All posts by Ed Rosack

Viera Wetlands Visit

INSIDE FLORIDA, Viera Wetlands, , , , ,

Lynn and I drove over to Viera Wetlands yesterday morning in her Prius. This was our first photo outing with the vehicle and it is outstanding for this purpose. There’s plenty of room. It’s very fuel-efficient when driving in the slow speed mode you use through an area like the wetlands. And, it’s quiet. Cars normally serve as a very good blind for bird photography, but when your vehicle is this quiet, you can get even closer to the subjects without scaring them.

This first image was one of the scenes that we saw. We’d been there for a while and were just turning a corner out in the middle of the wetlands when we both commented about the light on the left side of the car. The sun through the clouds was changing rapidly and I wasn’t set up for landscapes. I ended up asking Lynn to back up and then scrambling to switch to my wide-angle lens. I made the photo using this two image composite technique I described here. I think it came out pretty well for a hand-held, scramble photo.

Swamp grass, flowers, water, and sky
Swamp grass, flowers, water, and sky

There is lot less activity at the wetlands than there was a month or two ago, but we still saw a good variety of birds. I’ve included a couple below and you can see more in my Viera Wetlands set on Flickr.

Anhinga dryiing wings
Anhinga drying wings: The bird was only a few feet from the car. I had to stitch together a two image panorama, in Photoshop.

Female Blue Wing Teal
Female Blue Wing Teal: This bird let us approach very closely.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

I just don’t get these. Can someone help me?

Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Eola, VARIOUS, ,

OK first, here’s a photo.

Lake Eola at Dusk
Lake Eola at Dusk: Downtown Orlando, Florida

The photo has nothing to do with the subject of the post,  but I like it and I thought we should have at least one photo today.  I made this one a while ago and went back yesterday to re-process it with some new SW.  I was able to bring out more highlight detail as well as adjust the brightness / curves and saturation.

Now for the main section of the post.  I promise that this isn’t a rant, although it might sound like it.  Also, it isn’t a normal Central Florida Photo Ops post – but there are a few photo related things I need help with.  I admit, I just don’t get them.  Do you get them?  Can you help me?

  1. I don’t know if you’re a Flickr member or not.  If you take a look at Flickr Explore, you’ll notice that there’s a surprising (at least to me) number of doll or toy photos there each day.  To each his or her own, but I just don’t get this.  I don’t really see why these are interesting to everyone.  What is artistic or appealing about photos of toy dolls?  How do these get on Flickr Explore?  What am I missing? (Note:  Flickr revised their Explore algorithm in 2020 and it’s much better now!)
  2. The Lensbaby:  OK, I’ve never used one, but why would I?  It’s an inexpensive, imprecise tilt lens, with not so good optics.  You can sort of cause an area within the frame to be in focus while blurring the rest. Is it just fun to play around with?  Why would you put this on an expensive DSLR?  Can you really do something artistic and controlled with it?  Can anyone point me to an outstanding photo made with a Lensbaby?  If so, was the Lensbaby critical to the photo or could you make it another way (Gaussian filters anyone)?
  3. Micro 4/3 cameras:  Yes, they have interchangeable lenses and larger sensors (=better image quality) than point and shoot cameras.   And a 4/3 kit is smaller and lighter than a DSLR kit.  But …  Is it your only camera or a secondary / backup / travel camera?  If it’s a secondary camera, you have to buy a whole new kit (body, lenses, flash?).  That’s pretty expensive.  If you want small and light, why not go for smallest and lightest (e.g. a point and shoot) for a lot less money.  If you want quality why not go for quality (e.g. your DSLR).  Will you be happy with a compromise? —– 9/2/11 Update:  I think I do get this now.  These cameras are much smaller and lighter.  The lenses are less expensive than corresponding DSLR lenses.  And they can be used (with reasonably long lenses) in places that don’t allow DSLR photography – like most theaters, some sports arenas, etc.  Since they are less conspicuous, many people prefer to use them instead of DSLRs for street photography.  And finally, although micro 4/3 sensor quality lags a generation or more behind the best APS C size sensors, it is enormously better than compact point and shoot sensors and good enough for most applications.
  4. Not posting EXIF data with images:  Some people go to great lengths to make sure the EXIF data captured by their camera gets filtered out before they post the photo.  Why?  How does it hurt to have someone on-line look at this data and try to understand how the photo was made?
  5. Paying all those $ for a DSLR kit and not using it:  You’ve got to have it with you, know how to use it, and use it.  If you don’t know how to use it, use it anyway, make mistakes, and learn from them.
  6. Paying all those $ for a DSLR kit and using it like a phone camera:   Don’t leave it on “A”.  Learn what all those other modes are and use them. Take charge – don’t let the camera think for you.
  7. Not post processing: Some of my friends have expensive DSLR cameras and they live with the .jpg output of their cameras. I’ve tried to explain the benefits of RAW capture and post processing, but they don’t want to listen. I just don’t get this.
  8. All right, no one gets this:  Flash in the stands at sporting events and concerts:  But why do you still see this?  How can anyone do this without dying of embarrassment?
  9. Film:  Film is fun, but for most serious photographers, digital is so much better.  OK, maybe I do get the 8×10 view camera people, but still It’s a lot of extra work and many compromises for an improvement in a few small areas.
  10. Comment Spam on photo blogs (OK, any blog):  I think the intent of comment spam is to get links back to their oh so relevant pages.  Really? How are children’s shoes related to Central Florida Photo Ops?  And that’s a G-rated one.  There are many that are R-rated or worse.  Why would I allow these comments through on my site?  Does anyone?  I really don’t get this.

If you “get” any of these things, or would just like to leave a comment to tell me how crazy I am, feel free (although I do moderate comments because of #10).

In the mean time, thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Red, white, and blue (birds)

INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustine Alligator Farm, , ,

Lynn and I visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Bird Rookery this morning. Breeding season is in full swing and there are nests, eggs, and chicks of all varieties. Check the Native Swamp & Rookery blog for their latest status.

Here are three photos I made there this morning:

Spoonbill
Spoonbill

Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret

Little Blue Heron watching people
Little Blue Heron watching people

You can see many more photos that I’ve made in St. Augustine in this set on Flickr. By the way, I took a “new” camera and made some photos with it for a future blog post. It should be interesting if they turn out.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Central Florida Orchid Society show

INSIDE FLORIDA,

On April 2 – 3, the Central Florida Orchid Society held a show at the Maitland Civic Center.  Admission was only $5, and  offered a great opportunity to see and photograph many examples of this family of plants, which is “believed to be the largest variety of flowering plants”.

Once again, your intrepid Central Florida Photo Ops reporter was there – in person and on the scene – to record and report a sample of the photo ops on offer.  You can see a couple of my photos below and more in this set on Flickr.  You can also review a previous post I wrote here for more info and hints on flower show photography.

Orchid
Orchid

You should keep an eye out for these kinds of photo ops.  They happen quite often are a great way to make some interesting photos.

By the way, the blog is now starting its 5th year.  The first post was May 4th, 2007.  That’s a long time in blog years!  I hope you continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Young birds are growing up at Viera Wetlands

INSIDE FLORIDA

Yesterday was another reminder of how blessed we are to live in Florida.  We have opportunities all around us to go out and see nature in action.  You should all do this at least occasionally – it can greatly enhance your perspective during the week.

At Viera Wetlands, the migratory birds have left and many of the year round residents seemed to be taking the day off yesterday. But there was still plenty to see.  We especially enjoyed watching adults taking care of their offspring. There were Great Blue Herons, Anhingas, Sand Hill Cranes, and Limpkins all with young. We also saw a pair of severely back-lit Caracaras, an Osprey, a Green Wing Teal, Glossy Ibises (Ibi?), and several other varieties of birds as well as a few alligators. One person we talked to also showed us an outstanding series of photos she captured of a Great Blue / Water Moccasin battle that happened before we got there.

I’ve included several of my photos from the trip below. You can see more in my Viera Wetlands Set on Flickr.

Sand Hill Crane familySand Hill Crane family

Young Limpkin learning to hunt snails
Young Limpkin learning to hunt snails

Great Blue Heron in nest
Great Blue Heron in nest – Chick is just visible at the bottom of the frame

Thanks for stopping by my blog, now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

My favorite Florida links

Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUS, , ,

Note (3/17/19):  Sadly, after almost 12 years of blog posts, I’ve had to go through and prune out dead or dying links.  I plan to follow-up with a new post on my favorite Florida links soon.

I follow many blogs and websites.  It occurred to me that if you’re interested in Florida Photo Ops, you might be interested in some of the same sites I look at.  Here’s a list of some of my Florida related favorites:

  • Friends of the Viera Wetlands (sorry, no longer available)— A blog with frequent updates about the happenings at Viera
  • Michael Libbe Photography (sorry, no longer available)— An Orlando based photographer interested in bird and wildlife photography
  • Florida Nature Photography …notes from the field (sorry, no longer available)— An extensive blog / website with a lot of information on natural Florida
  • Native Swamp & Rookery (sorry, no longer available)— The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery Blog
  • Scott Helfrich Photography(sorry, no longer available)— Scott Helfrich is a Florida based photographer and posts some wonderful bird and wildlife photos
  • Finding Tampa (sorry, no longer available)— A blog about the Tampa Bay area

I’ve also updated my links page to point to these, so you can always get back to this list by clicking on the “Links” button at the top on the right side of the header.  Enjoy, and tell them I sent you. (sorry, no longer available)

Ed

Eagles, Owls, and more at Orlando’s Greenwood Park and Greenwood Cemetery

Greenwood Park, INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, , , , ,

Intro / Description

Greenwood Urban Wetlands is a 19 acre park in downtown Orlando and was created in 1991 to help handle the sometimes massive rainwater runoff in the area.  The park is right next to Greenwood municipal cemetery, where many of Orlando’s notables have been buried since 1880.

Pre-dawn pond at Greenwood ParkVenus Rising: Pre-dawn pond at Greenwood Park – This is a two image composite that I hand merged in Photoshop.

I arrived before dawn a couple of Saturday’s ago.  I’d heard about it on Flickr and seen photos others had made there, although I still wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was hoping for a sunrise photo, but the sky was very clear and I didn’t know the area.  So, I picked a spot near the parking area and set up for the image above.  For this one, I made two exposures (one for the sky and one for the ground) and merged them as described in this post.  I like the way it turned out, especially with the morning star Venus rising, and the leaves and flowers on the left.

Kevin M. joined me a bit later and we walked around exploring.  There were a few birds (coots, wood ducks, egrets, Great Blue Heron) in the small lakes, but nothing too unusual.  We’d heard about an eagle nest nearby, so we decided to look for it in Greenwood Cemetery.

The nest was easy to find, since there were two juvenile eagles perched right next to it calling quite often.  We made several photos while we waited for better light and were eventually able to get the birds facing us with the sun at our backs.  These two young birds were flying between trees in the area, but didn’t act like they knew  much at all about feeding themselves.  They seemed to be waiting for the parents to bring back food – but that didn’t happen while we were there.

Juvenile Bald EagleJuvenile Eagle

We also saw a very pretty Wood Duck pair in nice light, a couple of Barred owls, and some very aggressive Blue Jays (harassing the owls) on the way out.  You can see the other photos I made in this Flickr set.

Barred Owl 2
Barred Owl

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

There’s not much to work with for landscapes.  But there’s a surprising variety of birds for such an urban setting.  Make sure you walk through both the park and cemetery if you go.  You could also drive through the cemetery if you don’t have time to walk.

Tripod/Monopod:

Of course.

Lenses:

Take appropriate lenses for your subjects.  Mostly long lenses for the birds.  A flash might help control the contrast for the subjects back in the leaves (owls).

Best time to visit:

February – March might allow eagle nesting activity to be observed.

Other:

This close by park may be an opportunity to snag a few keeper shots for your bird portfolio, and won’t take too long to check out.

Halloween 2012 update:  Don Price, the Greenwood Cemetery Sexton, offers guided moonlight walking tours once a month where you can learn about Orlando and the people who have contributed to the history of the city.  The tour is usually crowded and reservations are required.  Go to the cemetery website and click on “Moonlight Walking Tours” for more info.

Summary

My Gallery / Flickr photo set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157626518075606/
Website: http://www.cityoforlando.net/fpr/html/Parks/Greenwood.htm
Address / Phone: 1411 Greenwood Street, Orlando, Florida
407.246.2283
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating: A surprising urban opportunity for a few bird photos.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Before and after – another photo reprocessing example

Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Viera Wetlands, , ,

Ansel Adams said that the “negative is the score, and the print is the performance”.  In modern terms, the RAW file is the negative and the processed jpg / print is the performance.  Ansel was famous for re-printing his photos to try to get the best possible image from his negatives.  Some of his later prints are thought to be better than earlier ones as he experimented and gained knowledge about how to “perform” the print.

All photographers should take this to heart and not be satisfied with previous processed versions of their photos.  I like to look through my Lightroom catalog sometimes for images that may merit some re-work.

This morning I reprocessed a photo that I made last October at Viera Wetlands.  Below is a series of images that show you a progression from the original images to the final result.  Look in the captions for details on what I did, and scroll to the bottom of the post to see the most recent version.  You can also click on these to see larger versions.

This is the first image I made (RAW, unprocessed).  It’s focused on the tree and the two birds are also in sharp focus.  Because of depth of field, the moon is out of focus.  The color balance could be better.

 

 

 

This is the second image I made to solve the problem with the moon focus.

Great Egret, Ibis, and MoonStep 3: And this was the processed version I  posted to Flickr last October.  I masked in the in-focus moon, did some sharpening and noise reduction, but didn’t spend too much time on it.  It’s since gotten a lot of views, but re-looking at it now, I’m not happy with several things in the photo (e.g. color balance, noise reduction, masking) and this morning I decided to go back and reprocess it from the original RAW files.

Great Egret, Ibis, and Moon

And this is the new version that I posted to Flickr this morning.  In Photoshop, I was much more careful masking in the in-focus moon.  I then created a meticulous selection of the blue sky so I could use it in the follow on steps.  Then I applied noise reduction just to the blue sky and sharpening just to the  birds, moon, and tree.  I also used the Topaz Adjust filter just on the birds, moon and tree.  Finally, back in Lightroom I adjusted the white balance off of a sample on the Ibis.  I like the vertical crop better as well as the color balance, sharpness, etc.

What do you think?

Thanks for visiting – now go make some photos!

©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery Update

INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustine Alligator Farm, , ,

I visited the Rookery in St. Augustine for the first time this year with two other members of the Photography Interest Group.  Things are really hopping!!!

Cattle Egret pair in breeding colors
Cattle Egret pair in breeding colors: These go from plain white to very colorful during breeding season.  This pair was hiding back in the bushes and it was difficult to get a clean  image, but they eventually moved a bit right before I made this photo.

We saw Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Woodstorks, Spoonbills, Little Blue Herons, Tri-Color Herons, and of course – alligators.  Some are just starting to build nests and breed.  Others (the Great Egrets) already have good size chicks in the nest.

Great Egret and chicks
Great Egret and chicks

There are very few places that you can get this close to tolerant, wild birds.  It’s wonderful for both experienced and beginner bird photographers.  If you haven’t been by yet, now is the time.

Snowy Egret Portrait (in breeding colors)
Snowy Egret Portrait (in breeding colors)

You can read previous posts I’ve written about the rookery here, here, here, here, and here.  And you can see many of my photos from St. Augustine in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for visiting – now go make some photos!

©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Emeralda Marsh

Emeralda Marsh, INSIDE FLORIDA, , , , ,

Intro / Description

Emeralda Marsh is called the “Jewel of Lake County Bird Watching”.  When we first visited in May of 2010, the Interpretive drive had just been closed to vehicles – which was a big disappointment and prevented me from doing a review of the site.  Fast forward to late March of this year and the drive is again open, so Kevin M. and I headed over to see if this place lives up to its reputation.

It’s huge (7089 acres), with a 4.3 mile long drive that’s accessible by car for part of the year.  We arrived a little after sunrise but before the gate opened at 8am, and so we spent a little time around this very picturesque canal just up the road from the entrance.

Canal, mist, and sundog
Canal, mist, and Sun Dog: A Sun Dog appears over this misty Florida canal near Emeralda Marsh just after sunrise.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:  The Interpretive drive is open from the 3rd week in February through May on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  Call before you go to make sure.  The drive had already been closed when we went last May and the place is too big to walk (at least for me).  The hours are 8 – 5.   We didn’t see much of interest on about the first half of the drive.  Things picked up a bit when we turned north at the south-west corner (see link to Google Maps, below).  Then we ended up seeing a good variety of birds including a Belted Kingfisher, coots and moorhens, gators, American Bitterns, a Northern Harrier, Ospreys, Egrets and Herons, and various ducks.

Northern Harrier in flight
Northern Harrier in flight: This bird was quite active on the morning we were there

There’s a dirt road that’s closed to cars leading west from the north-west corner of the drive.  It goes to a rookery on a small island just off the Lake Griffin shore.  We walked out there and saw some displaying and nest-building going on, but it was grown up and hard to get a clear view.

American Bittern
American Bittern

Tripod/Monopod: Allowed of course.

Lenses: Bring your standard bird set up – the longer your lens, the better.

Best time to visit: When the drive is open (late February to May), which is also the best time for nesting, breeding, etc.  Winter time is reportedly good for migrating species, but the drive will be closed to vehicles and you’ll have to hike in to the area.

Other:

You can download the drive guide map here.

Landscapes and sunrise / sunset photos will be hard due to the hours that the drive is open to cars, although you may be able to find a few scenic locations close by for golden hour photos.

There was a Bass fishing tournament going on the morning we were there, which made for a few loud moments as the fast boats all roared off.  We also heard several gun shots, so there was some hunting going on in the area.

Summary

“Jewel of Lake County Bird Watching”?  I certainly can’t argue with that.  This is a huge place with a diversity of habitats and we did end up seeing a lot.  I think that if you could visit several times over the course of a year, you’d see a variety of Florida and migratory birds.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157626234490421/
Website: http://www.sjrwmd.com/recreationguide/emeraldamarsh/index.html
Address / Phone: Lake County BCC
315 West Main St.
P.O. Box 7800
Tavares, Florida 32778(386) 329-4404Geolocation: 28.886668,-81.79056View in Google Maps
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating: There are places near me that I think are better, but go if you’re close.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog – now go make some photos!

©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.