a layer mask, taking the best portions of each. If you don’t already use layers and layer masks in Photoshop, you should really learn about them. They provide a very useful tool in many situations and the ability to paint in (and erase) from one layer to the other gives you a great deal of flexibility and control over the results.
In this first example, I initially used a “day light” color balance and this brought out the sunset colors in the clouds, but the clear sky and terrain are a little too warm.
In Photoshop, I left the color balance as is in one layer, and in the second layer, I made it much more neutral. I then painted the clouds from the first into the second.
Neighborhood Sunset – after selective white balance adjustment
This second example is even more dramatic than the first. The scene included both the pre-dawn sky and artificial lights along the far shore of the river. No matter what I did with the global white balance adjustment, I couldn’t get it to look right.
Again, duplicating the image into a second layer and blending with layer masks allowed me to neutralize the color balance of the lighting on the far shore and still make the sky and water more natural looking.
The pre-dawn Potomac River – after selective white balance adjustment
You owe it to yourself and your photography to try this technique. It some situations it can save a photo.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
I’m extremely fortunate to live near the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and the more I learn about it, the bigger and better it seems. I’ve been going to Black Point Wildlife Drive for several years, but only recently started exploring other locations in the Refuge. If you only have a short time to visit, Black Point is a great place to see – but there’s so much more. If you have time, visit East Gator Creek Road, Shiloh Marsh Road, Bio-Lab Road, Scrub Ridge Trail and other areas. Look here for maps of these and other MINWR trails.
Kevin M., Lutfi and I were in place on East Gator Creek Road this morning in time for sunrise. It was my first time at this spot and I was very happy with the views. Highly recommended for sunrise shots!
Merritt Island Sunrise
Next, we drove up to Shiloh Marsh Road. We were able to drive in only a short distance from either end before the way was blocked by chains – I think for duck hunting season. If you decide to drive this road, check to make sure it’s open and make sure your vehicle has plenty of ground clearance. There are some grand canyon sized potholes out there.
After Shiloh, we drove Black Point Wildlife Drive. This road was resurfaced this year and is in very good shape. Not too many potholes here.
Little Green Heron in flight; I made this photo very close to the same spot a few weeks ago – is this the same bird?
Finally, we headed over to the MINWR Visitor Center to see if the Painted Buntings had arrived for the winter. But it was closed too – we’re not sure why.
Today was a wonderful day for wildlife and nature watching. We saw Spoonbills, Ospreys, Redish Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures, Lesser Yellowlegs, Willets, Little Green Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Tri-Color Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Crabs, a deer, flowers, Bald Eagles, Ibis, European Sparrows, Cormorants, Anhingas, Cardinals and butterflys among other things.
Butterfly and flower
For more info on MINWR, this search will bring up other things I’ve written about it. And you can view some other photos I’ve made at the Refuge on Flickr here, and here.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
“The Big Year ” opened in theatres this weekend. It’s a comedy about competitive birders starring Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin. If you enjoy birding or bird photography, ignore the mixed reviews and go see it – it’s good. Lynn went with me and we both liked it. A lot.
The movie is based on a book by Mark Obmascik about the competition to sight the most bird species in a single year. In the movie, the winner (played by Owen Wilson) sacrifices everything else in his life to set the record at 745.
There are 924 species of bird in North America. 362 are common in Florida, 341 in Alaska, and 444 in California, so to reach 745 requires a lot of dedication, knowledge, and travel across the country. I have a long way to go. In my Lightroom catalog, I have photos of 67 different bird species. I’ve probably seen about 20 more that I’ve identified. 745 is a big number.
More info:
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved