Tag Archives: black and white

Recent MINWR Photos

September 29, 2024Haulover Canal, Merritt Island NWRAlligator, baby, birds, black and white, Black Crowned Night Heron, boats, BPWD, landscape, manatee, sunrise, Wild Turkey, wildlifeEd Rosack

Note: Our part of Central Florida was spared major impacts from Hurricane Helene. Unfortunately, people in many other areas are suffering horribly with injuries, death, and property loss. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.

I’ve gotten behind keeping the blog up to date so today I’ll try to catch up some. These photos are all recent ones from trips to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on July 29th and Sept. 25th.

A fisherman with a view. Rotary Riverfront Park on US 1 south of the refuge entrance. July 29.

One of several Wild Turkeys hanging out near the turn in to Bairs Cove. July 29.

2 or 3 Manatees were making a big commotion in Haulover Canal by the Bairs Cove boat ramp. July 29.

Dawn at the marina – 1. The early morning sky was spectacular looking east from Marina Park. September 25.

Dawn at the marina – 2. The sky was interesting looking west too, but not as colorful – so I converted to B&W. September 25.

A young Black Crowned Night Heron near the rest area on Black Point Wildlife Drive. September 25.

Baby Gators. From the Visitor Center boardwalk. September 25.

The folks at the Visitor Center said there was a Momma Gator and babies in the pond. I walked out and down the boardwalk without spotting them. About to give up, I heard the babies calling. They make a sort of a chirp / gulp sound and I was able to follow their calls and find them. I hoped the babies would be on Mom’s back, but not that day. She was watching over her offspring from a few feet away.

Momma Gator. From the Visitor Center boardwalk. September 25.

Header image: I made that one along the back part of Black Point Wildlife Drive. I’ve always liked those large pine trees and the light that morning and the hazy sky background appealed to me. You can see a larger version on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/53972104178/in/dateposted/

Maybe the Dog Days of Summer aren’t the best time to make photos at MINWR. But photo ops are still there if you go look for them.

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

Road Trip!

July 28, 2024Miscellanious, Ohio, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, TennesseeAntiques, black and white, Chattanooga, corn field, GIG, guitar, hay field, landscape, Nashville, panorama, Sauder Heritage Inn, Sauder Historic VillageEd Rosack

We just returned from a trip to Nashville Tennessee, Archbold Ohio and back. We spent 15 days on the road and saw family, friends, and many sights. I thought I’d offer you some photos along with a few words about our journey.

Chattanooga

We stopped in Chattanooga, TN and Kevin M. met us for lunch. Afterward, he offered to show us around Lookout Mountain (https://www.nps.gov/places/point-parklookoutmountain.htm). Lynn and I had heard of it but never been there.

Garrity’s Alabama Battery – Pointe Park on Lookout Mountain overlooking Chattanooga, elevation 2,392 feet

(More info: https://www.nps.gov/places/garritysbattery.htm?utm_source=place&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=experience_more&utm_content=large)

New York Peace Memorial – on Lookout Mountain

(More info: https://www.nps.gov/places/point-park-tour-stop-7-new-york-peace-monument.htm)

Header image: another view of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain.

Kevin also gave me a “new old” camera! It’s a Nikon D90 that I originally owned from 2008 – 2010 before I passed it on to him. It was his main camera for a while, but he no longer needs it and asked if I wanted it back. Yes! It’s still working and I plan to try it out (again) on my next photo outing. Thanks Kevin for the tour and the camera!!

Nashville

We stayed with MK in Nashville over the 4th of July. There was a lot of good food and some sightseeing too. She found a close by park with a view of the downtown skyline:

Nashville Skyline – from Love Circle Park, elevation 744 feet.

And after dinner one evening they dropped me off for a few minutes so I could make a few photos downtown:

Downtown Nashville, Broadway, near the river

We’d heard about the Gallery of Iconic Guitars (GIG: https://www.thegigatbelmont.com) and visiting it was one of the highlights of the trip. We got there early and had the place to ourselves!

Gallery of Iconic Guitars. The GIG at Belmont University in Nashville has dozens of historic instruments on display from a total of about 500 in the collection.

1887 Martin D-28. One of the oldest instruments on display at the GIG.

Ohio

Next, we headed up to Archbold Ohio. Although I didn’t make any photos there, one highlight on the drive was a stop at Sweetwater Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s quite a place and if you have any interest in music, you should visit if you get a chance.

We were in Archbold for the 2024 Pressing Iron and Trivet Collectors of America (PITCA) convention. There was a lot of buying, selling, presentations, and visiting with friends and fellow collectors.

2024 PITCA Convention: All set up for the auction (photo by Lynn Rosack, used with permission)

The convention was held at the Sauder Heritage Inn (https://saudervillage.org/stay/sauder-heritage-inn) and we had a nice rural view right behind our hotel room.

By the corn field.

There were many, many corn fields and almost as many hay fields in the area.

Hay harvest. A field outside of Archbold, Ohio

We spent time one afternoon at the Sauder Historic Village: (https://saudervillage.org/explore/historic-village). It’s Ohio’s largest historic village and shows local life from 1803 to 1928.

Through the covered bridge

Wood shop 1

Wood shop 2

1920s Main Street 1

1920s Main Street 2

And back home…

We drove home from Ohio along I-75. It’s a scenic route, but there aren’t many places to pull over for a photo. This one spot a bit north east of Chattanooga was the only safe overlook that we found.

Overlooking Owl Hollow; Stitched panorama from 4 RAW format iPhone frames.

It was a very nice trip, although we spent way too many hours in the car. Family, friends, sightseeing, food, convention, and more. A great time!

You can click on these photos to see higher resolution versions on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos on your road trip!

Mt. Blue Sky, Colorado (update)

June 30, 2024Coloradoblack and white, landscape, Marmot, Mount Blue Sky, mount evans, Mountain Goat, Summit Lake, wildlifeEd Rosack

A very special place! The last time I was there was way back in 2013, when it was still called Mt. Evans. I only discovered the name change a few weeks ago. While researching that, I also discovered some changes in how the area is managed, so I thought I’d publish an update. Here’s some info for your browsing pleasure on this highest paved road in North America:

Wikipedia article with general information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Blue_Sky
USDA Forest Service Page for the Mount Blue Sky Recreation Area & Scenic Byway: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recarea/?recid=28508
Colorado Department of Transportation Mount Blue Sky page: https://www.codot.gov/travel/colorado-byways/north-central/mount-evans
US Department of Interior notice of the name change: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/board-geographic-names-completes-renaming-mount-evans

I went through my archives and processed / reprocessed several images so I’d have some you haven’t seen for this post. This first photo is near the summit. The color version’s here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/34467852916/

Road narrows (Nikon D80, July 2007)

The road’s a bit scary to drive and requires concentration, but I haven’t seen any news of automobiles accidents up there. There are a few guard rails in places, but not on most of the road. Going down was worse for me than going up. White knuckles and relief when we were finally done with the switchbacks.

Marmots are common on the mountain. This one was enjoying some sunshine on the side of the road.

Mount Blue Sky Marmot (Nikon D80, July 2007)

You can catch lovely reflections and flowers at Summit Lake:

Summit Lake reflection (Nikon D80, July 2007)

Mountain Goats are also common up there and they’re used to people, so you can get some pretty good photos of these sure footed wild animals.

Two young mountain goats (Nikon 7000, July 2011)

I you decide to visit, please check the official websites for the latest information before you go. Reservations are required now and there’s construction planned that will block part or all of the road through 2025.

It’s a wonderful place – I need to go back! You can click on these photos to see larger versions on Flickr and you can view some of my other Mount Blue Sky photos in this folder: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157627010365829/

On a side note: Lynn and I are just about done with our move. The new place is getting organized and I hope to get back out photographing some time soon.

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

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!

MINWR Again – 2/16/24

February 25, 2024Haulover Canal, Merritt Island NWRbirds, black and white, BPWD, flamingo, forster's Tern, landscape, Lesser Yellowlegs, Merlin, Painted Bunting, Spoonbill, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

I realize I’ve been posting a lot lately about Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, but I have a good excuse: there’s a lot of activity there right now. This post is just a bit more encouragement in case I haven’t already convinced you to check it out!

Kevin M. was in town and wanted to go there, so we went on the 16th after lunch. I usually go in the mornings and wasn’t sure how much we’d see in the afternoon, but it turned out we saw plenty. Most of these images are from that trip, but I’ve included a few from my February 2nd trip that haven’t been in the blog.

Hidden wonders in a beatuful place: It doesn’t look like it in this photo, but Black Point Wildlife Drive in MINWR is full of birds and wildlife – especially at this time of year. (2/2/24)

Flamingos are found in Florida, but usually only in the Everglades. In late August / early September of 2023, Hurricane Idalia displaced Flamingos from the Yucatan to all over the eastern US. These four are still hanging out off the west end of Haulover Canal in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They were about 1/2 mile from the kayak launch where we were standing – so it was a pretty tough shot with quite a bit of atmospheric distortion. I’m glad it turned out even this well. I might have gotten a better pic if we still had our kayaks.

If you click on the image, you’ll open a higher res version on Flickr. Then click again once or twice to zoom in to see the flamingos a little bertter.

For the record…

There were mostly Great and Snowy Egrets in this gathering, with some Spoonbills, Woodstorks, and a few Grackles mixed in. They weren’t going after the fish very hard so most of the fish were gone or the birds were full.

A great gathering

I wasn’t looking closely enough and didn’t notice this Great Egret until Kevin pointed out its bright green lores and breeding feathers (aigrettes). Thanks Kevin!

Fancy Feathers

Terns were busy fishing along the west side of Black Point. We watched them swooping, hovering, and diving for several minutes.

Forster’s Tern after fish

Kevin also found this Merlin near the Black Point exit. Zoom into the Flickr version and you’ll be able to see the dragonfly in the Merlin’s left talon.

Merlin with prey

A lady Painted Buntings was enjoying the seeds at the visitor center feeder. There was a male there too, but I wasn’t able to get a photo.

Lady Bunting

We spotted other birds: Kestrels, Hawks, Ospreys, Skimmers, Hooded Mergansers, and several species of duck. Keven also saw Florida Scrub Jays. A very good trip!

Here’s two final photos to close out.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Wading near the shore (2/2/24)

The header image is an early morning (2/2/24) iPhone photo near the entrance to Black Point Wildlife Drive. That was a good trip too!

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog . Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, check out a NWR close to you. And make some photos!

Nashville, TN

October 1, 2023OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Tennessee, Uncategorizedbirds, black and white, Blue Bird Cafe, blue hour, bridge, canada goose, John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, landscape, Love on a Leash, music, Narwhal, Nashville, panorama, people, Radnor Lake, reflection, wildlifeEd Rosack

We were able to spend some time with MK at her place last month. She’s a most excellent host and Nashville has a lot to see and do!

On our drive up, we stopped and had lunch with Kevin M. It was fun to catch up with him and hear about his recent expedition to Costa Rica. He saw 100+ life birds there! https://www.flickr.com/photos/44542650@N08/albums/72177720310091373. Unfortunately, we forgot to get a photo at lunch – but I did get some photos in Nashville.

All three of us have watched and enjoyed the Nashville series and it was fun when MK pointed out places around town that we’d seen on TV. The Blue Bird Cafe is featured prominently and she managed to get us tickets. The music was just as awesome in real life!

Blue Bird Cafe, Sept. 2nd 2023: In the round with Rob Harris, Jamie Rowe, Kim Parent, and Adam Wheeler

Nashville has some really great guitar stores. Both MK and Lynn were very understanding and let me indulge my guitar obsession. I’d been to Gruhn Guitars before, but the Gibson Garage was new for me. I’d never seen a guitar conveyor belt:

MK suggested a bit of exercise one morning so we walked around Radnor Lake Park.

Radnor Reflections 2

The header image is another view of the Lake. The full frame is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/53176547953/in/dateposted/

There were quite a few ducks and Canada Geese on the water. These swam in formation for me:

Canada Convoy

MK’s cat Narwhal is a certified therapy cat with Love on a Leash. He has a busy schedule and while we were there he volunteered at a Nashville area nursing home. He really seems to enjoy his work:

I’ve wanted to walk the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge across the Cumberland River, but hadn’t made it before this trip. MK and Lynn dropped me off in East Nashville and I walked across and met them on the other side. They report that there are plenty of rooftop bars to wait at. I found some photos while they were waiting:

Nashville’s John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge

The Gateway Bridge (also known as the ‘Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge’) is just south of the pedestrian bridge. I’m not sure if it’s alway lit up like this – it was pretty on that night:

Blue Hour on the Cumberland River

The view of the downtown waterfront is amazing:

Evening along the river

I think the buildings along the river look good in B&W. I like the Gateway Bridge reflection in the windows on the lower right:

Nashville Reflections

And finally, here’s what lower Broadway looks like as the country music starts to crank up in the Honky Tonks for the night:

Blue Hour on Broadway

Eating was also a highlight on the visit – both at some very nice restaurants and the meals that MK made at her place!

The only not so good part of our trip was testing positive with Covid when we got home. It was the first time either of us have had it but fortunately our vaccines were up to date and we got prescriptions for Paxlovid, so the symptoms weren’t too awful. They lasted for two solid weeks, but we’re better now thankfully.

You can see other photos I’ve collected from in and around Nashville in this folder on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157719274946967

Thanks for visiting my blog. Stay positive (and Covid negative!), be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, see some of Nashville!

The rest of the photos

September 3, 2023Merritt Island NWRabstract, birds, black and white, BPWD, Flowers, Great Blue Heron, landscape, panorama, reflection, Snake, wildlifeEd Rosack

I mentioned last time that there might be enough photos from my visit to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for another blog entry. Here they are.

I used a cropped version of this first one as the header image in the last post but didn’t show the full frame. Here’s a larger crop – as usual, you can click on it to see a high res version on Flickr. This one is from Space View Park in Titusville, looking east towards the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge from the west side of the Indian River.

<Early clouds above the refuge

I saw a wading bird in the distance as I entered Black Point Wildlife Drive. I thought it was a Great Blue Heron, but wasn’t sure. Who stops the car and gets out and walks to make a Great Blue Heron photo? Usually not me – I already have so many of them. They’re very common around here. But given it was the dog days of August, I wasn’t expecting to see much on that visit so I did get out and wander over. I’m glad I did. The bird cooperated and waded out so I could catch this moment in the circle of life. These birds truly are formidable hunters.

Heron 1, Snake 0

I also had my macro lens mounted and looked for subjects to use it on. I’ve driven by this tree each time on Black Point Wildlife Drive. The texture patterns in the bark are very interesting.

Juniper Tree Abstract

These blooming flowers were plentiful and this one was in nice light.

Firewheel (gaillardia pulchella ) close-up

I’m not able to tell you what this tiny plant was. It was only about an 1/8 of an inch long. It too was in good light and the dew drops on one side added interest.

Morning dew

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

Elkhart Lake and Road America

July 9, 2023Wisconsinauto race, black and white, Elkhart Lake, landscape, motorsports, Road AmericaEd

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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 Corvette

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

Dusk 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!

Photos with a new camera

March 12, 2023Cameras and Photography, Cocoa, Merritt Island NWR, Orlando Wetlands, Osceola County, St. Johns Riverbirds, black and white, Eastern Meadowlark, Flowers, landscape, panorama, Raccoon, reflection, Spoonbill, sunrise, wildlife, Willet, Wood StorkEd Rosack

I haven’t posted in a while, so it’s about time. And I have been making some photos lately. Here are a few that I like – all made since my last post.

Another quiet morning on the St. Johns river.

(February 17; Boat ramp on HW 50 at the St. Johns River; three frame panorama; merged in Photoshop.)

Warm light on a wading Willet.

(February 17, Gator Creek Road in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, single frame, cropped.)

A wary Raccoon.

(February 23; Orlando Wetlands Park, single frame, cropped.)

Forest flowers.

(February 24, Central Winds Park in Winter Springs; Focus Bracket in Camera, merged in Photoshop.)

Through the trees.

(March 4; Orlando Wetlands Park; single frame; cropped.)

Nesting Woodstork.

(March 4, Orlando Wetlands Park, single frame, Adobe enhanced resolution, cropped.)

Ruffled Feathers.

(Eastern Meadowlark; March 7; Joe Overstreet Road; single Frame; cropped.)

A river runs through it.

(March 10; Leroy Wright recreational area along SR 520 at the St. Johns river , Cocoa Fl; Sony Pixel Shift Multi Shoot (16 frames), merged in Sony Imaging Edge; Converted to B&W in Lightroom.)

I made all of these (and more!) while trying out and setting up my new camera.

In late October of last year, Sony announced the latest version of their high resolution model line: the A7R V. There’s a lot of info available on the web about it. I read a great deal of that over 3+ months before finally deciding to upgrade my faithful A7R III (which was announced way back in October of 2017). I packed up quite a bit of my existing camera gear and traded it in for the new one. If you’re interested, you can read a lot of the same info I researched on-line, so I’m not going to repeat any of that here. I’ll just summarize some things and give you my first impressions to go along with the images above.

6 years is a long time in the camera design universe. These are changes that I really like:

The native sensor resolution is slightly higher – nice for landscapes and very helpful for wildlife photos. The pixel shift multi shot capability now seems to work very well (it didn’t on the A7R III and I never used it). For static subjects where you want huge resolution files, I think it’s a better implementation than even the Olympus EM 1 MII version that I used a lot when I had that camera.
Focus capabilities are immensely improved. The human eye auto focus on the A7R III convinced me to buy that years ago. The A7R V AI auto focus is much better and will be wonderful for many subjects, not just people.
Image Stabilization on the A7R III was not a standout feature. On the A7R V it is.
The A7R V has a huge image buffer. You can shoot continuously at the highest frame rate for up to 1000 frames (using CF Express cards). Even using SD UHS-II cards (slower than CF Express) it will still shoot over 100 frames before the buffer fills.
Many RAW Image formats are now supported. You can choose compressed / uncompressed as well as medium or low resolution RAW files if you don’t need the full resolution.
Video is much improved (although I should study this and use it more often!).
The Electronic Viewfinder and the back LCD are both improved with higher resolution and frame rates. The LCD also tilts and swivels – very useful.

Other things have changed, but they’re minor (for me). In summary I like everything Sony did with this camera and I hope to use it for a long time to come. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them in the comments.

By the way, nesting activity at Orlando Wetlands is still in full swing. It’s a good opportunity to observe several species creating new life.

Click on any of these photos to see higher resolution versions on Flickr.

The header image: Great Egret Fly-by (higher res version here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/52719484820/in/dateposted-public/)

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

Merritt Island NWR – 11/4/22

November 6, 2022Merritt Island NWRAlligator, birds, black and white, boat, BPWD, flower, goldenrod, landscape, Reddish Egret, wildlifeEd Rosack

Jim Boland sent out his latest email newsletter last Thursday and it made me want to visit the refuge again. The last time I’d been was a while ago and before Hurricane Ian. I charged up my batteries and left early on Friday morning to explore.

There are still some road closures over there (see this link for the latest official status: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/merritt-island), but the good news is that Black Point Wildlife Drive and West Gator Creek Road – spots I usually visit – are open.

I arrived well before sunrise and stopped by the Titusville Municipal marina. The weather forecast had me expecting very few clouds and I had a longer lens mounted to try and frame some details on the boats. When I saw this low cloud drifting in, I didn’t think I’d have time to swap lenses, so I pulled out my phone. Current phone cameras are just amazing! (Click on this one to see a higher res version on Flickr.)

A cloud drifts by above the marina before dawn. iPhone wide camera, handheld, 24mm eq., f/1.8, 1/5 sec, ISO 8000. RAW capture, processed in Photoshop and Lightroom.

I saw the same things that Jim reported including Spoonbills, a Reddish Egret, Blue-winged Teal, and Black-crowned Night-herons. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out this Redish Egret is the exact same bird he saw. It was especially entertaining: busy showing off its fishing prowess and ignoring photographers interested in making photos.

Hunting Egret.

I enjoyed seeing all the Goldenrod in bloom. This one was in nice light:

Goldenrod in golden light.

And I couldn’t resist making a photo of this people watching gator. The header image is a crop from the center of the photo.

Craggy face critter.

Our other common birds were out and about. I spotted a few warblers too, although the only one I was able to ID was a Yellow-rumped Warbler. It was a great trip – thanks for motivating me Jim!

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

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.