Just a quick and early post this week to make sure everyone knows about the Orlando Wetlands festival this Saturday (2/20/2016).
Smoke on the water – Morning mist on Lake Searcy at Orlando Wetlands Park
It starts at 9am and since attendance has grown so much, you’ll have to park this year at Fort Christmas and ride the free shuttles out to the Wetlands. Please look at their main page for info on the latest festival:
“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; …”
― John Muir
The first part of my visit to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge last Tuesday (2/2/16) was about as foggy as I’ve ever seen. So much so that I was happy to follow a large truck along SR 46 on the way over – better than feeling my way through the low visibility on my own.
For some reason, I’d taken a macro lens with me and I was happy to use it on the following image:
Nature’s necklace – Foggy mornings dew along Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a 5 frame, hand-held focus stack.
One of my on-line friends (Dorothy) asked me on Flickr how I got the reflections in the dew drops. They were really a gift from nature. I could see lots of dew covered webs from the car, and I watched for one where I could frame the drops standing out against a clear background. When I found this particular one, I had to figure out how to best image them. One part of it was making sure the sensor plane was as close to parallel with the lines of drops as possible. I stopped down to f/8 for increased depth of field. Then I focused on the front string and made a high-speed sequence while I rocked slowly forward. This captured about 17 frames with different parts of the scene in focus. Back at my computer, I picked 5 of the frames and made a focus stack to get as much as possible in sharp focus. The last steps were to do some selective contrast / sharpening on just the drops. I like the way it turned out.
As I explored further on Black Point Wildlife Drive, I saw something for the first time – a fogbow:
On July 4th, 1936, in the Virginia Blue Ridge mountains along Skyline Drive at Big Meadows, President Roosevelt dedicated Shenandoah National Park. Since that time, people have greatly enjoyed wonderful vistas, beautiful waterfalls, quiet wooded hollows, hiking, wildlife and the night sky.
Sunrise at Spitler Knoll
I’ve been to Shenandoah many times. It’s the first national park I ever visited – too long ago to admit. I hiked there with our Boy Scout troop from Bowie, Maryland when I was a very young man . Hiking’s a major activity at the park – the Appalachian Trail runs along and crosses Skyline Drive in many places.
Appalachian trail view
Lynn and I also took Mike and Mary there when they were younger and we have fond (and scary!) memories of hikes with those two scrambling over rocks and along ridges to be first to see a view. On one of our visits, we also picnicked with our good friends the Sullivans, and hiked with the kids down to Dark Hollow Falls.
Dark Hollow Falls – A gorgeous waterfall, although crowded at times since it’s one of the closest ones to Skyline Drive. (Photo from 1996).
To get the most out of your visit, you need an up to date guide-book. We had one from our previous visits (printed in 1988!), but unfortunately we didn’t realize how out of date it was. Fires and other events have changed places in the park, sometimes quite dramatically. Fortunately, we found updated books at the park. One example of the changes:
Dead eastern hemlock trees – Hemlock Springs, Shenandoah National Park. We really enjoyed hiking through large stands of hemlock trees the last time we were there, 20+ years ago. Now, 95% of the Hemlock trees in Shenandoah have been killed by the hemlock woolly adeligid, an invasive species introduced by humans.
Weather can vary in the park. All of our visit was beautiful, but we spent one day completely socked in with heavy rain and visibility of 50 to 100 feet. I had fun walking around in the fog looking for photos, while Lynn wove a White Oak basket from scratch.
Rain drops in the mist
We saw lots of wildlife while we were there. The deer are all over and not very skittish, since animals are protected in the park. We also saw 2 black bears – exciting! I didn’t look too hard for birds, but managed to spot at least one life bird (Dark-eyed Junco).
If you search the web you’ll see things to do in the surrounding area too. We’ve been to Luray Caverns in the past, although we didn’t have time to explore outside the park this time.
In summary, Shenandoah National Park deserves to be on your bucket list. If you haven’t been there yet, just go. If you have been there, you know what I mean.
You can see larger versions of the photos above by clicking on them and some other photos from our trip in this album on Flickr.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
On our trip last week, if I hadn’t noticed Kevin M. photographing this pool of water in the parking area, I doubt I’d have seen or photographed it.
Puddles at dawn
Kevin not only pointed out this scene, he also organized the trip. If he hadn’t, I might have been too lazy to get up – and I’d have missed a very lovely dawn. This was one time when photographing with a group was very helpful. I think going out by yourself is great, but going out with others is wonderful too.
Here’s one more image from that morning.
Stormy horizon
As you can see, I did enjoy that sunrise – thanks, Kevin!
And thanks to everyone for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos – with your friends!
Kevin M. organized a Photography Interest Group expedition yesterday. I went along with Kevin K., and Frank B. The four of us were up extremely early to beat the sun to this pasture in Osceola County along Canoe Creek Road.
The sky was kind of plain when we arrived, except for the very thin moon rising ahead of the sun, and the ground fog over the grass in the distance.
I don’t know about you, but this often happens to me when I’m trying to make photos of birds. And if they don’t hurry into the bad light, then they usually turn away from the camera. The backs of birds are not as photogenic as the front. Yesterday the birds were a little slow and we managed to catch some of them in very good light and not facing away!
Into the light
I wish I hadn’t been framed so close on this Bald Eagle. I would have loved to catch it in full flight. They’re seen down there often, so I’ll have to try again.
The meadows along the roads were full of Eastern Meadowlarks. And when we couldn’t see them we could definitely hear them.
Morning song
There were signs posted at the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area with results from recent hunts. And the deer we saw were definitely very wary. These two stared at us for a while before running off into the trees.
Two wary deer
All in all, it was a good day for photography. And the banter in the car was quite entertaining too.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
Wow – it’s been over a year since I’ve posted any fisheye photos on the blog. So one day last week, I mounted my Rokinon 7.5mm Micro Four Thirds lens and went out looking for some photos. I ended up at Central Winds Park in Winter Springs. It was very foggy and the light was a bit dim – it was a good thing I brought a tripod with me. I noticed several kinds of wildflowers blooming and decided they might be good subjects..
Fog and mist can blur detail unless you get close. Fog in the background can also help isolate your subject. Getting close with a wide-angle lens (especially a fisheye) will emphasize close in objects and make them stand out. So I got close to this flower. It was off to the side of the path and I was able to frame it against the dead leaves so colors also helped it stand out.
Flowers in the forest by the footpath in the fog
Using an approach like this can give your image an almost 3d look. I stopped down to f/8 which made my depth of field large enough to cover the flower, but shallow enough to blur the background a little. At base ISO (200) my exposure was 1/50 second. I used -1 stop of exposure compensation so the sky in the background didn’t blow out, and this also helped with saturation. The Rokinon is manual focus. Since focus was critical, I carefully used magnified live view to get it just right. I like how this turned out, but looking at it now maybe I should have gotten even closer.
A note about the blog: I’m working to add Gallery / Portfolio pages to my site. I’ve posted two so far. You can get to them from the pull down menu at the top of the page, or by clicking these links: Florida Landscapes, Florida Wildlife. Please take a look and let me know what you think.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
You may have noticed that I like Black and White photography. It’s how I started out, way back when (with Tri-X film, developed in a make-shift darkroom). So I’ve done it for a while, but I’m mostly self-taught. I’ve studied many books and looked at a lot of online info, but I felt it would be good to take a course and expose myself to techniques and ideas I haven’t discovered on my own – to see how others are doing it.
I signed up for “Modern Monochrome” at the Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, Florida. The course promises to cover “the aesthetic qualities of black-and-white photography, seeing in black and white, RGB conversion methods, tonal relationships, luminosity versus luminance, and demonstrations in Photoshop and Lightroom.”
I was a little worried at the first session. There were a couple of people who didn’t appear to meet the prerequisites and it seemed like we’d struggle trying to bring them up to speed. But they ended up dropping out and the remaining students all easily kept up with the agenda.
Next week is our last class and we owe the instructor ten B&W images. I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the ones I’m going to turn in.
Wild Orchids – at Fort Christmas
High Key Grebe – along Black Point Wildlife Drive
Gloomy dawn – Blue Cypress Lake
Misty Marsh – Orlando Wetlands Park
The instructor’s going to critique our work and I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say.
This course has definitely lived up to my expectations. I learned several techniques in Photoshop – some that I’d heard about and never tried, and others that were completely new to me. I also enjoyed discussing printing techniques and I intend to apply these more in the future. I haven’t been printing my photographs as much recently as I should. The course was also a great incentive to think about and practice photography and especially B&W processing.
You can see some other photographs I made for the course in this set on Flickr.
After the trip to Maine, I was looking forward to getting back out and photographing here in Florida. So it was up early (not as early as Cadillac Mountain!) and out the door to meet Tom M. at Orlando Wetlands before dawn last Saturday.
Nature foiled our sunrise plans and instead served up some semisolid, soupy fog for our photo enjoyment.
Misty morning 1
And we did enjoy it. It was interesting looking for compositions in the mist and trying to find foreground objects to add some definition to the photos. I like the one above but after looking at it on the computer, I wish I’d moved a bit to separate the near and far grass on the left. I didn’t see the overlap when I made the photo.
It took a while for the sun to burn through the fog. That gave us time to try several different places. I thought the south shore of Lake Searcy and the southwest corner of cell 16A were very photogenic. I especially liked the light on the close leaves in this scene.
Misty morning 2
Discovering beauty in unexpected places or situations is one of the addictive things about photography. Sunrises shouldn’t all be super saturated.
New subject: The Lake Jesup flowers will begin blooming at the end of September. Here’s a link to my post about last year’s flowers, with much more info on them. Make your plans now!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!
I had cataract surgery last Thursday and didn’t think I’d be able to go photographing this weekend. But I could see remarkably well this morning, so I rode over to MINWR with Kevin M. and Kevin K.
It turned out to be a lovely day. There was more color in the sunrise than I expected, and after dawn we found some photogenic fog / mist.
White Pelicans in the mist on Black Point Wildlife Drive
In addition to the White Pelicans, watching a skimming Black Skimmer was another highlight. Kevin K. even managed to photograph it with a fish in its mouth. The Visitors Center bird feeder was active too. We saw Catbirds, several Painted Buntings (both male and female) and a White-throated Chipping Sparrow (a life bird for me!).
White Throated Chipping Sparrow
I enjoyed trying out my refurbished eyes today. It’s amazing what modern medicine can do!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
This is a truly great time of year to visit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I’ve gone over for the last two weekends. As I mentioned in my previous post, I took Lynn, Mary, and Monette there last Sunday – we had a great time and spotted lots of birds. I told Kevin M. about it and he insisted we go back yesterday with Kevin K.
Why is it so good over there now? I’m glad you asked! The number and types of birds in and around Black Point Wildlife Drive are probably the greatest I’ve ever seen. There are both regular species and winter visitors. Ducks are there in huge numbers, both in the water and flying overhead in vast formations close enough that the sound of their beating wings is quite loud. The larger wading and shorebirds are also there in force. On both days, there were feeding frenzies going on in ponds along BPWD. The water is full of minnows and the birds are feasting on them.
Black Point Wildlife Drive Feeding Frenzy Video
By the way, this situation is an ideal set up to practice your BIF (birds in flight) photography. Here’s a photo I made at this same pond, showing an egret with one of the minnows.
Snowy Egret with minnow
And here’s a close-up of the minnows in the water. No wonder the birds are going crazy!
The reason for the festive gathering (photo by Kevin McKinney)
On these two days, we saw close to 40 different types of wildlife. And I’m sure there were others I either didn’t see, didn’t recognize or forgot. Here’s a partial list:
Alligator, Cows, Deer, Manatee
American Avocets
Anhingas
Belted Kingfishers
Black vultures
Black Skimmers
Coots
Cormorants
Ducks: American Wigeon, Blue Wing Teals, Hooded Merganser, Lesser Scaup, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler
Egrets: Cattle, Great, Reddish, and Snowy
Grackles
Herons: Great Blue, Green, Little blue, and Tri-color
Ibis: Glossy, and White
Mourning Doves
Northern Mockingbird
Osprey
Pie billed grebe
Red Bellied woodpecker
Ring billed Gull
Roseate Spoonbills
White pelican
Wood storks
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Cruising White Pelican – a winter migrant to our area
So two wonderful visits, although we did have some disappointments. We looked for Florida Scrub Jays and didn’t see them in the normal spot. And the sunrise photos on both days were a challenge. Here’s what it looked like yesterday:
Smoke on the water – Morning mist on Lake Searcy at Orlando Wetlands Park
