Tag Archives: Fern

Blue Skies

INSIDE FLORIDA, Uncategorized, , , ,

I complained a bit about our weather last week, and I do think we’ve been getting more than our normal share of clouds and rain. It doesn’t seem right though to grumble about a few gloomy days here in Central Florida when conditions in some other parts of the country and world are bad or worse.

Anyway, it isn’t quite “Nothing but blue skies do I see” around here, but we have had some very nice days recently. This week I’ll just show you a few photos of “Blue skies smiling at me” to prove it.

Blue Skies 1Ferns

Blue Skies 7Potted Plant

Blue Skies 6Palms

Trumpet Trees (Tabebuia) are plain most of the year. In the spring, they burst with blooms for a couple of weeks. The trees in the next two photos are already blending back into the landscape.

Blue Skies 3Pink Trumpet Tree

Blue Skies 2Yellow Trumpet Tree

Blue Skies 4Spanish Moss

Blue Skies 5Ball Moss and Ferns

Here’s one last image. It’s not “Blue birds singing a song” but I feel like this blackbird was enjoying the blue skies as much as I was.

Blue Skies 8Red-winged Blackbird

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my blog. Your visits, comments, and likes are always very welcome and a big motivator for me. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, enjoy some blue skies photography.

©2022, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

One Year Later

INSIDE FLORIDA, Miscellanious, , , , , , ,

Last March at the beginning of the pandemic, I wrote a post called “In the Neighborhood“. It was just a few photos I made as Lynn and I walked cautiously around near home while we tried to figure out the whole lockdown thing.

I don’t really have any profound thoughts I want to share about what we’ve been through since then. I’ll just say I’m extremely grateful we have smart scientists that created safe and effective vaccines in so short a time, and that they’re becoming available to more of us each day. Things seem to be veering back toward normal now.

Anyway, I thought this week I’d follow up with more neighborhood wandering, and post photos of things I noticed on the way. I’ll try to include tips and hints that you can use in your photograpy. This first image looks like an infrared photo, but it’s not. The bright white leaves are from the low morning sun lighting the tops of the trees.

All to myself All to myself

We have several varieties of flowering trees here in Central Florida. They only bloom for a short while in the spring so don’t wait too long if you want to photograph them. These lovely blooms are on what I think are Hong Kong Orchid trees, I find it hard to show the beauty with an image of the whole tree, so I moved in close. I like this frame with a single flower isolated against the sky.

Flower and sky Flower and sky

Slow shutter speeds are commonly used for images of moving water. But forcing your shutter as fast as possible is also worth trying. The details it can reveal make the water look like ice.

Splash Frozen Splash

The early morning sun helps in this photo too. Its warm color on the Spanish Moss is a subtle contrast with the sky.

Branches and moss Branches and moss

Okay, a little fun here. I might have made a few small creative enhancements in Lightroom to bring out the hidden scarecrow face.

Knot Knot a Scarecrow

New growth leaves are sometimes called fiddlehead ferns since they resemble the scroll on a fiddle. They’re hard to spot as you walk by.

Fern Fern

More tiny, close wildflower blooms.

Blossom Blossom

The woods are very thick around this pool. It’s only a few feet from the sidewalk and looks like it’s been there for many years. I need to be more observant – I only just noticed it even though I’ve passed by it for years. It’s a three frame vertical stitched panorama.

Forest Pool Forest Pool

I crouched down and used the camera’s tilting LCD to frame these cypress knees against the lake in the background. This is a 7 frame focus stack. If you haven’t tried focus stacking, a web search will return lots of info.

Cypress Knees Cypress Knees

This last one is also a focus stacked image of some blooms along a trail in Central Winds Park. (Edit: They’re Carolina Yellow-eyed Grass – thanks Dorothy C.)

Wildflowers Wildflowers.

So that’s some of what I saw on photo walks over the last week or so. I hope you enjoyed looking at them and I hope they give you some ideas to try. Thanks again for coming back and and reading my blog. Take care of yourselves and each other. And when you can – make some photos around your neighborhood!

Header image: Down low and close to Howell Creek in Winter Springs.

©2021, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Happy Valentine’s Day

Miscellanious, , ,

Years ago, Lynn brought a few ferns back from her mother’s home over in Bartow, Florida and transplanted them into our back garden. Since then, they’ve thrived, and a few usually even grow on our brick fence. We noticed last weekend that they’d arranged themselves into a very nice message appropriate for today’s holiday.

Happy Valentine's Day Ferns in a Valentine’s Day arrangement on our backyard fence.

I’m a bit unsure if they didn’t get the “E” done in time, or if maybe they were going for the colloquial “LUV”. Anyway, this isn’t photoshopped and unless there’s a stealth gardener we didn’t notice sneaking into our back yard, these ferns grew this way naturally. The odds of something like this happening spontaneously have to be vanishingly small. Maybe it’s more likely nature is trying to send us a message?

Peace and ‘Lov’ to all of you gentle readers. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Take care of yourselves and each other. And today, cherish your valentine!

©2021, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Black Bear Wilderness Area

Black Bear Wilderness Area, INSIDE FLORIDA, Sanford, , , , ,

I’ve seen interesting photos recently that some of my local Flickr friends made in the Black Bear Wilderness Area. So last Wednesday, I drove over to Sanford, Florida and took a hike to explore part of it.  Here are a few photos I made.

Black Bear Wilderness Area 3A fern near the start of the trail – these were everywhere and very green.

BBWA is a 7.1 mile nature trail through a 1,650 acre preserve along historic levees through the St. Johns River floodplain.  I thought the entire route would be a bit much for me, so I only hiked about 4 miles total, out and then back – starting counter-clockwise to reach the river.   I used my IR camera on the way out, and my ‘normal’ camera coming back.

Black Bear Wilderness Area 1Along the St. Johns River, near boardwalk 3.  IR monochrome

There are signs posted warning you to be prepared.  The route runs through remote areas with some challenging terrain (slopes, tree roots, fallen trees, etc).  I didn’t think the part I explored was that rough, but be careful if you go – carry water, bug spray, etc.  And check the weather – a rain storm while you’re out there could make the trail very slippery.

Black Bear Wilderness Area 2From a bridge overlooking a canal around mile mark 1

Bald Cypress trees and swamps around them are some of my favorite subjects. You’ll find them in large numbers at BBWA.

Black Bear Wilderness Area 4: Many kneesAmong the knees –  near mile marker 1.5. IR monochrome

Black Bear Wilderness Area %: Inside the cypress SwampInside the cypress Swamp – Near mile marker 0.5

In addition to these landscapes, I also saw a gator or two, and quite a few birds including herons, egrets, limpkins, osprey, and some unidentified smaller birds back in the bushes.  And no, I didn’t spot any black bears.  Shucks.

There were about 15 other people on the trail that morning, which seems like a lot to me for the middle of the week.  I guess the word is getting out about beautiful views along this amazing trail through wild Florida.  I wish I’d heard about it sooner!

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

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved