Tag Archives: Flowers

Seen in St. Augustine

St. Augustine, , , , , , ,

Lynn and I spent a couple of days in St. Augustine, Florida last week.  It’s been two years since I last wrote about it (in this post), but it’s still a photo rich environment.  Here’s a sample of the images I made there this time.

Columbia Restaurant interiorColumbia Restaurant interior.  We usually stop by this place for the food, but the inside is lovely too!

Memorial Presbyterian Church DomeMemorial Presbyterian Church Dome.  We rode the Old Town Trolley around again and got off at this stop to see this beautiful church.  Henry Flagler built it in the 1890s as a memorial to his wife.

Santa Maria Restaurant>Santa Maria Restaurant Ruins. Our trolley guide told us it has too much hurricane damage to repair. It’s going to be demolished soon and replaced with a new restaurant

Flower BoxFlower Box.  I like to watch for interesting doors and windows when I walk through town.  This is one example.

Golden mooring morningGolden mooring morning.  Lynn used some points to help us splurge on a waterfront room.  I made this from our balcony.

RefreshmentsRefreshments – Make the photo, then drink the subject. It’s important to get the sequence correct!

What a photogenic place!  They’ve done a wonderful job recovering from Hurricane Irma.  It’s hard to see any remaining damage other than the Santa Maria Restaurant.  You can browse all my St. Augustine blog posts at this link.  And you can view my other St. Augustine images in this album on Flickr.

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

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Tosahatchee and Viera

INSIDE FLORIDA, Tosohatchee WMA, Viera Wetlands, , , , ,

While I was sitting around watching the morning news yesterday, I decided I wanted to go check on the Sandhill Crane nests at Viera Wetlands and see whether any chicks have hatched.

It was long after sunrise when I left, but I went in search of landscape photos on the way at Tosahatchee Wildlife Management Area.

Tosahatchee wetlandsTosahatchee wetlands – we’ve had a bit of rain recently

Wild Iris plants are blooming along the roadside there and I stopped to photograph one.  As I was framing my image, a Swallowtail Butterfly swooped in and paused for about a second.  I was startled, but had time for a single shutter press before it moved on.  Thank you, Mother Nature for completing my composition!

Wild Iris and SwallowtailWild Iris (Blue Flag, Iris Virginia) and Palamedes Swallowtail

There were a lot of folks at Viera when I arrived around noon. I found one of the Sandhill Crane nests from last week’s post.  I didn’t see any chicks, but all looked well.  Both adults were there and standing at first so I could see one of the eggs.

I also went by the Great Blue Heron nest from last week’s post.  There was one adult at that nest. Looking very closely at the images on my computer at home, I can make out a newly hatched chick.

Great Blue Heron and chick, Viera Wetlands (click for a larger view)

Spring has sprung. At least in Central Florida.

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

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Enhanced details?

Lake Jesup, Technique, VARIOUS, , ,

Have you heard about Adobe’s recent update to Lightroom?  It has a new feature called “Enhance Details”.  Adobe says it:

“approaches demosaicing in a new way to better resolve fine details and fix issues like false colors and zippering. Enhance Details uses machine learning—an extensively trained convolutional neural network (CNN)—to provide state-of-the-art quality for the images that really matter.”

You can read an explanation of what they’ve done at this link:  https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/enhance.html.  It sounds like a another fascinating advance in computational photography.  It’s also a great example of why you should shoot in Raw mode and save your original files – so you can take advantage of future software updates.  Of course I had to try this out!

Flower & bugWildflower and bug – processed in Lightroom with Enhanced Details (click for a larger view)

I chose this flower growing in Central Winds Park, near Lake Jesup as my subject.  By the way, this is the same spot and subject as this 2015 blog post.  There’s a lot of detail in the flower and insect and I was curious about how it would look using the new processing.

I ran Enhance Details on the Raw file.  At first, I couldn’t really see any improvement.  So I opened the original and enhanced images in layers in Photoshop.  I set the layer mode to Difference and then used a levels adjustment to highlight changes.

Difference map showing pixels changed by the Enhance Details algorithm

Using this method at 300% magnification to guide me to where the changes were, I could then see them clearly.  The enhanced image was indeed more detailed than the original.  But (for this example anyway) they’re extremely subtle!  Too subtle to show up in a blog resolution image without a difference map.

I did a little more research on-line and found this blog post:  https://elialocardi.com/adobe-lightroom-camera-raw-enhance-details-review/.  It’s got several samples where the differences are more obvious.  Well worth a read.

Here are my thoughts:

  • Adobe claims a 30% increase in image quality.  I’m not sure how they derived this number, but from the examples I’ve seen the results are much more subtle than that.
  • It works better on some subject than others, e.g. night photos of cities with lights, or images with artifacts.  Improvements are much harder to see on other subjects such as my flower.
  • I didn’t see (and haven’t heard of) anyplace where it made an image worse.
  • You pay a penalty in workflow, time, and disk storage when using this.  It shouldn’t be your default processing.
  • Consider it for portfolio images, or photos that you’re printing in a large format. Don’t bother with it for images shared to the web or ones that you’re printing small.  Keep your Raw files and you can always go back later and run them through.
  • If you use Fuji cameras, try it on their X-Trans Raw files.
  • We’ll hear more soon as the photo community explores this and we see results.
  • In the future this or something like it will probably become the default demosaicing approach.  Adobe should be commended and I hope they keep developing it

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

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

In a Garden

INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUS, ,

Lynn added some Birds of Paradise plants to our front and back gardens a few years ago.  They’ve done well – we often have multiple flowers open at the same time.

I featured a portion of one blossom in this post from the summer of 2017.  It turns out that they bloom in the winter too!  Here are some more photos, this time  of the whole flower.

Bird of ParadiseBird of Paradise – side view, on black

The Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) is also known at the Crane Flower because it resembles the head and beak of a colorful exotic bird.

Bird of ParadiseBird of Paradise – from above

They’re indigenous to South Africa and enjoy full sun and warm temperatures like we have here in Central Florida.

Bird of ParadiseBird of Paradise – side view, on white

In their natural habitat, they’re pollinated by Sunbirds, not insects.  The weight of the bird standing on the flower releases pollen onto the bird’s chest or feet, which is deposited on the next flower it visits.

They make lovely additions to our Florida garden, and lovely photography subjects too.  I made these images in the early morning before the light got harsh.  Lynn held black or white material behind them for me.  I like the one on black the best.  How about you?

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

©2019, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Sunflowers this year?

Lake Jesup Sunflowers, ,

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

― Yogi Berra

Sunflower SunsetSunflower Sunset – Reprocessed image from a trip in 2012

I’m a long time fan of the sunflowers that usually cover the Lake Jesup Wilderness Area near Sanford, Florida in the fall.  They normally start blooming at the end of September and last for a couple of weeks.  You can review my posts about them at this link:  https://edrosack.com/category/sunflowers/.

Lynn and I drove past the area yesterday.  There’s a lot of standing water visible from 417.  We saw a few flowers along the road, but none out in the fields.

When I got home, I checked their website.  It says:  “LAKE JESUP WILDERNESS AREA IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO HIGH WATER LEVELS. THE PROPERTY WILL RE-OPEN ONCE WATER LEVELS ALLOW.”

In previous years with this much standing water, the sunflowers didn’t bloom.  So for now, I’m predicting a poor sunflower season.   Yogi’s right, though – I’ll check again and if anything changes, I’ll update you.

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

©2018, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Walking the Wetlands

Orlando Wetlands, , , , , , , , , ,

Orlando Wetlands Park is beautiful and a wonderful place to amble through nature.   Here are a few things I noticed there last week.

DawnDawn in a calm, peaceful, and pretty place

I used the Olympus Hi-Res mode for this next photo.  I’m glad since it let me crop in on the knees, tangled roots, and reflections at the base of this stand of Cypress.

Far shore CypressFar shore Cypress

I end up photographing thistle plants a lot.  In this case I liked the way the morning light was just highlighting it from the left.

Early light on a ThistleEarly light on a Thistle

Do you remember “planking”?  If not, see: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/planking.  This turtle was illustrating the concept.

Turtle "planking"Turtle “planking”?

I spotted this large fish (~2 1/2 feet long) resting near the shore.  My long lens was stowed in my backpack and I knew it wouldn’t stay there long, so I quickly made a photo with my IR camera.  If you click through to the larger version on Flickr, you can better see the small minnows swimming nearby.

FishLarge Fish

Dragonflies are out and about.  This is the first time I’ve noticed them this year.

Four-spotted Pennant(?)Four-spotted Pennant(?)

And finally, here’s a photo of my walking companion.  This bird joined me for a bit on my stroll around the park.

Strolling LimpkinStrolling Limpkin

The park offers free Tram Tours on weekends – check their site for details.  I much prefer to walk so  I can pause and photograph any time I want and get a little exercise too.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Now – go make some photos!

©2018, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Orlando Wetlands Park – 14 Oct 17

INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, Orlando Wetlands, , , ,

Kevin M. and I met at Orlando Wetlands Park Yesterday before sunrise.  It was gloomy and raining, but not for long.  I liked the way the low sunlight lit up this scene as the clouds were clearing.

Marsh Morning IIMarsh Morning II – This is a two frame, Olympus Hi Res, panorama using the technique described in this post:  https://edrosack.com/2011/01/21/two-image-pano-hdr-focus-stacking/

We had a hard time deciding where to go – storm damage and other circumstances are limiting our choices.  Many places that we like in Central Florida are closed (Viera Wetlands, Lake Apopka, Mead Gardens, many parts of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Jetty Park, etc.).  We ended up deciding between Circle B Bar in Lakeland and Orlando Wetlands (both are open).  I hadn’t been to either for a while and Orlando Wetlands is closer, so…

With the sun up and the clouds gone, we walked for a while before it got too hot.  This colorful bird caught my eye.  I didn’t realize it was a new life bird until I got home.

Common YellowthroatCommon Yellowthroat – A life bird!

There were lots of these flowers blooming.  I see them all the time although I’d never looked them up.  They’re native to Florida and the Americas.

Pickerelweed flowersPickerelweed flowers

Some other things we saw:  a Raccoon, a Peregrine Falcon, Red Shoulder Hawks, Black Belllied Whistling Ducks, a Juvenile Blue Heron and other wading birds, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a Painted Bunting, Red Eyed and White Eyed Vireos, House and Carolina wrens, Palm Warblers, and a Chicken (the Ranger said its name is Chuck).

It was very nice to visit a place with no sign of the recent hurricanes.  Lots of other folks thought so too and were out there enjoying the day.  It’s a large place – I’ve ridden around it on my bike, but it’s too far for me to walk the whole thing.  They have a guided tram ride at 9am (confirm on their website) and it’s worth trying if you’re there at the right time and want to see more of the place with expert commentary.  Remember too that the park is open year round now – it no longer closes during the winter.  You can see some other Orlando Wetlands Park photos in this Flickr Album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157639616792296, and you can read other posts mentioning the park at this link.

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Photography’s not important. Yes it is!

INSIDE FLORIDA, Maitland, VARIOUS, , , , ,

Sorry about the glitch last Thursday – I didn’t mean for this post to go out then.  Hitting the wrong button in WordPress is embarrassing, but at least my email subscribers got to see an example of how my posts usually begin – as just a few words jotted down to expand on later.  Here’s the rest of it.

BloomingBlooming

In the grand scheme of life, photography  isn’t required.  We managed for most of our history without photos.  And even today, with cameras in every cell phone, many people never make a photo.  So is photography important?

Barred Owl PairBarred Owl Pair

The world is awash in geo-political problems.  World leaders with nuclear weapons call each other names and threaten annihilation.  Scientists say global warming is going to drown our coast lines.  Storms and earthquakes cause massive destruction and loss of life.  Watching the evening news is overwhelming and sometimes even depressing.  In this world, how important is an activity like photography?

Bald EagleBald Eagle

Images and video play an increasing role in documenting problems and news in our society.  Ubiquitous cell phone cameras give us a look into life as it happens, views that were less likely to be seen in the past.  Is that a good thing?  In general I think so, even though what we now see all the time is often uncomfortable.

Barn OwlBarn Owl

Photography is also a tool. It lets us explore and comprehend things we can’t view with our own eyes.  Just look at the incredible images that the Cassini probe has sent back from Saturn.  This is extremely important data leading to a better understanding of our universe.  Vital?  Maybe not, but it is important.

What about photos like the ones in this post?  Are they important?  Maybe not to you, but to me they are.  When I’m out photographing I can forget all about many worrisome things and concentrate on an activity I enjoy.  If I’m lucky I become completely absorbed in the process – “in the zone”.  Worries drop away – at least for a time.  And sharing the results may not be crucial, but I do think it’s worthwhile.  Allowing others to see what I can and they can’t is an activity worth doing.  The photos don’t have to worthy of the Louvre. But’s it’s nice to get one every once in a while that goes up on my wall.

These photos were all made at the Audubon Birds of Prey Center in Maitland Florida.  They take in injured raptors, treat them, and (if they’re well enough) return them back to the wild.  They’re able to release just over 40% of their raptor patients.  Some birds (like the ones pictured here are too severely injured, so they become permanent residents that we can photograph when we visit.

The images don’t have a lot to do with the ideas in the post.  But they’re good examples.  The act of making them got me out of the house to meet a friend.  We enjoyed seeing the birds, and our donations will help the Audubon society to continue to help injured raptors.

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Lake Apopka Restoration Area

INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Apopka, , , , , ,

If you take a look at my blog archives, you’d see only a few mentions of Lake Apopka and the wildlife drive that goes through the restoration area out there.  If you look for Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge posts, you’d find almost 70!  Judging solely by these numbers, you might assume that MINWR is a better place to visit.  At least some of the time, you’d be wrong!

I met my friend Robert Wilson one morning a couple of weeks ago at the entrance to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.  I hadn’t seen him (or Lake Apopka!) in a while.

Country RoadCountry Road – Near the Lust Road entrance to the drive

There’s been lots of activity there this summer.  Robert and others described feeding frenzies in the ponds by the pump house. Alligators and birds have gorged on fish, creating some great photo opportunities.

And people have seen many interesting birds too including Swallowtail and Mississippi kites, Brown Thrashers, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, an Ash-throated Flycatcher, Purple Martins, and others.

_EM128449_DxO.jpgSwallow-tailed Kite

Red Shouldered Hawk with Field MouseRed Shouldered Hawk with Field Mouse (in right claw). It had just caught the mouse on the road and carried it to this tree.

You can get a good idea of the birds at a place using eBbird.  Here’s their chart of bird observations by species and month for Lake Apopka.  And here is the same thing for MINWR.

On our trip, we also saw several kinds of dragon flies:

Holloween Pennant DragonflyHalloween Pennant Dragonfly

And many water lilies blooming, some of them in very pretty light:

Water LilyWater Lily

MINWR can be quiet through the hot part of the year and the times I checked on it this summer, I saw few birds / wildlife. Conditions were poor with little rainfall for long periods followed by some huge fires along Black Point Wildlife Drive.

On the other hand, Lake Apopka’s been a wonderful place to visit this summer.  It’s a shame I didn’t go over there more often.  Not too long ago, the lake was polluted with farm runoff.  Restoration efforts and the opening of the wildlife drive about two years ago have made it a premier nature and wildlife destination in Central Florida.

It’s about the same distance from me as MINWR.  I’m going to make a point of visiting more often.  If you haven’t been recently – go.

You can see more Lake Apopka images in this folder on Flickr.  And MINWR photos in this folder.

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Wonderful Wisconsin Vacation Visit

OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Wisconsin, , , , , , ,

It’s been a while since our last trip to Wisconsin to see Mike and Sara (April of 2015!), so Lynn and I were excited to spend a week with them at the beginning of August.  We were also quite happy to finally get to meet Avon – who is (probably) a mountain cur that they adopted from a rescue society.  He’s a real sweet dog!

I didn’t realize how big of a crop Sunflowers are in Wisconsin.  And fortunately for us, the beginning of August is peak bloom time.  In fact, Bergsbaken Farms near Cecil Wisconsin was having a Sunflower Fest while we were there so we stopped by.

Riding in the rain through the sunflower fieldsRiding in the rain through the sunflower fields

Even though it was a bit rainy that day, there was still a large crowd and we enjoyed seeing the seemingly endless fields of flowers. We also saw a few strange creatures:

Strange creature seen in Wisconsin fieldStrange creature seen in Wisconsin field

There were several of these tall, happy looking beings along one of the paths through the  field. Authorities didn’t respond to questions on where they came from or why they wore  sunglasses in the rain.  One of my Flickr friends commented: “A nice guy no doubt, but a little seedy, wouldn’t you agree?”  Yes, I do agree!

These cultivated sunflowers are different than our wild Florida swamp sunflower variety, which by the way will start blooming in late September or early October.

Field of sunflowersField of sunflowers

We had also planned to stop by the Wisconsin State Fair, but the weather forecast was iffy and we didn’t make it – maybe next time!  However we did do a few other touristy things in the area.

WindmillWisconsin Windmill in downtown Little Chute.  This is an authentic design, working mill built to celebrate the region’s Dutch heritage (see www.littlechutewindmill.org//)

Lake WinnebagoLake Winnebago – At High Cliff State Park, Wisconsin;  IR, B&W, panorama

Among other gourmet treats, we also stopped by Wilmar Chocolates for yummy custom chocolate bars (mine had gummy bears in it!).

Our Wisconsin stay was delightful, but ended way too quickly!

You can read other blog posts about Wisconsin at this link:   https://edrosack.com/category/photo-ops-categorized-by-place/photo-ops-outside-florida/wisconsin/.  And I’ve collected some of my Wisconsin photos in this album on Flickr:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157628253961205

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go spend time with your family.  And make some photos too!

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved