Tag Archives: beach

Two ‘Oldies but Goodies’

April 29, 2024Casey Key, St. Augustine Alligator Farmbeach, birds, black and white, infrared, landscape, panorama, Spoonbill, wildlifeEd Rosack

Lynn and I are moving next week, so we’ve been busy and I haven’t been on any recent photo field trips. I did have a little time though to browse through my Lightroom catalog and found two older images that I decided to re-visit.

The first one is a two frame, vertical panorama made with an IR modified Olympus E-PL5 way back in 2015 at Casey Key on the gulf coast of Florida. It’s two Raw frames that I’d ignored at the time. I made it with a 14mm (28mm equivalent) lens at f/5.6, 2.0 sec, ISO 200. Here’s my current work flow:

Initial processing of the Raw file with DxO Photo Lab 6 DeepPrime XD Noise Reduction
Lightroom: color and exposure settings and panorama merge
Photoshop: cropping, final adjustments, sharpening with Topaz Sharpen AI
Lightroom again: B&W conversion and publish

Beach view

I was really happy with the result, especially the detail and how the light looks in the clouds. It was nice to rediscover this one in the archives!

I don’t know how interested you’d be in more detailed processing steps, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you have in the comments. Here’s a before and after comparison of the Beach View photo (Raw on the left and final on the right):

The second one is from even further back: A single frame from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in 2010, made with a Nikon D90, at 150mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO 640. I used a similar work flow (except no panorama merge or B&W conversion).

Spoonbill Touchdown

I’m very happy with this one too. The Nikon D90 was quite capable for its time and the files look pretty good, especially when processed with current software.

I often return from a photo op with too many photos. I’ll delete the obvious bad frames or duplicates. But I try not to delete too many because it’s a little hard to predict what the processed versions will end up looking like. Sometimes I’m very glad I saved images – even 9 and 14 years later!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you have time, make some photos – or at least process an old one!

Nature

April 11, 2021Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbeach, clouds, Dolphin, IbisEd Rosack

Here are several photos I made recently. To me they don’t strictly fit into the Landscape or wildlife categories, although they do include those as elements in the compositions. I like them though, so I’ll post them here and call them “Nature photos“.

When I first saw the dolphin, it was a little too far away for a good wildlife photo, so I waited for it to swim even farther into the colors reflecting in the water. I’m pretty sure it was only thinking about catching fish for breakfast, but the scene made me wonder if it thinks about other things sometimes.

Do Dolphins watch the sun rise?

This still water made a perfect mirror on that morning. But I probably wouldn’t have made a photo if I hadn’t seen the bird off to the right. It was moving left, so again I waited and clicked the shutter as it crossed the line of clouds.

Ibis in the clouds

I’d think that as much rain as we have sometimes here in Florida, I’d see scenes like this more often – but I don’t. I like how well defined the footprints are in the dried mud. I wish I was knowledgable enough to read the story these tracks are telling us.

Making tracks

And in this last one, I was photographing the clouds and water with a neutral density filter and small aperture to get a 10 second exposure. When I finally noticed the birds in the surf, I quickly removed the ND filter and opened the aperture to get to a 1/10 sec. shutter speed and capture the birds reasonably sharp. When I got home I blended the two frames together to get what you see here. I guess this one is a landscape photo, but I think the birds add to the scene.

Below the angry clouds

The header image is the wake left behind by a running Coot. I cropped most of the bird out, to fit the theme of the post. If you’re interested, you can view the whole image at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/51097712962/in/photostream/lightbox/

So, are these wildlife photos, landscape photos, or nature photos? What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Take care of yourselves and each other. And when you can – make some nature photos!

Long Exposure with Variable Neutral Density Filters

May 18, 2019Cocoa, Techniquebeach, filters, long exposure, neutral density, pier, sunriseEd Rosack

A friend wants to make long exposure photos on an upcoming trip. I recommended using a Variable Neutral Density Filter (VND) and offered to let them try mine. So we headed over to the Cocoa Beach Pier last Friday to test them out on some ocean waves.

Cruising home. VND, ƒ/11, 35 mm, 0.3sec, ISO 100

VNDs are made from two polarizing filters – one’s fixed and the other rotates. You use the rotating one to vary the amount of light that’s blocked (typically between 1 or 2 and 6 or 8 stops). I like them because they give you precise and easy control over how much light hits your sensor. If you reduce light on the sensor, you can use a slower shutter speed or a wider aperture for a given scene. They’re good to have when you photograph waterfalls (slow shutter to blur / smooth water) or in bright light (to shoot with a wider aperture and blur backgrounds).

Here’s my approach for smoothing water:

Mount the camera on a tripod and trigger it with a remote or the self timer.
Set ISO (usually for best quality). Don’t use auto ISO. We want the camera to vary shutter speed instead of changing ISO when the VND rotates.
I use Aperture Priority mode and select the F-stop (for depth of field, image quality etc.).
Compose with the VND filter at its minimum value (brightest setting).
In bright light, you can use auto focus. In dim light, you may need to manual focus so the camera’s auto focus doesn’t hunt when you darken the VND.
Now, slowly turn / darken the VND until your shutter speed reaches the value you want. You’ll need to experiment to find what looks best to you, but for water try between .25 and 1 second.
If you can’t get a slow enough shutter, you can close down your aperture, or lower your ISO.

Some things to watch out for:

Like much in photography (and life!), you can find very expensive VNDs and very cheap ones. I’ve had good luck with name brand ones in the middle price range. Don’t buy the cheap ones! They may not be optically flat or coated, and might introduce color shift problems. You’ll probably pay more for thinner ones too, which will reduce chances of vignetting.
Definitely look for VNDs with coatings to help prevent reflections / flare. You’re adding four more air/glass interfaces to the front of your lens and you can’t use a lens hood, so coatings will improve performance.
Since these filters can be expensive, I recommend buying only one, sized to fit the biggest diameter lens you’ll use it with. I have a 77mm VND and step down rings to mount it on my smaller lenses.
Some VNDs can be rotated too far and will show an ugly cross-shaped anomaly. If yours does this, watch for it and back off until it disappears. Some are made with a stop so you can’t rotate them too far.
Check your results as you go. It’s easy to over expose highlights in moving water, so you may need to dial in some negative exposure composition. Also, if the light getting through is too dim, your camera’s meter may not work well. In that case you’ll have to change to manual exposure and adjust accordingly.
Make several exposures at different shutter speeds so you’ll have distinct looks to choose from when you get home.

Golden beach. VND, ƒ/8.0, 26 mm eq., 0.8sec, ISO 200

That’s it – simple, right? Do you use VNDs? If so, let me know where I can view your long exposure photos. And if you have any hints of your own, please share in a comment for everyone.

You can click on these images to see a larger version on Flickr. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

A Marvelous Morning

January 21, 2018INSIDE FLORIDA, Viera WetlandsAmerican Bittern, beach, Belted Kingfisher, birds, cloud, landscape, sunrise, wildlife, Wilson's SnipeEd Rosack

We organized a photo expedition to Viera Wetlands yesterday. I went with Kevin K., Kevin M., and Tom M. We tried a new sunrise location, Alan Shepard Park, right on the beach in Cocoa where SR 520 ends. Even though we got blocked by a train stuck on the tracks and a closed parking lot, we made it in time for the show. I was also worried that there wouldn’t be much color, but Mother Nature rewarded our efforts.

On the beach

There were a lot of shore birds on the beach with us. I have several more images to process with them in the foreground.

Our next stop was the wetlands, and this trip demonstrated the advantages of having extra eyeballs to help search for things. We went right by this Bittern until Tom saw it and got us to stop. They’re pretty reliable in the winter at Viera, but they’re hard to see sometimes. Their standard behavior is to freeze in the grass / reeds and try to blend in. They don’t spook very easy, so you can get fairly close without bothering them.

American Bittern in the grass

A little further on, Kevin M. called out a Snipe he spotted. It was on the opposite side of the car, so I got out quietly and snuck around. It took me a bit to see it even though it was only a few feet away. This one was pretty calm and let us photograph for several minutes. They’re small and usually skittish. And they fly erratically, so they’re usually hard to photograph. Again, though they seem to like to stop by Viera in the winter.

Wilson’s Snipe in the grass

Belted Kingfishers are also common around Florida in the winter. If you’ve ever seen one of these, you know how hard it can be to photograph them. You’ll see them perched on a branch and as soon as you try to get closer or even point your lens toward them, they take off and move further away. This one was more tolerant than usual and I was able to get set for it to leave. But I was over conservative with my zoom and left too much room in the frame. I did catch it, and even though it’s a little small, it’s one of my best flight shots of one. But I’ll have to keep trying.

Belted Kingfisher in flight

We spotted Red-winged Blackbirds, Black Crowned Night Herons, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, Green Herons, Egrets, a hawk, Grebes, Morehens, a juvenile Purple Galinule, and Ring Necked Ducks. And Kevin M. also called out a Ruddy Duck – which was a life bird for me but in very poor light, so I won’t post it here. Kevin K. was the first to spot a herd of deer (well four of them at least) – which I don’t see very often there. Great Blue Herons, Anhingas, Sand Hill Cranes, and Cormorants are all nesting now too.

So it was a marvelous morning. Great weather, scenery, bird watching, photography, and friends. Much better than sleeping in!

Please click on the images above to see a larger version on Flickr. And you can see many more of my photos from Viera Wetlands in this Flickr album.

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

Lobster Roll Stroll

May 22, 2016INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, New Smyrna Beach, VARIOUSbeach, black and white, cafe heavenly, lobster roll, people, signEd Rosack

Mary Kate had a craving for Lobster Rolls last Saturday and her favorite place to get them is at Cafe Heavenly (http://www.cafeheavenly.com) in New Smyrna Beach. Lynn and I like the place too, so we drove over with her.

After lunch the girls wanted to window shop. Me – not so much. We set a time to meet, I left them to it, and set out to walk up and down Flagler Avenue. With my camera, of course.

Harley Ladies on Flagler Avenue.

It’s an interesting place. There are all sorts of people, shops, places to eat and drink, and even a few hotels and B&Bs.

No Vacancy – Fortunately we didn’t need a place to stay.

Our weather here in Central Florida is turning summer like. After about 45 minutes I was getting hot and thirsty. I saw this, and agreed completely:

Polly wants a cocktail – I was getting pretty thirsty.

Oh yeah, about that Lobster Roll – they are delicious!

Cafe Heavenly Lobster Roll – photo by Lynn Rosack, used with permission.

I enjoyed the food and the stroll. You can see a few more photos from the area in this album on Flickr.

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

Photographing Florida Weather

October 17, 2015Casey Key, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup Sunflowers, Merritt Island NWR, VARIOUSbeach, black and white, BPWD, cloud, infrared, landscape, stormEd Rosack

Florida has wonderful weather photography opportunities. They’re not often the kind that you see from tornado alley out west. But the clouds here are awesome too.

Lynn and I traveled recently (New Jersey, Virginia, and Georgia). I realized when going through those photos that they lacked dramatic skies like we often see here in Central Florida. Maybe our timing was just bad. Anyway, it inspired me to put together this post with some examples of our weather along with a few hints.

We’d had several days of rain last August and even though afternoon light isn’t usually the best for photography, I decided to drive over to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and see if I could capture some of the weather drama. This one is from the south-east side of the causeway. There was a slight drizzle where I was standing and rain drops ruined several frames. This one must have been right after I cleaned the lens.

Weather over the Water (24mm focal length)

And this one was that same day, looking south along the back side of Black Point Wildlife Drive.

Storm Ahead (stitched panorama, nine frames at 24mm focal length).

This next photo is from September of 2012, also at Black Point Wildlife Drive. These clouds actually stopped me in my tracks and made me shift out of bird photography mode to make this B&W, IR image. You can see a color version of this here.

A little stormy (stitched panorama, three frames at 24mm eq. focal length).

These next two have been on the blog before, but they also illustrate my point: Clouds and storms in Central Florida are photogenic!

Stormy Shore: Storm clouds blow through north of our hotel on Casey Key, Florida. June 15, 2015 (stitched panorama, eight frames at 24mm eq. focal length).

And this last photo is from way back in October 2007. I put it in to honor our fading Lake Jesup sunflower season.

Lakes Jesup Wildflowers and Rainstorm (105mm eq. focal length).

We don’t have mountains here in Central Florida. And we don’t have very good waterfalls either. But our clouds are just as good as anywhere else. How are they where you are?

Photo hints:

Although you can see interesting weather all year, the best time here is summer afternoons and evenings.
The storms are big. As you can see from the captions, many times I find myself using a wide-angle lens or stitching panoramas for this kind of photography, although some situations (like the last image) benefit from a longer focal length.
You can shoot from your car in many cases or just dodge the showers. Do bring a lens cloth and maybe a towel or some plastic to cover your camera if it’s not weather resistant.
Be careful with your exposures. If you have clear sky behind the clouds you can easily blow out highlights in the image which will be tough to fix in post.
When processing your photos, try using some mid-range contrast / clarity to bring out details in the clouds. Don’t go too far though or your results will look unrealistic.
Find yourself some good foreground locations so you’ll be ready to head out when the weather gets interesting.
And be careful – don’t get struck by lightning or ruin your equipment!

If you click on the photos above, you can see larger versions on Flickr and I also collected other Florida Cloud and Storm photos that you can browse in this set on Flickr.

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

Blue Moon and Sunrise at Ponce Inlet

August 2, 2015INSIDE FLORIDA, Ponce Inlet, Techniquebeach, jetty, landscape, moon, reflection, sunriseEd Rosack

I met Tom M. at Ponce Inlet last Friday at dawn. We arrived at 6 am when the park opened and were the first ones in. We didn’t see anyone else for about 30 minutes. I was surprised by how few people were there. I guess it helps to go during the week instead of on weekends.

I thought I’d share three photos along with some details on how I made them.

The moon was full on Friday for the second time in July and was just setting as we got out on the jetty. I found this vantage point to highlight the “Blue Moon” over the water along the rocks. This is a two exposure composite that I blended manually using layers and masks in Photoshop. I exposed the top part for the moon (ISO 50, f/11, 1.6 sec.) and the bottom part for the water (ISO 50, f/11, 5 sec.). I used my Nikon 24 – 120mm f/4 lens at 120mm – it’s very versatile for these kinds of outings.

Blue Moon descends

I liked the way the area just north of the jetty looked, with the sun and clouds above the water and rocks. I made a few exposures, and then waited for the sun to rise a bit more so it would be behind the clouds and the light would be less harsh. I saw a pelican flying by and managed to catch it just about under the sun (52 mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/100 sec.). I thought it would look better with silky smooth water, so I made one more exposure using an 8 2/3 stop Neutral Density filter to slow my shutter speed (52 mm, ISO 100, f/11, 8 sec.). This image was also blended manually using layers in Photoshop. I did have some issues with color balance. The ND filter added a yellowish tint to the bottom that the top didn’t have. So I adjusted it to match as closely as I could before blending.

Ponce Sunrise – Early morning, just north of the jetty at Ponce Inlet.

For comparison, here is one of the photos I made about 5 minutes earlier when the sun was lower. This is a single exposure (50 mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/100 sec.). I made a burst of several and picked one that best showed the sun highlighting the spray on top of the breaking wave. I like the framing on this one better too as I can see the sun reflecting off the jetty wall. The colors are more orange since there’s more of the sun showing through the clouds.

Ponce Sunrise too – Same place as the previous photo, and a few minutes earlier.

I’m not sure which one of these sunrise images I like best. I’m leaning toward the second one. Too bad the Pelican wasn’t in place when the wave broke! Which one do you like? Have you tried any techniques like this?

On a side note, I used my Nikon D800 camera that I’ve had for more than three years to make these. A couple of weeks ago, Nikon sent me an email and offered to clean and inspect it and fix anything they found wrong – for free! I took advantage of the offer, got it back, and was anxious to test it out. It seems to work fine and it’s nice to know it’s still in good shape. Thanks Nikon!

You can see more images from Ponce Inlet in this set on Flickr. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos! And do it more often than “once in a blue moon”!

Chasing light

January 18, 2015INSIDE FLORIDA, Tampabeach, birds, black and white, cloud, infrared, Lake Apopka, landscape, panoramaEd Rosack

So I went to two different places last week. Kevin M. took me to the Lake Apopka Restoration Area to look for the Groove Billed Ani that’s been hanging around. I’d never been there and was glad he invited me, not only for a chance at a life bird, but also to scout the area. I’ve also driven around Lake Lawsona in downtown Orlando and thought there might be some photos lurking there, but couldn’t find any place to park. Then I discovered that Mayor Carl T. Langford Park isn’t far away so I left my car there and walked over.

To make a long (and photographically humbling) story short, I photographed both places, but didn’t like any of the images enough to post. And we didn’t see the Ani either.

I did chase the light – I just didn’t catch it.

Since I’m a little stuck for material this week, I went back into my archives and found a four photo panorama that I’d never processed from a trip to Tampa in 2013. After stitching it together, I like the light in this image well enough.

Looking north toward Piney Point from Fred Howard Park in Tampa, August 2013

Like any creative activity, photography is difficult at times. I struggled last week, but I try not to get discouraged – this happens to everyone. I keep trying and enjoy the effort. As Florida Nature Photographer John Moran says in his book Journal of Light:

“Nature photography isn’t always about the picture, it’s about the experience of just being there, chasing the light, alive and awake and aware.”

Infrared updates

January 12, 2014Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Jacksonville Area, Merritt Island NWR, Techniquebeach, BPWD, infrared, Little Talbot Island State Park, treeEd Rosack

These two posts on infrared photography seem to get a lot of hits:

Digital Infrared Photography – a post processing example (March 2012)
Infrared Photography Follow Up (April 2012)

Since they’re from a while back, I thought I’d update you on a couple of things.

Ebbing tide – The outgoing current cuts a temporary channel through the beach (Little Talbot Island State Park). IR, B&W.

I’d been using an Olympus E-PL1 camera, modified for IR by http://www.lifepixel.com/ and I’ve been pleased with the output. But it uses a first generation 12 MP, micro 4/3 sensor and requires care to minimize noise. I also have an Olympus E-PL5 with a 16MP current generation sensor. It has much better noise characteristics and additional resolution, so I decided to have it modified to upgrade my infrared capabilities.

I was very happy with the service from LifePixel, but this time, I chose Precision Camera to do the mod. They also did a fine job, were very prompt and even a few dollars cheaper.

One change I made was to select a 665 nm filter instead of 720 nm. What this does is pass a bit more of the visual spectrum along with the IR light. This gives you more flexibility in post processing. You can still process for the IR B&W look, but with the extra visible spectrum light, false color post processing is easier.

At rest – Driftwood on the beach (Little Talbot Island State Park). IR, false color.

When I process RAW files from the E-PL1, I can easily adjust white balance in Lightroom. With the 665 nm filter on the E-PL5, I couldn’t get to a neutral white balance until I created a custom camera calibration profile for it using Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor. ~~You can read more about this here~~ (link no longer available).

The Road Under the Red Cedar Tree (Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge). IR, B&W.

I made the photos in this post with the newer camera. There’s less noise, the 665nm filter is more flexible in post, and the extra pixels are nice to have. I like how it’s working so far!

You can see larger versions of these and other examples of my infrared photography in this set on Flickr.

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

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.