All posts by Ed

Merritt Island: 1/31/25

Merritt Island NWR

Frank B. (one of the original Photography Interest Group members) suggested we go on a photo outing. We settled on a trip to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and I’m glad we did.

Our first stop was the Titusville Marina for blue hour / sunrise. It was a calm and pretty morning and I like this B&W image of boats and reflections.

At the marinaAt the Marina

As we left the marina, fog started to roll in. You can see how thick it was in this photo of a boat on the river.

In the fogIn the fog

We decided to go around Gator Creek Road first and ran into our first highlight of the day: American White Pelicans. There were several in the distance and more as we came around the last turn near Catfish Creek Trail. The header image is a wide-angle view of hundreds (out of maybe 1000+) White Pelicans gathered there (you can see a larger version of the header image here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/54318734094/in/photostream/). The fog made photography difficult. Here’s one showing some a lot closer.

American White Pelicans (2)American White Pelicans (2)

I’ve seen Wilson’s Snipes before, but in my experience, they’re almost always solitary. We saw small groups of them in a couple of spots along Black Point Wildlife Drive.

Wilson's SnipeWilson’s Snipe

You can often see a “bird feeding frenzy” over there, where a number of birds are going after minnows trapped in a small pond. This Great Egret was very successful and in nice light, too.

The plunge...The plunge… A Great Egret hunting minnows on Black Point Wildlife Drive

SuccessThe catch! We watched this bird for several minutes and it caught many minnows

A little further on Black Point, this Reddish Egret was chowing down too, but the light wasn’t nearly as good – although the reflections were awesome!

The dance...The Dance…

The catchThe catch!

The only Black Skimmer I saw that day made a single pass by us and kept going. I managed to make this quick photo.

Black SkimmerBlack Skimmer

Green Herons were common and this one was in some nice light.

A Green Heron fishing from the rocksA Green Heron fishing from the rocks.

And finally, another highlight from the trip. Just before the pavement starts at the exit from Black Point, we saw several people on the side of the road looking into the trees. It turned out that they were watching a Great Horned Owl nest.

A distant Great Horned Owl nestA distant Great Horned Owl nest

It was pretty far away and we would never have noticed it if we hadn’t stopped and talked to them. As we were leaving I asked how they found it. They’d heard about it, went to look, and “stopped where all the people were”.

We also saw many ducks, a Belted Kingfisher, an American Kestrel, a Killdeer, and many other wading birds and alligators too. A great trip!

Blog note:

In May of 2025, this blog will have been on-line for 18 years, with almost 800 posts, and more than 2500 comments. That’s a good effort in blog land! It’s more than enough time to express just about everything I can think of to say about Central Florida Photo Ops. So I’ve decided to wind things down here and the blog will be off-line by September 2025 when my hosting plan expires. I doubt there are any posts or comments that readers are interested in saving, but if so please copy them before then.

I won’t be totally off-line. Even though I’m not photographing as much as I used to, I’ll still be going out and making images as often as possible. If you want to see what I’m up to, you can stop by https://flickr.com/edrosack, where I’ll keep posting.

Until September (and after): Many thanks to everyone for stopping by and reading my blog. You’ve all always been supportive and kind. Stay that way!

Take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos!

©2025, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Elkhart Lake and Road America

Wisconsin, , , , ,

Whenever we visit Mike, Sara, and Cal in Wisconsin, Lynn and I find out about something new up there. This time it was the village of Elkhart Lake and the Road America race track.

Elkhart Lake is a resort town in northeast Wisconsin offering history, motor sports, outdoor recreation, and delicious food. Mike found a two night deal we could take advantage of at the beautiful Osthoff Resort and we all enjoyed our stay.

A nice viewA very nice evening view from the Osthoff Resort Patio

We ate several great meals while we were there. One was yummy breakfast pastries and sandwiches at Off the Rail.

Off the RailOff the Rail: Breakfast & Lunch, Baked Goods, Specialty Coffees

We spent some time in the park / playground across the street and I thought this mural was worth a photo:

"A Love Letter from Mexico to Elhart Lake"A Love Letter from Mexico to Elkhart Lake: in downtown Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin

The area has a long history of auto racing. They hosted open road sports car races starting in 1950 that led to the establishment of Road America in 1955.

Wisconsin Historical Society Sign in Elkhart Lake

I’ve been to and photographed auto racing before (here’s a blog post about the Daytona Speedway from 10+ years ago: https://edrosack.com/2013/02/17/daytona-international-speedway/). But I thought this venue is the best I’ve seen. The track is very spectator friendly. You can drive your own car and park at multiple good vantage points along the course with places to stand, sit, watch and photograph. The starting line is also open at times for close up views of cars and drivers, and the garage area was also open to fans on the day we were there. Pedestrians had to be careful and look out for race cars driving by on the way to the track! Here’s the view from the first place we stopped near turn 14:

Coming out of turn 14Coming out of turn 14

We were at the SVRA (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association) Vintage Festival Weekend (https://www.roadamerica.com/svra-vintage-festival-weekend). It was interesting watching these older race cars still competing:

No. 1, GMT Racing, TravisNo. 1, GMT Racing, Travis

I enjoyed trying out my Sony A7R V camera to photograph motor sports for the first time. I was careful to balance my shutter speed so it was low enough to catch some blur in the wheels and background but high enough to keep the car itself sharp. Somewhere between 1/500 and 1/1000 seemed to work pretty well, depending on how fast they were moving. I wish I’d tried panning a bit more aggressively with an even slower shutter.

To focus, I used AI subject recognition, set the “Recognition Target” to “car / train” and it worked very well on these race cars. Except for the time when I accidentally turned it off before I handed the camera to Mike to try! Sorry Mike!

No. 7, Re/Max, F4No. 7, Re/Max, F4

I also enjoyed seeing the Corvette race cars, especially the C6.R generation ones that I’m most familiar with. This GT1 car originally raced from 2005 to 2009.

No. 64, Compuware, GT1 CorvetteNo. 64, Compuware, GT1 Corvette

Here’s one last photo just after sunset over Elkhart Lake:

Dusk at Elhart LakeDusk at Elkhart Lake

We love visiting our family in Wisconsin! It’s a gorgeous and varied state and discovering new things to see and do each time we go is a wonderful bonus!

Header image: “Starting line”; If you’re reading this on your phone, or want to view a larger version, click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/52964301050/in/dateposted-public/.

P.S. In my previous post (https://edrosack.com/2023/06/04/found-flowers/) I asked if you could spot which photos weren’t made with phones. The answer: the header and the image of the poppies were made with a Sony A7R V. All the others were made with phone cameras.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, catch a race and make some photos!

©2023, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive – Jan. 7 2023

Lake Apopka, , , , , , , , , , ,

My good friend Kevin M. was in town a week ago and wanted to visit LAWLD. We also invited Lutfi and the three of us met and drove up together.

It’s about the same distance for me as Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and has a wide variety of birds to see (especially at this time of year). It’s one of my favorite places but I struggle to make landscape photos there. I think this is mostly because I like the light before sunrise and the gate doesn’t open until 7am. Anyway, I did make this one shortly after we arrived. It’s two RAW iPhone frames, stitched together and processed in Lightroom / Photoshop. I like the color contrast of the winter Cypress trees against the blue sky and water.

Winter CypressWinter Cypress

Small birds were plentiful near the entrance. Here are a couple I was able to make reasonable photos of:

On the rocksSwamp Sparrow on the rocks

Blue-gray GnatcatcherBlue-gray Gnatcatcher – more orange / blue contrast

And here are two more that we spotted near the Pump House:

Eastern PhoebeEastern Phoebe

Palm WarblerPalm Warbler

The marshy area across from the Pump House parking is a very good spot to watch birds nesting. Last year, we saw Anhingas, Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons nesting in April. It must be early for all but the herons – I spent several minutes Saturday enjoying this couple’s home renovations:

Great Blue Herons nesting - incoming branchGreat Blue Herons nesting – incoming branch

Raising offspring is hard for most every species. Seeing these birds cooperate to bring new life into the world is spellbinding and makes for a great photo op. I think my favorite photo of the trip is this gentle, back-lit handoff:

Great Blue Herons nesting - handoffGreat Blue Herons nesting – handoff

There’s almost always other action on LAWLD too. The Anhingas are adept anglers and with a little luck you can freeze action like this:

Anhinga Angler

LAWLD is the only place I’ve ever seen Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, so I was happy to spot them this time too.

Fulvous Whistling-Duck TrioFulvous Whistling-Duck Trio

We also saw: Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, a Painted Bunting, a Common Yellow-throat, Black-crowned Night Herons, Northern Harriers, a Red-shoulder Hawk, Tree Swallows, and many of our more common birds.

The header image title is “A very wild smile”. It’s a 3 frame panorama and looks impressively close. But I made it with my long lens from across a canal. You can see a larger version here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/52612944732/in/dateposted-public/

Winter’s such a fabulous time to visit! If you’ve been thinking about it go! It’s open to cars between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays. You can find much more info at this link: https://www.sjrwmd.com/lands/recreation/lake-apopka/. And you can view many more of my Lake Apopka photos at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157656060310175. Finally, this eBird page lists bird species that’ve been observed there.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  I hope all of you are doing well and that you have a wonderful 2023! Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make a few photos!

©2023, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved