Seasonal Reminders

November 16, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Orlando Wetlandsbirds, black and white, BPWD, Osprey, Pelican, wildlife, woodpeckerEd Rosack

We’re finally getting cooler weather here in Central Florida. In addition to making it even more pleasant outside, the fall and winter months bring some changes to our area photo opportunities.

Orlando Wetlands Park is one of my favorite places. But if you haven’t been there this year, you’ve missed your chance. It closes on November 15 and doesn’t re-open until January 31st.

Downy Woodpecker at Orlando Wetlands – not a great photo, but it’s my first one of this bird. ISO 800, 1/800 sec, f/8, 600 mm

And Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR) is also a favorite. When I went over last week, Black Point Wildlife Drive was closed. The web page says “until mid November”, so it should hopefully be back open soon. Fortunately there are many places to photograph in MINWR – even with BPWD closed, it’s still worth a visit.

Black and White Osprey on Gator Creek Road in MINWR. ISO 400, 1/1600 sec, f/8, 500 mm

Brown Pelican in Flight along Haulover Canal in MINWR. ISO 800, 1/2500 sec, f/8, 600 mm

Our avian winter visitors are starting to arrive too. ebird.org has a wonderful website where you can explore birding hotspots all over the world to see what species to expect by month. Here’s the listings for MINWR. The number of species ramps way up starting in November.

It’s prime time for getting out into nature and seeing what’s there! Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Lake Louisa State Park – Nov. 1, 2014

November 9, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Louisa State Parkblack and white, Flowers, landscape, reflection, sunrise, sunset, treeEd Rosack

Lynn and I went back to Lake Louisa State Park last weekend and spent a very relaxing couple of days. It was a little chilly – our first Florida “cold” front rolled through while we were there and made us both appreciate the gas fireplace in the cabin. We didn’t see as much wildlife this time, but I did enjoy making some photos. Here’s one at sunset from just behind the cabin, looking out over Lake Dixie. I like the way the field glows in the light coming through the trees.

Grass, trees, lake, and sun

The sky was very clear after the cold front, so there were no dramatic clouds to work with. I think the low morning sun on the trees and the mist on the water look nice in black and white.

Morning mist

There weren’t as many flowers blooming as there were last May. But the few we did see were lovely. These were along a path just off the road.

Wildflowers

Lake Louisa is a wonderful, relaxing getaway in Clermont, Florida – very close to Orlando. If you haven’t been, check it out. My full writeup on the park is at this link and this set on Flickr has many more photos I made there.

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

Very good, but a bit sad – revisiting The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

November 2, 2014Birds of Prey Center, INSIDE FLORIDA, MaitlandEagle, Great Horned Owl, Swallow-tailed KiteEd Rosack

I hadn’t been by the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida in a long time. So when Tom M. mentioned he wanted to go, I was happy to meet him and Keith H. there one morning last week.

Irked Eagle – This is Frederick, one of the permanent residents. A staff member brought him out for us. In this photo, he’s yelling at a different staff member that walked by. Maybe he was expecting a handout?

Birds of Prey is a wonderful place but leaves me with mixed emotions. On the good side, there are many more Raptors now than there used to be. The estimated population of Bald Eagles in Florida has grown from 88 active nests in 1973 to 1,457 nests now. But on the sad side, there are also many more people and automobiles. This leads to increased encounters between people, their cars, and birds – and sadly, means that many more birds are getting injured today.

Swallow-tailed Kite

Wonderful places like Birds of Prey take in injured raptors, treat them, and (if they’re well enough) release them back into the wild. They’re able to release just over 40% of their raptor patients. But it’s sad that some birds are too injured to be released.

This Great Horned Owl looks a bit sleepy. It must be a night owl.

The injured birds are well cared for. Some are placed in zoos or other facilities that are knowledgable and able to provide for them. Others stay at Birds of Prey. They make exceptional ambassadors and help teach people about these awesome creatures. All three raptors pictured in this post are permanent residents at the center. It’s great that they’re such good photo subjects. But it’s sad that they’ll never make it back into the wild.

There’s another place like this in Apopka, Florida – The Avian Reconditioning Center. I haven’t been there yet, but I’m sure they’re just as dedicated to helping injured birds. And I’m sure there are places like this all over. You’ll be sad if you never visit one. In addition to the photo-op, your entrance fees help pay for care for the injured birds.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go visit a bird rehab facility. And make some photos too!
©2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Downtown Orlando

October 25, 2014Downtown Orlando, INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, Techniqueblack and white, buildings, infrared, panorama, people, reflection, shadowsEd Rosack

I seem to have a preference for wide views. Hence my attraction to stitched multi-frame panorama images. They’re a great way to extend the field of view of lenses you have with you.

Keith H. and I walked around downtown Orlando for a few hours one day last week. I made a lot of photos, and after getting home and reviewing them, my favorites all turned out to be stitched panoramas. I guess I just enjoy being able to see the whole scene. Here are three examples:

Back alley break – A woman takes a work break on the back stairs. 4 frame panorama

Also, I hardly ever make selfies, but on this walk I ended up with two that I like – although they aren’t typical of the genre.

A window selfie – Looking south across Church Street from the 4th floor of the Plaza parking garage. That’s my reflection in the glass towards the middle bottom. Infra Red, Black & White, 4 frame panorama. (Click for a larger view on Flickr)

And this next one isn’t a Black & White photo – the sidewalk and wall were that color.

Cracks me up – A shadow selfie. 3 frame panorama.

You might find you like stitching panoramas too. I’ve written about them before. This article has a detailed workflow example and there are some more ideas in this post. Composition can be difficult since you can’t see the final image through your viewfinder as you capture it. Try to cover a larger area than you think you’ll need so you can crop into the assembled image to fine tune the composition. And watch out for long lines and patterns of lines. Look for any errors / mismatched lines between frames after you stitch them together and clean them up with the clone tool.

Besides downtown itself, there are several areas in Orlando with interesting photo ops: the Plaza Theatre, Leu Gardens, Lake Eola, Meade Gardens, and Greenwood Cemetery. I’ve collected photos from all of them in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

RIP Tim Hauser

October 18, 2014Downtown Orlando, Plaza Theatre, VARIOUSManhattan Transfer, people, Tim HauserEd Rosack

Sad news: Tim Hauser, who founded the Manhattan Transfer in the early ’70s, passed away Thursday. He was 72.

Lynn and I are long time fans of the group’s unique music. We enjoyed seeing them perform live early this year.

Tim Hauser, Janis Seigel, Margaret Dorn, Alan Paul
Manhattan Transfer at the Plaza in Orlando, Florida – 1/24/14

If you have an opportunity to see an artist you enjoy – go do it. You don’t know if you’ll get another chance.

Fort Christmas Still Life Practice

October 10, 2014Fort Christmas, INSIDE FLORIDAcobbler, kitchen, phonograph, shoe, still life, table, toolEd Rosack

I went back out to the Fort Christmas Historical Park recently with fellow Photography Interest Group member Tom M. I’ve written about this place before (here, here. and here). There are 7 restored cabins, each with several rooms arranged to show life in the 1870s through the 1930s. It’s a wonderful place to practice still life photography.

Some examples:

Kitchen table

Edison’s iPod

Cobbler’s bench – That shoe needs a little work, probably more than just a new Safeheel.

You can find out more about still life in this Wikipedia article. Normally, one of the creative aspects of still life is choosing and arranging the subject matter. That’s already done for you in the Fort Christmas exhibits. You’ll have to be content with using your point of view, focal length, and lighting to create pleasing compositions.

A zoom lens with a wide to normal range is very useful. Many times you’ll be limited in where you can place your tripod, so the zoom will come in handy. My 24-120mm f/4 lens worked well.

The lighting here is a challenge:

It’s dim inside the rooms, so bring your tripod. And bring along a flash or two to give you some flexibility to add to the ambient illumination.
In addition to being dim, the lighting will also be mixed. There are incandescent bulbs in the rooms and sunlight coming in through the doors and windows. If you use a flash, you’ll add a third variable. You can try to gel your flash, or use the flashes to overcome one or more of the other light sources. Or you can do as I did and deal with it in post processing by using selective color balance to address any local color casts. (For more on how I do this, see this post.)
You’ll also need to watch out for dynamic range. The doors and windows will be very bright compared to the room interiors and it’s often difficult to eliminate them from compositions. I bracketed my exposures and hand merged the appropriate ones to address this. You can also try using HDR software.

I used some different post processing techniques to emphasize the subject colors and the lighting and I like the way they turned out. Still Life Photography at Fort Christmas is a fun and challenging photo-op. If you haven’t been, give it a try. You can see other photos I’ve made at Fort Christmas in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some still life photos!
©2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Orlando Wetlands and B&W Conversion Software

October 5, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando Wetlands, VARIOUSblack and white, Cypress, landscape, reflection, reviews, treeEd Rosack

Here are three photos I made at Orlando Wetlands Park last Thursday morning.

Waiting for sunrise at Lake Searcy

My favorite program for converting images to black and white is the Nik Silver Efex Pro plug-in. I wanted to try a new one called “Tonality” by Macphun software. I processed these next two photos in both programs so I could compare results.

Cypress and calm water

Clear and very calm

Tonality is an exceptionally complete B&W conversion program with lots of presets and sliders to play with. It also has some built-in capabilities you might not expect such as layers, gradients, and selective edits. These come in handy when you want to combine several conversions without going through layers in Photoshop. Silver Efex Pro’s control points provide some of the same selective edit capability, but for me, the Tonality controls are more flexible. Tonality also has lens blur and glow simulations and the ability to blend in texture patterns. Lots of presets, options, and control!

I noticed that the clarity control in Tonality sometimes resulted in halos that I has to tone down. But I found that overall I preferred the Tonality result over the Silver Efex version for these two photos. I don’t know if this will hold up long-term, since I’m pretty sure you can achieve very similar results with either one. I’m going to keep playing with it and see.

By the way, Tonality is Mac only, Silver Efex runs on both Mac and PC. There are free trial versions you can download, so check them out yourself and see what you think.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Fishing up a storm

September 28, 2014Cocoa, Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDAcloud, fishing, landscape, people, pier, reflection, sunriseEd Rosack

I was at the Cocoa Beach Pier last Thursday morning with Tom M. People were fishing in the surf and the Snook were running. We watched two large ones caught in just a few minutes and someone told us they’d caught eight so far. It was easy to see that the fishermen were having a great time. Their concentration when casting and excitement when they hooked one was obvious.

A little later, this gentleman wandered over. I only had to move a little to place him in the middle of the reflection from the clouds and sunrise.

Fishing up a storm

I had a good time photographing that morning, but it seemed like the fishing was much more enjoyable. Maybe I should bring fishing gear when I go out with a camera.

Regarding image selection

September 21, 2014Maine, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Techniqueblack and white, infrared, landscape, lighthouse, rock, travel, vacationEd Rosack

Sometimes it’s obvious that an image is good the first time you look at it. With others, it can be difficult to visualize what they’ll look like after processing.

If you use raw format in your photography, they look different from jpg photos. Raw format is just the data read directly off of the sensor with no processing by the camera. Depending on how you configure your camera and software, raw image contrast and sharpening can be very low, white balance may not be optimized, and exposure is often set for capture / low noise instead of display / print.. This can make it tough to judge raw photos and decide which ones merit further processing.

When I returned from Maine and reviewed my photos, I bypassed some. When I finished working on the ones I’d identified as “selects”, I went back and re-looked at those I’d set aside. Some of them deserved attention.

A calm morning on Bubble Pond

It’s not just raw images that can be difficult to evaluate. Infrared photos usually need processing to optimize too.

Bass Harbor Light

And multi image panoramas make seeing composition and field of view a challenge before the individual frames are stitched together.

Behind Sand Beach

I can’t tell you how to rate your images and select your best. But what I can tell you is to be very careful not to discard something before you’re very sure that it’s not worth pursuing. Give your photos a second chance. Learn your software so you know how far you can go with adjustments. And as with any thing worth pursuing, practice will make you better.

The Florida Aquarium in Tampa

September 14, 2014Florida Aquarium, INSIDE FLORIDA, TampaAquarium, chameleon, Fish, StarfishEd Rosack

Intro / Description

I first noticed the Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa, Florida in April of 2012. We left from there on a cruise and the aquarium is right across from the terminal where we boarded. We didn’t have time to visit then, but I finally went back to see it last week.

Flying Starfish (not really – it was climbing on the aquarium glass); 27mm, f/2.8 @ 1/40s, ISO 3200

The Florida Aquarium has more than 20,000 plant and animal species on display and you’ll find many of the typical photo ops there. Major exhibits are “Journey to Madagascar”, “Wetlands Trail”, “Penguin Point”, “Bays and Beaches”, “Coral Reef”, and “Ocean Commotion”. The Coral Reef tank is big (~500,000 gallons), and has plenty of larger fish living there (sharks, rays and turtles, etc.). You’ll also find land animals such as birds, snakes, lizards and lemurs in the different exhibits.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

As with any similar indoor attraction, the light is dim. You’ll need a camera with good high ISO capabilities, and the larger your lens aperture, the better. Image stabilization will help a little, but maybe not as much as you’d think, because your subjects will often be moving. You might also want to bring a polarizer to cut down on reflections in the glass although that’ll make the scenes even darker. I didn’t use a polarizer – I just tried to keep my camera lens as close to the glass as I could to block reflections. I’ve added exposure info to the captions in these photos so you can see what my settings were.

Toadfish; 38mm, f/3.2 @ 1/17s, ISO 1600

Tripod/Monopod: I carried a small one with me, but didn’t use it. Subject motion and other people in the venue made a tripod less useful.

Lenses: My 27 – 85mm equivalent lens covered most of the opportunities. I shot wide open (f/2.8 – f/4), with image stabilization turned on, and ISO sensitivities between 800 – 3200.

Best time to visit: We got there just after it opened (~9:30) on a weekday. The crowds were pretty light. This is a good place to visit in the summer, since it’s air-conditioned!

Other:
The aquarium offers many kid oriented activities. And they’ll also take you on a Wild Dolphin Cruise on Tampa Bay where you can see these animals and others in a non-captive environment. Certified SCUBA divers can Dive With the Sharks in the aquarium, and behind the scene tours are also offered.

Chameleon; 54mm, f/3.6 @ 1/45s, ISO 1000

Summary

The Florida Aquarium is a good family outing and offers many photo opportunities too.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157647126904160
Website:	http://www.flaquarium.org
Address / Phone:	The Florida Aquarium 701 Channelside Drive Tampa, FL 33602 Phone: 813-273-4000
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Worth a visit!