Tag Archives: black and white

Viera Wetlands: 2/2/2014

February 8, 2014Cocoa, INSIDE FLORIDA, Viera Wetlandsbirds, black and white, boat, infrared, Kestrel, landscape, long exposure, reflection, river front park, Yellow-rumped WarblerEd Rosack

Kevin M. and I went to Viera Wetlands (Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands) last weekend.

On the way, we stopped by Riverfront Park in Cocoa for a sunrise photo. Unfortunately, the sun didn’t cooperate – we didn’t even see it until about a half hour after sunrise! But I thought the fog, boats, and lights were photogenic. The water was very calm – leading to great reflections and very little motion blur even though this is a 13 second exposure due to the dim light.

Foggy morning harbor, Cocoa, Florida, Infrared

After sunrise, we met up with Kevin’s brother Keith. He’s getting into birding and had never been to Viera, so he wanted to join us. When we arrived, we found the road closed to cars because of all the rain we’ve had. We almost always drive and the slower pace and closer view was enjoyable for a change. Walking helped us see many of the warblers hiding in the bushes. I was able to isolate this pretty “butter butt” against a nice non-distracting background:

Yellow-rumped Warbler

There were many warblers (mostly Palm Warblers) and Tree Swallows. And just so you know, I think Tree Swallows are one of the hardest birds to photograph. I hardly ever see them sitting still. And they’re so small and fast that photographing them in flight is a very low percentage shot – at least with my equipment. I’ll get a good photo of one someday.

Of course, we also saw many of the usual wading birds and the gators seemed more numerous than normal. I also got to meet one of my Flickr friends (New NewEnglander) who was visiting from up north.

We also drove through the Click Ponds and saw huge numbers of ducks (mostly Green and Blue Winged Teals) and shorebirds, and then headed down the dirt road toward Moccasin Island tract. I’ve been down there a few times before without seeing much. But this time was very interesting and proves that you need to visit someplace over and over to fully appreciate it. We saw what we think was a Merlin fly by, but weren’t quick enough to photograph it. We also spotted several American Kestrels – the first time I’ve seen them in the wild and a real highlight of the trip.

American Kestrel

We saw one of the Kestrels engaged with another similar sized bird, but were too far away to make out what going on. It looked like they were actually grappling with each other. Both birds flew away before we got close. Other birds on the road included Sand Hill Cranes and Eastern Phoebes.

A wonderful morning out in natural Florida. You can read much more about Viera Wetlands in this blog category and Cocoa posts are in this one. I have more Viera photos in this set on Flickr and more Cocoa photos in this set.

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

Blue Spring State Park

January 24, 2014Blue Spring State Park, Must do list, St. Johns Riverblack and white, infrared, landscape, manateeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

There’s been a lot of news here recently about all the Manatees at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida – so I decided to go over and look for myself.

Around 20 Manatees in this one photo – There were more than 200 there on the day I went and the count’s been over 330 on some recent days.

Louis Thursby bought Blue Spring in 1856 and ran a steamboat landing. The steamboats shipped people and goods up and down the St. Johns River and stopped at the landing until the 1880s. The area became pretty run down until the state purchased the land in the 1960s and established the park.

There’s lots to do: Plenty of picnic areas; Hiking and nature trails; Cabins and a campground for overnight stays; Canoes and kayaks to rent; And you can even take a River Boat tour right from the park. We’ve been several times in the past but I hadn’t visited in years. It brought back very fond memories of tubing down the run from the spring and of our kids shivering in the 72 degree water, but enjoying it so much they refused to get out. When I used to scuba dive (a very long time ago), I dove to the bottom of the spring. In retrospect, that was at least a little reckless – people have died in there.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

You can’t go in the water when the Manatees are there. But a lengthy boardwalk running from the St. Johns up to the spring provides many vantage points for photos. The Manatees are all along the run, but many congregate in the swimming area where you can get very close.

You must bring your Polarizer to cut the reflections so you can better see the manatees under the surface. Remember this will block a couple stops of light. And since the water is in shade in many places you may be a little starved for light. A camera / lens with vibration reduction / optical stabilization and good output at higher ISOs (~640) will come in handy.

Take a breath – A manatee surfaces at Blue Springs State Park

Tripod/Monopod: They’re allowed, but crowds could make tripods a problem. I left mine at home.

Lenses:

I used a 24 – 120 f/4 lens and was happy with it. I really didn’t want to switch lenses (and polarizers) so the focal length range on this came in handy. At times I wished for a little more reach but I could usually find another Manatee closer to me. I also wished for a wider aperture (f/2.8?), but the stabilization made this lens my best choice.

Best time to visit: Visit during a wintertime cold snap for the best chance of seeing Manatees. They can draw a crowd and the park is closed early to new arrivals if it fills up. Go on a weekday or get there very early on a weekend to make sure you get in. For other activities, you’ll have to work around their schedule – all water activities are prohibited when there’s a Manatee in the water. For swimming, tubing, snorkeling / diving, and kayaking in the spring run go when they aren’t there (March 15th – November 15th). Other: Manatees are the main attraction in the winter, but there are other animals there too. I’ve seen Alligators, wild pigs, and common Florida birds (e.g. Herons, Egrets, Anhingas, Limpkins, Wood Storks, Red Shouldered Hawks, and Vultures). Other folks have reported some not so common Florida Birds like Florida Scrub Jays and Barred Owls, – so keep your eyes open! And there’s a three-story home built built by the original owners that’s worth a visit.

The Louis P. Thursby House was built in 1872 at Blue Springs State Park

Summary

Manatees are on the endangered species list. Blue Spring provides a unique opportunity to see these large animals up close. If you’ve thought about going to Blue Spring, now’s the time. If you haven’t thought about going to Blue Spring, now’s the time! You can find out a lot about Manatees at the Save the Manatee Club website, including updated reports on conditions and counts at Blue Spring on this web page.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	Blue Spring on Flickr
Website:	http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/
Address / Phone:	2100 W. French Avenue Orange City, Florida 32763 (386) 775-3663
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A Central Florida Photo Ops Must Do!

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – December 19, 2013

December 21, 2013INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, black and white, BPWD, infrared, landscape, Pig, reflection, Savannah Sparrow, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

I spent last Thursday morning at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It’d been a while since I tried for a sunrise photo, so I went over early. There wasn’t a lot of color in the sky, but the scene was still pretty.

A calm morning on Gator Creek

After sunrise, I stopped by this decaying dock – there won’t be anything left of it soon. The strong side light from the early morning sun helped capture detail and texture in this black and white, infrared photo.

Weathered Wood

When I left this spot, I drove back around East Gator Creek Road. There was a huge flock of ducks in a V-wedge heading for the full moon that was setting in the west. I couldn’t get my camera ready in time to capture the sight, so I just watched. It would have made a wonderful photo.

There were many birds on East Gator Creek and on Black Point Wildlife Drive although the numbers weren’t as great as some other times I’ve been there. Most of the regular birds were around including various Herons and Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, Wood Storks, Ospreys, Cormorants, Anhingas, Gulls, Terns, Brown Pelicans, White Ibis, Vultures, a Bald Eagle, Sandpipers, Roseate Spoonbills, Grebes, and a few others. I also saw some winter migrants including White Pelicans, Northern Pintails, Savannah Sparrows, and what I think was a Northern Flickr. For some reason, most of the birds were in the distance – too far away for good photos. This sparrow though was very close.

Savannah Sparrow

I also came across several wild boars, including this one.

Making a pig of itself — A wild boar stops foraging for a moment to give me the evil eye this morning on Black Point Wildlife Drive.

I’m even more distrustful of these animals than alligators. Wild boars can be aggressive and threatening. I was returning to my car once and found a mother with several piglets scouring the ground for food near my path. I went out of my way to go around them and tried to keep as much distance between us as I could. Even so, the mother watched me closely and grunted at me as I got to my car. The one in the photo above was on the other side of a ditch full of water and I was close enough to my car this time to jump in if it came toward me. But I still didn’t like the way it watched me.

Another interesting day with lots to see. You can click on the photos above to view a larger version and you can look at this set on Flickr to see these and many other photos from Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

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

My Favorite Photos from 2013

December 15, 2013VARIOUSblack and white, boat, church, eclipse, Everglades, howard park, infrared, landscape, mountain, orangutan, Otter, people, sunrise, Tarpon Springs, tigerEd Rosack

Happy Holidays! I hope that all of you, your families, and your friends have a joyful and happy holiday season!

The end of the year is a good time to review results and contemplate how to improve any endeavor, and photography is no exception. I’ve put together these “Favorite photos of the year” posts since 2009. This is a hard process for any photographer. For me, it’s difficult to separate my opinion about a photograph from emotional connections that I might have with the subject, scene, or situation. But making this effort is important and part of the learning process. I don’t claim to be objective – these are simply the photos that I like best. Feel free to disagree, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the ones I’ve picked.

You can click on each of these to go to Flickr and see a larger version. Or you can click on this link to view the complete set on Flickr.

My number 1 favorite photo of 2013:

A dream is gone, in the harbor, at dawn; Cocoa, Florida; October.

I have a thing for sunken boats and when I briefly glimpsed this one while out with a group, I had to go back later and make a photo. See this post for more info.

My number 2 favorite photo of 2013:

Cloud Gate (AKA “the bean”); Chicago’s Millennium Park; Chicago, Illinois; September.

I made many photos that I like during my first visit to Chicago last September. This one is my favorite from that trip. See this post for more info.

My number 3 favorite photo of 2013:

Partial eclipse of the sun; Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida; November.

I almost didn’t get to make this photo since I was late finding out about the eclipse. It’s a bit different from most sunrise photos I make because I used a long telephoto lens to emphasize the sun instead of a wide-angle lens. The three people watching with me from the end of the pier were a bonus. See this post for more info.

My number 4 favorite photo of 2013:

You otter not interrupt me; Viera Wetlands, Florida; November.

This river otter was having a morning dust bath on the dirt road through Viera Wetlands. It stopped and watched me for a bit when I got out of my car to make this photo, but then ignored me and finished before sliding back into the water.

My number 5 favorite photo of 2013:

Storm clouds over the Everglades; Everglades National Park, Florida; April.

We had a wonderful expedition to the Keys, Everglades, and Dry Tortugas in April. This photo of a pine tree and grass reflecting from the inches deep water in the Everglades “river of grass” is my favorite landscape from that trip. See this post for more info.

My number 6 favorite photo of 2013:

Reading; St. Augustine, Florida; August.

St. Augustine is full of photo ops. I really liked the symmetry of the columns in this scene and how they led my eye towards the man reading on the bench. See this post for more info.

My number 7 favorite photo of 2013:

Sea oats; Howard Park, Tarpon Springs, Florida; August

I noticed this scene while wandering around not expecting to find anything to photograph. Another lesson in “keep your eyes open”.

My number 8 favorite photo of 2013:

Resting behind mom; Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, Florida; March.

We spent time in “Primate World” watching the family of Orangutans. The young one (I think this is RanDee, born in August 2008) was full of energy, swinging all around on the platforms and ropes. The adults watched her with very human-like ”where does she get the energy” looks. Finally, RanDee rested for a bit behind her mom (DeeDee) and I was able to make this photo. See this post for more info.

My number 9 favorite photo of 2013:

The Chapel on the Rock (Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel); Allenspark, Colorado; July.

This is south along Route 7 out of Estes Park on the grounds of the Saint Malo Retreat. We had no idea it was there, but when we drove by and saw the scene, I had to stop and photograph it. It’s a multi-photo, hand-held panorama processed in Photoshop and Lightroom. See this post for more info.

My number 10 favorite photo of 2013:

Not sleeping; Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary, Tampa, Florida; August.

To me, this photo symbolizes what we learned about the plight of captive large cats and primates while visiting two rescue organizations near Tampa. See this post for more info.

If you’d like to see my favorite photos from earlier years, click on these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

I hope you’ve had a great photo 2013 too. If you send me a link or leave one in the comments, I’ll be sure to take a look at your favorites. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some more favorites of your own!
©2011 – 2013, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park

November 24, 2013Bulow Plantation, INSIDE FLORIDAblack and white, buildings, infraredEd Rosack

Tom M. and I went over to Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park in Flagler Beach, Florida. The buildings there were built out of the local coquina rock starting in 1821. It was thriving in 1831 when John James Audubon visited. It’s been abandoned since the Second Seminole War and was burned by Seminole Indians in 1836. The walls and chimneys of the sugar mill on the site remain standing today and are listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Bulow Plantation Ruins

The park has a hiking trail, a boat ramp, screened picnic pavilion, and a park interpretive center with original artifacts and exhibits. The boat ramp is on Bulow Creek, which is a designated Florida State Canoe Trail. It’s open 9 – 5, Thursday through Monday, and there’s a $4 / car entry fee.

Bulow Plantation Ruins (665nm Infrared, toned B&W)

We didn’t expect such bad weather – it was quite different on the coast. The rain and clouds made the light rather poor. I think we’ll need to go back for better photos.

The view down the dirt road leading out of Bulow Creek Plantation (665nm false color Infrared)

This is a fascinating place where you can look back into Florida history. It’s well worth a visit.

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

Panoramic alternatives – iPhones and more

November 17, 2013California, Chicago, INSIDE FLORIDA, Italy, St. Johns River, Techniqueblack and white, bridge, Colosseum, landscape, panorama, reviewsEd Rosack

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I like panoramic photos. We’ve all been to many places where the view is so grand it doesn’t fit into a single frame. Sometimes you can’t capture what your eyes see with one camera exposure. So I started stitching panoramas together. My first few were way back in the film era (1999 or 2000). When I started using digital cameras, panoramas became easier and I’ve made many more since then. They help me avoid “tunnel vision” and show more of a scene. They’re also an excellent way to capture an image with a huge number of pixels – which allows for very large prints.

I often include panos in this blog. When I checked today, there are 33 different posts (over 10%) that are tagged “panorama”, including my very first one from May of 2007. For some panorama examples, look at this set of over 100 images on Flickr.

May 2007: View of San Francisco from Twin Peaks (6389 x 3110 pixels)

I’ve learned quite a bit about how to make panos, and in August of this year, I shared info on how I usually process them. That was a description of the detailed workflow I use to make the best quality image I can. It can be time consuming and requires care in capture as well as post processing. But if you put in the effort, the results are very good – and the files are much bigger than from a single frame. Here’s a recent example:

September 2013: Chicago skyline at twilight (11,175 x 4706 pixels)

But it turns out that my way isn’t the only way to make panos. There’s a much easier way to make them – here’s an example:

October 2013: Underneath the bridge over the St. John’s River by the old bridge and railroad trestle (7908 x 2692 pixels)

I made this pano with my phone. It’s not as large (2692 pixels on the short side compared to 4706), but you probably couldn’t tell much of a difference in quality unless you pixel peep. Using my phone is easier and if something is easier, people will do more of it – and more panos means better memories.

iPhones have had a built-in panorama mode for a while, and the latest versions bring a lot of processing power into it. The iPhone 5S does automagic adjustment of exposure across the frame, and stitches the results together in real-time as you sweep your phone. The results are fairly large files, and the quality is surprisingly good.

Here’s one more recent iPhone panorama example and proof of the saying that the best camera is the one you have with you:

November 2013: Interior panorama of the Roman Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) – Photo by MK Rosack (used with permission)

Lets compare making panoramas on a phone with a multi-photo approach. I’ll use the iPhone 5S for this – your phone may be different.

	iPhone 5S	Multi-Photo
Capture convenience	Very high – you always have it with you	Low – You need to plan for it and carry your gear
Quickness	High – End result available very quickly. And can post right from the phone.	Low – Need to get home and run your software
Processing flexibility	Low – Done by the camera; Can adjust jpg result	High – Adjustments can be made throughout each processing step
Processing difficulty	Low – Done by the camera; Some amount of touch up may be needed	May be High, depending on software and source images
Raw capture	No – jpg only	Yes
Output size	Medium – Short dimension a max of 2448 pixels	High – DSLRs typically higher resolution than iPhone and you can make multiple rows if desired

So, should you use your phone for panoramas? Yes!

Should you always use your phone for panoramas? Not quite yet.

Phones are getting better all the time. And they’re getting better faster than cameras are getting better. Sooner or later, most people won’t want or need a dedicated camera. Right now I think phones are “good enough” in many cases, especially if you think about the trade-off between output quality and ease of use. For panoramas, the ease of use and convenience allows many people to make photos they otherwise wouldn’t. In my case, if I don’t have any other camera with me, I’m sure going to use my phone. But if I want the best quality image possible, I’ll still use my stand alone cameras when possible. Check again in a few years – the answers may be different.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some panoramas! And don’t forget your phone!

Chicago, Ill. Sept. 2013

November 2, 2013Chicago, OUTSIDE FLORIDAarchitecture, black and white, buildings, city, people, river, sculpture, sunsetEd Rosack

I’ve always wanted to see Chicago. It’s my birthplace – but we moved away shortly after I was born. For some reason, I never made it back until this year. I spent a few days exploring at the end of September. My daughter had a business trip there and some spare frequent flyer points, so she gave me a ticket. Thanks, MK!!!

Chicago and Lake Michigan from the air – my first photo of the trip. It was wonderfully clear as we approached the city. You can really see how large Lake Michigan is.

Mary was busy, so I booked a hotel downtown and spent the first afternoon and evening wandering around by the lake shore. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bit of a problem. I wasn’t used to all that walking and ended up with sore feet and blisters. Which didn’t help me to walk around on the following days – but I still managed to get a few photos.

I did some research online and asked a few questions about places to photograph. One of my Flickr contacts (Brian Koprowski) lives in the area and gave me several good hints. Thanks to him, I ended up at the Adler Planetarium on the first evening. The sunset wasn’t that exciting, but I thought the city across the water at twilight was pretty.

City at twilight

I also liked this fisheye view of the Field Museum that I made on my way back to the hotel. It reminded me of the movie “Night at the Museum“, although that wasn’t filmed here.

Night at the museum – Field Museum

The next day I again walked the city (and made my feet worse). My first stop was the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), where there’s a view from the glass balcony observation deck on the 103rd floor. A wonderful place for a fisheye lens!

From the top of Chicago – Another fisheye view. This one is from the Willis Tower observation deck, 1353 feet above the city

There’s a lot to see around the city including a great deal of sculpture and artwork. And glass on the buildings creates many compositional opportunities. In this image, I waited for the photographer on the near right to get into place so I could finish my photo – I had hoped she’d move a bit more to the left, but oh well.

Flamingo – This artwork by Alexander Calder is in the Federal Plaza

Here’s another rather strange piece of street art. I couldn’t resist adding a little “digital makeup” in Photoshop.

Planter head

Later that evening I ended up in Millennium Park where the Cloud Gate sculpture is located. I liked the scene – with all the people contrasting with the buildings and sculpture.

Cloud Gate (AKA “the bean”)

My son Mike drove down to meet us and we spent the next morning riding the “L” train, bicycling along the lake shore, and visiting Portillo’s Delli for a Chicago Dog. When Mary joined us that afternoon we took a boat tour on the Chicago River and ate some very good Chicago deep dish pizza for dinner. The final morning before our flight back to Orlando we toured the Museum of Science and Technology and drove by Mercy Hospital where I was born. I was only a little disappointed that there was no “Welcome Back Ed!” banner above the hospital entrance.

I enjoyed my short visit and definitely felt a kinship with this wonderful city. I want to go back again and see more. It’s so diverse that no trip as short as this could possible do it justice.

You can see larger versions of these photos and some others from our Chicago trip in this set on Flickr.

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

Review and Reprocess

September 7, 2013Blue Cypress Lake, Cocoa, INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustine, Techniqueblack and white, church, Cypress, false color, infrared, lightroom, reflection, Reprocessing, sunriseEd Rosack

Sometimes after a photo shoot, I’ll skip over images if I’m short on time or something looks too hard to deal with. Other times, I may play with a photo for a while and then set it aside when I just can’t seem to get it right. When I learn a new technique or get a new software package or upgrade I try to go through my image library and pick out existing photos that could benefit from the new capability. And yes, I also notice images that no longer look as good to me as they did at first. Something I did a few years ago may have seemed great then – but tastes change.

I use Lightroom to catalog my photos and I have a keyword called “Process” with three sub-keywords “Color”, “pano”, and “other”. Using these, I mark photos I want to revisit and I’ve built up a collection of them for future processing. I had a little time this week to go through and pick three to work on:

Kelly Park Reflections: Merritt Island, Florida, February 19, 2013. The water was amazingly calm that morning and I like the reflections as well as the detail / lights on the horizon. I bypassed this image at first because of trouble with the white balance. This time through the result is much closer to the look I wanted.

The Main Sanctuary of the Cathedral Basilica, Saint Augustine, Florida, February 28, 2013. Black and white infrared. I don’t remember why I didn’t finish this photo back in February. I like the light, detail, and tonality.

Three more cypress trees: Blue Cypress Lake, near Fellsmere, Florida, June 2, 2012. False color infrared. Since IR doesn’t capture color as your eye sees it, color conversions are very subjective. As I gain experience, my tastes are changing. This version is very different from how I processed other IR photos at the time.

So, some recommendations:

If you’re struggling with an image, don’t delete it. Mark it and move on. Come back and revisit it later.
Organize, document, and keyword your images so you can find hidden gems to re-process.
Review your photo library occasionally. Your photography skills and tools aren’t static. So your portfolio shouldn’t be static either. Revise older images and make them better. You might be surprised what comes out of your archives.

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

Colorado: New vs. Familiar

July 20, 2013Colorado, Must do list, OUTSIDE FLORIDAbirds, black and white, Bristlecone Pine, Hummingbird, infrared, landscape, Mount Blue Sky, mount evans, mountain, panorama, reflection, treeEd Rosack

I was in Colorado last week and had a chance to go sightseeing in the mountains near Denver. Whenever I visit, I find it to be so scenic and photogenic that it overwhelms me. It’s different from what I normally see at home here in Florida and I want to make photos of everything.

Valley of sunbeams and shadows – Don’t miss Mount Evans if you ever get to Denver in the summer time. This is a four image panorama from near the summit, about 13,500 feet.

I find when I get back from a trip like this and go through my images, most don’t have the impact that I felt at the time. My “keeper” rate seems lower than from local trips. Maybe this is because I’ve photographed in Florida so much that I don’t see as many new things when I go out – so I make fewer photos. Luckily, I did end up with some that I really like from Colorado.

The Chapel on the Rock (Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel) – This is in Allenspark, Colorado, south along Route 7 out of Estes Park on the grounds of the Saint Malo Retreat. We didn’t know this was on our route. It’s wonderful to discover something unexpected like this while on a drive. Another 4 image pano.

I guess we humans are hardwired to find new and unfamiliar things more interesting. And familiarity can breed complacency. Do people in Colorado get used to the mountains and sleep in some days instead of getting up and out to see and photograph them? Like we sleep in here instead of getting up to go out into a world-class wildlife refuge like Merritt Island?

Bristlecone pine trees – Some of the trees in the Mount Goliath Natural Area are over 1,600 years old. I used my IR modified Olympus E-PL1 for this photo. Yes, it’s one more 4 image pano.

Wildlife is different out there too. Some non-Florida species I saw included six new life birds (Steller’s Jay, Gray Jay, Common Raven, Black-billed Magpie, Dark-eyed Junco, and a Broad-tailed Hummingbird) as well as plenty of Mountain Goats, Marmots and Chipmunks.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird – Behind my Sister’s house in Littleton, Colorado. These birds look very similar to the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we have in Florida, but the Broad-tailed doesn’t have a black chin. No, this is not a pano.

I wonder if Florida’s unique landscapes and wildlife are as interesting to people visiting here as Colorado’s are to me when I’m out there?

Here are two earlier posts about Mount Evans: Mt. Evans and Mt. Evans Redux. You can view other Mount Evans photos here on Flickr. And this set on Flickr has more Denver area photos.

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

Return to Shingle Creek

July 13, 2013Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Kayaking, Kissimmee, Shingle Creek, Techniqueblack and white, Cypress, kayak, landscape, reflection, treeEd Rosack

Mary and I took our kayaks to Shingle Creek last week. I wanted to post a few photos to show you again how pretty this area can be.

Winds are usually calm early in the morning – leading to scenes like this.

It was a calm morning, but the current was strong – probably because of all the rain we’ve had recently. Shingle Creek gets narrow in spots. If you go kayaking, watch for it and turn around before I did so it doesn’t knock you up against the cypress tree knees!

The reflections weren’t as pristine after Mary paddled through them – but the sunbeams made up for it.

I’m still building my kayaking skills and I’m not yet confident enough to take non-waterproof gear out with me. I made the top two photos using a GoPro camera mounted on the bow of the kayak. I set it to make a shot every few seconds and compose by positioning / pointing the kayak and selecting from the results. It’s a bit hit or miss, but I usually manage to get some I like.

The GoPro is super small, comes with a waterproof case and has a fixed, very wide-angle lens. I like all its built-in capability but it does have a couple of limitations. There’s no viewfinder, although there’s a model with wi-fi and an iPhone app that lets you control it and see the output. I don’t use my iPhone on the kayak, since I don’t want to drop it in the water either. Also, like most small sensor cameras, the dynamic range is limited (compared to larger sensors and shooting in RAW format) – so highlights have a tendency to overexpose. But if you work within its capabilities you can capture great images. You can also try the old Black and White trick to hide any blown highlights.

Shingle Creek is wonderfully scenic. There’s not as much wildlife as we see at other sites, but there are plenty of birds, turtles, fish, and I’ve heard reports of alligators and otters. If you want to see more, there are other Shingle Creek photos in this set, and kayaking photos in this set on Flickr,

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