Category Archives: VARIOUS

Thanksgiving 2012

November 22, 2012Blue Cypress Lake, INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSbirds, Wild TurkeyEd Rosack

Happy Thanksgiving!

Many places in the world celebrate a thanksgiving holiday. In the United States, we pause on the fourth Thursday of November to commemorate our founders and give thanks. The “first Thanksgiving” took place in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts to celebrate a good harvest. In 1789, President George Washington declared it a national holiday. The date shifted over time until December 26, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress moving it from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday.

Thanksgiving dinner can be quite elaborate. Turkey is the most common main dish, and Thanksgiving is sometimes called “Turkey Day”. Bread stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie are also traditional.

Wild Turkey – This Tom Turkey was posing in a field next to the road into Blue Cypress Lake. He was initially so still that we thought he might be a decoy. There were several more on the other side of the road.

Wild Turkeys were endangered in the early 1900s, but are common now throughout the US and in Florida. I’ve even seen some in my neighborhood (in Central Winds Park). They’re native to North America and the largest game bird on the continent. In the 16th Century, the major trade route from the Americas went through Constantinople in Turkey before going on to Britain. They associated the birds with the country Turkey and the name stuck.

I’m a very fortunate person and have much to be thankful for. I realize this and sometimes worry about the odds catching up with me. At the top of the list, of course are my family and my friends. What are you thankful for?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – be thankful, have a great day, and go make some photos!

U.S. Veterans Day

November 12, 2012OUTSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUS, Washington D.C.black and white, infrared, Korean War Memorial, memorial, veteransEd Rosack

Germany and the Allied nations signed the armistice ending World War I in 1918 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Armistice Day (later renamed Veterans Day after World War II) was commemorated for the first time on November 11, 1919.

Now every year in the United States, we pause on Veteran’s Day to honor the service and sacrifice of all men and women who answer the call of freedom. To all of our veterans and to those serving today – you have our deepest gratitude. We honor you for your service and sacrifices “in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Statues of GIs crossing a field – Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC – Black and White Infrared

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. And if you’re a veteran, thank you for your service.
©2011, 2012 Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Blog Maintenance (and another camera)

October 28, 2012Cameras and Photography, VARIOUSAntiques, camera, equipment, LeicaEd Rosack

Just a short entry to let you know that I’m working behind the scenes to re-organize Categories and Tags used on the blog. Since I started writing “Central Florida Photo Ops” in May of 2007 they’ve grown a bit too haphazardly, and now it’s time for me to get organized and efficient.

So I’m restructuring the Categories to serve as a Table of Contents. The main ones are location-based so that a visitor can quickly see all the entries about a given place. You can reach the Categories from the pull down widget on the right.

The tags will function like the index in a book. For instance, when I’m done, you’ll be able to click on “Bird” in the tag cloud on the right and see a listing of all posts that mention various kinds of birds.

I’ve already started working on this, although it’ll take me a while to go through all 236 published posts and update / correct each one. But as I work on it, it’ll gradually improve and when I’m finished it’ll be better than it was. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

And just so we don’t have a blog entry without a photo, here’s a couple of images of another camera acquisition. It’s a somewhat well used, Leica IIIc 35mm camera made in the late 1940s. I need to clean it up a bit, but I’ve already run some film through it and it works pretty well.

Leica IIIc 35mm rangefinder camera: front view

Leica IIIc 35mm rangefinder camera: top view

NOTE: Added in Jan. 2021 (and Dec. 2023). This site has a serial number reference for these cameras: https://www.cameraquest.com/ltmnum.htm and shows this one was made in 1946/7. You can find other sites with serial number lookups for both camera and lenses if you search the web (e.g https://reddotcamera.net/leica/serial-number-tool/). My lens is a Summar 50mm f/2, built in 1937.

You can see other photos of collectible cameras in this set on Flickr.

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

Dealing with poor weather – Circle B Bar Reserve, 10-6-12

October 7, 2012Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquebirds, Flowers, fog, infrared, landscape, limpkin, mist, people, Spider, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

The Photography Interest Group decided to organize an expedition to the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida yesterday. It’s about an hour and twenty-minute drive for us and since we wanted to try a new place a bit further out for sunrise, Frank, Kevin M., Lutfi, and I met at 5:30 to carpool over. Talk about getting out of bed at “O-dark thirty”! But I was excited, since I haven’t been to the Circle B Bar since last November – way too long to stay away from such a beautiful place.

It was getting foggy as we approached the parking area, but I wasn’t too worried – sometimes fog can add to a scene. We arrived in plenty of time, and walked out to Wading Bird Way (see this link for a .pdf map of the Circle B Bar trails). The closer we got, the foggier it became – and it looked like this right at dawn.

Frank, Lutfi, and Kevin M. in the fog at the Circle B Bar Reserve

To make a long story short – the fog was dense and dawn brought no color at all to the sky. There was no sunrise. We didn’t even see the sun until about an hour and a half later. Regular readers will know that I really like landscape photography and around dawn and dusk are the best times to photograph. With yesterday’s conditions, it just wasn’t meant to be. So what should you do in a situation like this?

First, enjoy the walk. Being out in nature is a wonderful experience and doesn’t have to include photography.

From a photographic perspective, what else can you do? For landscapes, try infrared – it can help cut though the fog, especially if you can include some foreground elements.

Foggy lake

If you can get close, fog and mist can be a great background to isolate your subject.

Posing Limpkin

And focus on details. Find some smaller things that you can zoom in on. Look for subjects enhanced by the mist.

Spider and misty web

Yes, not every photo expedition goes as planned. Yesterday’s sunrise was disappointing (non-existent?). But we saw and photographed many things: birds (Sand Hill Cranes, Egrets, Herons, Ibis, Osprey, Whistling Ducks, Hawks, Coots, Moorhens, a Purple Gallinule, Woodpeckers, and others), alligators, dragonflies, spiders, butterflies, and flowers while we were there. All in all, a great day. You can see more photos from the Circle B Bar in this set on Flickr, and check out Frank‘s, Kevin M.‘s, and Lutfi‘s too.

What do you do in situations like this? I’d love to hear your suggestions. Send me an email or add a comment to the blog.

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

Wow – it was really crowded over there!

September 29, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup Sunflowers, Must do listFlowers, landscape, Marl Bed Flats, SunflowersEd Rosack

Crowded with both flowers and people…

I’ve photographed the wildflowers (swamp sunflowers) that bloom near Lake Jesup at this time of year since about 2006. I’ve never seen as many people out there as I did tonight. When I drove by on 417, there were 8 or 10 cars along the shoulder and people with cameras and tripods were clambering down into the flowers to get photos. When I arrived at the Lake Jesup Conservation Area just before sunset, the gate was closed and the two parking spaces outside the gate were already taken – so I had to park on the road. On my walk in, I met up with two people with cameras and on my way out another person stopped me to ask what I’d seen. On most previous trips, I haven’t seen anyone. I guess the word has gotten around.

Lake Jesup Conservation Area – Fisheye fun with the Swamp Sunflowers.

The flowers are at their peak. If you want to see or photograph them, you should go in the next few days.

Lake Jesup Conservation Area Wildflowers

Check out these links for info and please be careful. Stopping along 417 could be dangerous.

You can see more photos of the area in this set on Flickr.

Add a comment to the blog or drop me an email if you go. I’d love to see your photos.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some flower photos!

Moody dawn at Orlando Wetlands

August 26, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando Wetlands, Techniquelandscape, sunriseEd Rosack

I got up early and went to Orlando Wetlands Park last Friday. This time I walked west from the parking area along the berm parallel to Wheeler road.

Even when the sunrise isn’t very colorful, it’s still nice to get out and see it. It’s also more of a challenge to photograph.

Swampy sunrise

This stand of dead trees in cell 2 drew my attention. They looked spooky, and I used the infrared camera to help bring this out.

Haunted Marsh at dawn

You can see more photos of Orlando Wetlands in this set on Flickr.

Note to email subscribers: I’ve had trouble with the widget that emails blog entries as they’re posted. I’m debugging it, but in the mean time you may have missed a post or two. Please visit the blog to catch up.

Note to all readers: My main computer is suffering and I’m taking it in for service. So my photo processing and blog entries will impaired for a bit. Thanks for your patience.

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

Cocoa Sunrise

August 19, 2012Cocoa, Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquebeach, landscape, people, pier, sunriseEd Rosack

Keith H. wanted to try out his 10 stop neutral density filter, so we rode over to Cocoa Beach to make some sunrise photos. It was very clear when we left around 5:30 am, but by the time we parked next to the pier, a few clouds had appeared to make the sunrise more interesting.

Atlantic sunrise.

A neutral density (ND) filter reduces the amount of light entering your camera. This gives you greater flexibility to adjust aperture and exposure. They’re often used to show motion blur with a slow shutter speed, or reduce the depth of field with a wide aperture. Ideally, ND filters are color neutral – although both Keith and I noticed some color shifts with ours. I was using two stacked 3 stop NDs and this set up worked pretty well to slow the shutter speed and blur the water, especially before sunrise. Keith’s 10 stop was a bit too much before dawn, but would be great after sun rise. Overall, we spent an hour or so working the scene and both came away with photos we like.

A bird flies above a couple making a photograph by a woman walking through the sun.

You can see more photos of Cocoa Beach in this set on Flickr.

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

Weekend with Wilson

August 12, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Techniquebirds, boat, BPWD, fishing, landscape, people, pier, sunriseEd Rosack

I stopped by C. S. Lee Park on SR 46 in Geneva yesterday morning with Kevin, Kevin and Lutfi to photograph the sunrise. There weren’t a lot of clouds but it was still pretty – and some obliging fishermen were kind enough to point their wake into the scene for us.

Hurry, the fish are biting! C. S. Lee Park, Geneva, Florida

We were on our way over to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Kevin M. uses the Audubon Birds of North America app, which has links to bird sightings on eBird. With this, you can search for nearby birds, activity at birding hotspots, and even see reports of recent notable and rare bird sightings. Using the app, he discovered that Wilson’s Pharalopes were on Bio-lab road last week, so we decided to try to spot them.

The Wilson’s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) is a small wading bird and the largest of the phalaropes. Normally it breeds on the North American prairies and in the western US. It is migratory, but according to iBird, isn’t often found in Florida, so this was a rare chance to see it.

Wilson’s Phalarope pair. Bio-lab Road, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

It was fun to see another Wilson bird yesterday: the Wilson’s Plover . These are also waders and breed on both US coasts from the equator northwards. Its common range does include Florida.

Wilson’s Plover. Bio-lab Road, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I’d seen a Wilson’s Snipe before and now with these sightings I started wondering who this Wilson fellow was. Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. He’s regarded as the greatest American ornithologist prior to Audubon. Several birds are named after him, including the three I already mentioned and the Wilson’s Storm-petrel, and Wilson’s Warbler. The warbler genus Wilsonia was also named for him. In 1802 Wilson decided to publish a book illustrating all the North American birds. The result was the nine-volume American Ornithology, with 268 species of birds, 26 of which hadn’t been described.

On our trip, we also saw Alligators, Belted Kingfishers, Green Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis, and many kinds of gulls and shore birds on Bio-lab Road. We drove through Black Point Wildlife Drive too, but there wasn’t as much going on there.

So this trip provided an incentive to clear out some of my birding ignorance and now I know a bit about another great American ornithologist. You can see more MINWR photos here and here, and birds photos here and here. And I have a some more Florida landscape / sunrise photos here.

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

Cocoa and Viera Wetlands – August 4, 2012

August 5, 2012Cocoa, INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Viera Wetlandsbirds, Flowers, Ibis, landscape, Moorhen, people, pier, reviews, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

I realized I hadn’t been to Viera Wetlands since last year, so I went over yesterday morning with Kevin K.

We spent a few minutes with The Photographer’s Ephemeris and found a promising sunrise stop along the way. It’s just north of the first bridge into Cocoa on SR 520. If you don’t have a copy of this software, you should get it. It’s available (for free!) for the Mac, PC, and Linux as well as (paid versions) for Android and iOS. The iPad version is especially helpful. If you have a cell phone signal, you can use it wherever you are to visualize the natural lighting. It shows the sun and moon overlaid on a Google Map for the place and time you enter. Highly recommended.

The sunrise was pretty and there was even a nice bird posing at the end of an old dock for us.

Old pier at sunrise: North of the Hubert Humphrey Causeway in Cocoa, Florida.

When we got to Viera Wetlands, there was more going on than I thought there would be. We saw Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, both White and Glossy Ibis, Moorhens, Coots, Limpkins, and Black Bellied Whistling Ducks, among others. There were even some Roseate Spoonbills there – the first time I’ve ever seen them at Viera Wetlands. A few Moorhen chicks, surprised me too – I didn’t realize they hatched this time of year.

Moorhen and chick near Ibis: “Kid – I told you not to hang out with those Ibis birds. They’re nothing but trouble”.

You can click on the images above to get to larger versions on Flickr. You can also see more of my Viera Wetlands photos here on Flickr. For a slightly different perspective, you can also look at Kevin’s photos in his set on Flickr.

Wide, wide weekend

July 29, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Maitland, Orlando, TechniqueCarl Langford Park, Dickson Azalea Park, equipment, fisheye, infrared, Lake Lily, landscape, panorama, reviewsEd Rosack

I was in Colonial Photo and Hobby and saw a Rokinon micro four thirds 7.5mm f/3.5 manual focus fish-eye lens on the shelf. I’ve never had a fish-eye lens before although I’ve always liked wide-angle. I couldn’t resist and ended up taking it home.

Fish-eye lenses are not rectilinear – meaning they sacrifice keeping perspective lines straight to make the field of view big. This one has a full 180° field of view and covers the sensor without any vignetting. 180° is really, really wide – keep your fingers and toes out of the composition! They also tend to have a huge depth of field, which is even greater on a micro four thirds camera than on a full frame 35mm equivalent.

I tried it first on my infrared modified camera – I call these IRFE (infrared, fish eye) photos. In this one, I wanted to take advantage of the distortion introduced by the lens to make the support structure for the bridge look more interesting. So I put the beams as close to the edges of the frame as I could get them.

Suspension bridge: Carl Langford Park, Orlando

In this next one, I saw the tree branch above and wanted to try to capture the complexity against the sky. I’ve found it hard to make photos like this with a regular wide-angle lens. I end up not having a wide enough view and then taking multiple photos and trying to stitch them together as a panorama. Stitching software just doesn’t hold up too well when the angle of view is too large.

Tree branches: Dickson Azalea Park, Orlando

Of course, you can use a fish-eye lens in a more normal way. If you keep things that you want to appear straight toward the center of the frame, the image will look a lot more like a regular wide-angle photo.

Curve ahead: Behind Lake Lily Park, Maitland.

I’m really happy with the lens. It seems sharp, doesn’t vignette and the manual focus aspects aren’t a big bother because of depth of field. It seems to handle flare pretty well and I’m not noticing any pronounced chromatic aberrations or other problems. On my camera, it exposes correctly in aperture priority mode, even though there’s no electronic coupling. And… it’s fun! Isn’t photography supposed to be fun?

You can click on the images above to get to larger versions on Flickr. You can also see some of my other infrared photos here on Flickr.