Tag Archives: landscape

Hurricane Irma may pass directly over Bahia Honda State Park

Florida Keys, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, , , ,

This morning, we’re waiting to see what Hurricane Irma is going to do and it looks like it might pass directly over Bahia Honda State Park as a Cat 4 or Cat 5 storm.  It’s hard to imagine the damage that could result.

Lynn and I returned from the Florida Keys a week ago.   We spent a couple of days in Key West and then were lucky enough to stay in one of the 6 cabins at Bahia Honda State Park for 3 more days.  They’re built on stilts but even so are only about 10 -15 feet above the ocean.  And we felt them swaying at times while we were there – even in good weather.

The cabins are on the right side of the overseas highway as you head down to the keys.  They’re furnished with everything you need for a great Florida vacation.  And the location on a beautiful lagoon is wonderful.  These next three photos were all made on the patio, just a few steps from the cabin door:

Loggerhead TurtleLoggerhead Sea Turtle – The ranger told us that turtles, dolphin, and tarpon like the lagoon because it’s so quiet and protected.  We’d see one or more of Loggerheads from the cabin porch almost every time we stepped out to look.  We also saw Tarpon rolling on the surface a few times and maybe a dolphin or two.

Sunset FishingSunset Fishing – You can fish in the lagoon by the cabins, but other water activity isn’t allowed.  We often saw campers fishing there.

The view from the cabinAnother view from the cabin porch. The skies at Bahia Honda are some of the darkest in Florida. Lynn and I got up at about 1:30am on our first night. The moon had set and we had a stunning view of this part of the Milky Way, right from the patio. And the bugs weren’t biting too much!

The Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary is about 8 miles southwest of Bahia Honda and snorkeling trips leave for the reef twice a day.  It was a relaxing swim – the water temperature was in the high 80’s, which can cause storms to strengthen.

Sergeant majors and othersLooe Key Sergeant majors and others –  The visibility wasn’t very good the day were were there, but the number of fish we saw was still impressive.

There are also 72 campsites in the Park.  Many of them are in awesome locations too.

Between the bridgesBetween the bridges – This is at sunset, between the old abandoned bridge on the left and the new one on the right.  You can see some of the lovely Bahia Honda campsites on the left side of the frame.

Lynn and I thought of this visit to Bahia Honda as a “scouting trip”.   Based on what we saw, we definitely want to go back.

To everyone in Irma’s path and to everyone impacted by Harvey:  We’re thinking of you.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now – stay safe in the storm!

©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

Any Micro 4/3 Camera Regrets?

Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUS, , , , , ,

The short answer is “Nope, not really”.  For the longer answer, read on…

Sometimes I’ll take a camera by Bear Creek Nature Trail in our neighborhood (the middle of Tuscawilla, along the north side of Winter Springs Boulevard).  On this particular day back in January of 2017, sunlight was filtering down through the trees and hitting the water at a bend in the creek.  The light refracting  through ripples in the surface created interesting patterns and colors I thought were worth a shutter click.

Bear Creek ripples 1aBear Creek Ripples 1a  (28mm eq. focal length, f/8, 0.5 seconds, ISO 64)

This was a month or so after I started using the Olympus E-M1 Mark II camera.  I’d sold my Nikon D-800 and lenses so I could afford to upgrade my Olympus kit and I was still getting used to the new gear.  I’d had the D-800 for over four years and it’d worked extremely well for me.  It was the very best camera I’d ever used so getting rid of it was a big step and I was still second guessing my decision.

Why did I sell the Nikon gear and move exclusively to Olympus?  And how is it working out?  Glad you asked!

It seems that discovering micro four thirds cameras is a big thing on the web, lately.  Here are a few links with a lot of information you can investigate:

I won’t repeat these discussions.  Everyone will have their own opinion and reasoning for the camera equipment they use. I’ll just summarize by saying that for me, no regrets.  The smaller and more modern design has many advantages with few real issues.  For what I shoot, I haven’t seen much downside.

I can carry much more camera capability with far less weight.  And the new gear does things the older Nikon equipment doesn’t.  Really, the only thing that concerns me even a bit is star / astro photography with the smaller sensor.  I haven’t had much of a chance to test this yet and hopefully ease my concerns, but even if the Olympus isn’t as good at this type of photography, I’m not very worried.  I don’t do it all that often and if I need to, I can always rent / borrow a different camera with a larger sensor or use something like the iOptron SkyTrackerTM  to make really long exposures. Your mileage may vary of course, and you should investigate thoroughly before you make such a significant change.

If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.  I’ll be more than glad to try to answer.  And you can click on the image below to go to Flickr and browse through an album of the images I’ve  made with the new camera:

Great Egret head shotGreat Egret head shot

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – no matter the camera you have, go make some photos!

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Hawaii Five-Oh (Top 5 Photos from Hawaii)

Hawaii, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, , , ,

Editors note:  Today we have another post from our roving correspondent MaryKate. This time from the middle of the Pacific Ocean – enjoy!

Back in May, I (willingly) kidnapped my youngest cousin Annie and took her to one of my bucket-list destinations and remaining states to visit: Hawaii!  We were there for 5 days and 4 nights, so we stayed on Oahu the entire time (vs. island hopping) – which was a different and enjoyable experience for me since I’m usually on the go!  We shared amazing outdoor experiences like snorkeling, reflected at somber memorials like Pearl Harbor, and discovered captivating views while exploring the island on the drive of a lifetime.

Lāʻie Point State WaysideLāʻie Point State Wayside

The most memorable experience was snorkeling off of Waianae.  If you’ve read any of my past blog posts, you know I have a passion for wildlife, especially dolphins and whales.  While we visited at the wrong time of the year to see humpback whales, I was really excited to see Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins in the wild.

Spinner DolphinHawaiian Spinner Dolphin

While snorkeling, we saw five Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins, green sea turtles, and even a baby hammerhead shark.  The tour company was respectful about keeping our distance, being quiet and still, and not harassing the wildlife.

Green Sea TurtleGreen Turtle

However, while in Hawaii, I found the book The Lives of Hawaii’s Dolphins and Whales by Robin W. Baird, and was saddened to read that “because spinners do all of their feeding at night and all of their resting during the day…exposure to vessel traffic and swimmers may disrupt their resting patterns or cause them to leave the relative safety of their traditional resting areas.  A recent study off Kona showed that spinner dolphins were exposed to humans, boaters, and/or swimmers within 100 yards of them about 82 percent of their time during the day.”   Because of this, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering new regulations “to prohibit swimming with and approaching a Hawaiian spinner dolphin within 50 yards.”  Knowledge is power, so I will cherish the memories I have from this experience and instead watch them from afar in the future – even if the rules don’t change.  Pacific Whale Foundation has a great PDF with more information on how to Be Dolphin Wise.

Spinner DolphinHawaiian Spinner Dolphin

If you make it to Oahu, definitely follow my brother Mike’s advice to rent a car and drive the island.  We got a better feel for the place by seeing so much more of it.  From Waikiki, we drove north up the middle of the island (stopping at the obligatory tourist stop: Dole Plantation), then to the north shore for some shave ice, lunch at the famous Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, scenic views, and a tour at the Kualoa Ranch where movies like Jurassic Park and TV shows like Lost were filmed (can’t you just imagine a T-Rex popping out of the shot below?).  The drive and the views are the destination, so take your time and enjoy the ride!

Kualoa RanchKualoa Ranch – Home of Jurassic Park (if it’s a good photo you’re raptor, come here!)

Editors note 2:  
Thanks so much MK – it was wonderful to read about your trip.  Hawaii is still on my bucket list!
 Also readers, if you’re going to visit, you might want to take a look at the Hawaii category on my on-line friend Jeff Stamer’s blog.  He’s been to there several times and has some amazing photos and tips. 

You can click on any of these photos to see a much higher res version on Flickr.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now – go be amazed by wildlife and make some photos!

©2017, MK Rosack and Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

A few more New Mexico photos

New Mexico, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, , , , , , ,

I hope you don’t mind a few more New Mexico images for today’s blog post.  There was a lot to see out there and I really like many of the photos I came back with.

Way upWay up.

This ridge is close to the Sandia Peak Tramway .  I made the image through the window on the way up. I wanted a mountain goat or some other wildlife to pose for me but they didn’t get the memo!

Soaptree YuccaSoaptree Yucca. IR, B&W, 2 frame panorama

We saw these plants blooming in several places.  This one was at White Sands National Monument.  The heat and glare were incredible there.  I think the IR camera did well taming the harsh mid day light.

Clouds, Mountains, DesertClouds, Mountains, Desert. Near San Augustin Peak, NM.  7 frame panorama.

I find western landscapes extremely appealing.  Maybe it’s just that they’re so different from Florida.  When I saw these mountains, I made MK pull over so I could make this image.

Volcano Cinder ConeVolcano Cinder Cone.  IR, B&W, 3 frame panorama

This is a view of one of the three Volcanoes visible from the Volcano Day Use Area in Petroglyph National Monument, a little west of Albuquerque.  When I got back to the car, I realized I’d dropped a lens cap somewhere along the path.  I did go back and look for it and of course, couldn’t find it.  Does that happen to you too?

San Miguel Mission interiorSan Miguel Mission interior.  

Located in Santa Fe, NM, this is the oldest known church in the US.  It was  built between 1610 and 1626.  Sunday Mass is still celebrated.  See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_Mission  for more info.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these five more NM photos.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Sky City, New Mexico

New Mexico, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, , , , ,

MK and I went out to New Mexico for a short visit over the July 4th holiday.  I’d been there several times on business travel but never got to see much of the state.  This trip fixed that!

One place we very much enjoyed was the Acoma Pueblo (also known as Sky City).  It’s a lovely spiritual site, and provides a glimpse into what Native American life was like as long ago as the 13th century.  The Pueblo is about 60 miles west of Albuquerque – it’s a lovely drive.
Mesa EncantadaMesa Encantada – Along Route 23 just east of Acoma Pueblo (visible in the distance on the right). According to Acoma Pueblo oral history, it was their first home before they moved to the current location.

If you enter “Acoma Village” in your GPS, it will try to lead you up on the mesa, which you can’t get to unless you’re on a tour.  Search for the visitor center instead!

Looking up at Sky CityyLooking up – This B&W IR view of Acoma Pueblo is from about 360 feet below, just across the highway from their visitors center

At the visitors center you can learn about the culture and history of the area.  Their tour includes a bus ride to the top of the mesa and a guided walk around the pueblo. Also included in the tour price is a “photo permit” for one camera.  You’ll have to buy more permits if you want to use multiple cameras.  I decided to just bring my Olympus Pen F with the 24-200 mm equivalent lens and it worked for most situations on the mesa.  I used the extra space in my camera bags for two bottles of water.  Nice to have while walking around in the hot sun!

The horno is a traditional outdoor, wood fired oven.  People were selling bread made in these ovens in the pueblo.

Homes, horno oven and wood fuelHomes, horno and wood fuel

Even though there’s no electricity or running water up there, many of the homes on the mesa are still lived in.    I liked how occasional colorful paint accents contrasted with the tan walls.

Door and windowsDoor and windows – One of the homes on the mesa

Our guide told us that the Acoma adopted Catholicism from missionaries in the 1500s but they still practice their own spiritual traditions too.  Although they’re very private about this, outsiders can attend celebrations during the Feast of St. Stephen(September) and at Christmas.

Acoma Pueblo Kiva (religious chamber)Kiva – The Acoma concealed their traditional worship places inside homes and entered via a ladder through the smoke-hole in the roof.

As you’d expect, the views from the mesa are spectacular and the visibility is awesome.

View north toward Mount Taylor (on the horizon, about 40 miles away)View north toward Mount Taylor (on the horizon, about 40 miles away).  Ponderosa Pine used to build the mission was hand carried from Mount Taylor and up to the mesa.

Photography isn’t allowed in the cemetery (to the left of the mission) or inside the church itself.  This spot is about the best vantage point I could find.

San Estevan del Rey Mission ChurchSan Estevan del Rey Mission Church – Built between 1629 and 1641.  According to Acoma oral tradition, their people were forced by Friar Juan Ramirez to build the mission.

Many have photographed in Acoma and some of the images are in the public domain.  It’s interesting to compare the older photos with contemporary views.  Both Edward S. Curtis (in 1904-5: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=acoma%20indians&co=ecur&sg=true) and Ansel Adams (in the 1930s and 40s: https://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams) photographed here.  They both stood very close to the spot where I made this mission photo.

You can find more information about Acoma at these links:

And I’m collecting my New Mexico images here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157685850604925

For those of you that are wondering why I haven’t posted any bird or wildlife photos in a while, please be patient.  We did some birding while we were in New Mexico and I’m planning to blog about that next.

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Lake Monroe Wayside Park

INSIDE FLORIDA, Sanford, St. Johns River, ,

Some mornings, sunrise isn’t very special. Maybe nature’s tired and saves up energy for one of those truly spectacular dawns we get occasionally.  What do I do when that happens?   Just go ahead and make photos anyway – rehearsing is a good thing too.

Sunrise at the old bridgeSunrise at the old bridge

This park is on the river side of 17-92, just past I-4, heading toward Debary.  They’ve left part of the old bridge there and I thought there might be interesting compositions to work with at sunrise.  I was hoping for clouds and color too, but it wasn’t meant to be.  This is one frame I like, but  I don’t love the sky.

Oh well – next time.  Photography Philosophy:  Practice and persistence will prevail!

Other St. Johns River images:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157624991879878

Other Lake Monroe & Sanford images:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157656060285125

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Three things

INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Technique, VARIOUS, ,

Three more or less unrelated things to discuss today…

1. Image Stabilization

I’ve used Olympus micro four thirds cameras for a while and I’ve watched their capabilities get better and better.  Their latest image stabilization is truly amazing – Olympus claims five to six stops.  This means that if you can normally shoot at 1/100 second handheld without inducing camera shake blur, then with IS, you may be able to shoot at 1/3 to 1/2 second.  Truly a huge difference, as long as subject motion blur is not a problem.

Rapidan RiverRapidan River – This is the view just behind President Herbert Hoover’s cabin at the Rapidan camp retreat in the Shenandoah Mountains.

The settings on this photo are: focal length equivalent of 28mm, ISO 64, f/8, at 0.5 seconds, handheld.  Using the (1/focal length) rule of thumb, I should have exposed this at 1/30 sec to prevent camera shake.  But I wanted to use a slower shutter speed to blur the moving water.  With IS turned on in camera, I could hand hold at a half second and still keep all the non-moving rocks, etc. completely sharp in the frame.  And I like the way the water looks.

It’s a nice option to have if you don’t bring your tripod.

2. Workflow Experiments

I recently bought an SSD (solid state device) disk.  The main advantage of these is that they’re faster than spinning hard drives.  I wanted to speed up my photo processing workflow.  So I moved my 2017 image file directory and my Lightroom catalog to this drive and sure enough, Lightroom does seem faster.

But then it occurred to me that when I travel, I can  take the SSD with me on the road and use it with my laptop.  All I have to do is add a folder for the images from the trip.  When I get home I can just move it back to my desktop computer and any work that I’ve done on the road will come across with the SSD.  I won’t have to export / import, etc.  This should definitely save time when I get back.

There are some things to be careful of.  I’m backing up the SSD drive using Apple’s Time Machine in case there are any glitches with the SSD.  And I’ve had to re-arrange the image folders across the different disks and tell Lightroom where everything is.  I also need to make sure that preferences and presets are all accounted for.

After a week or so, it all seems to work ok.  I’ll let you know if I discover any other gotchas.  If you have questions about this setup, leave a comment and I’ll try to answer.

3.  Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge update

You may remember this blog post from March:  https://edrosack.com/2017/03/19/morning-glory/.  I posted a photo then of cracked mud on the bottom of a dried out pool.

I haven’t been back recently, and when my friend Howard T. wanted to try out a new camera, we decided to see what’s going on over there.  I’m happy to report that the water is back to normal (or even a bit high).  I can’t really recommend it for wildlife photography yet – the birds and animals still seem to mostly be elsewhere.  Maybe they’ll read this blog and return when they find out conditions have improved.

Black Point Wildlife Drive – The drought has eased – there was a lot of water there last week.

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

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

A few more DC photos

OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Washington D.C., , , , , , , ,

Last week’s post went over my usual three photo budget.  So here are even more images that I didn’t include (and again I’m over budget!).

The Air Force MemorialThe Air Force Memorial.  (ISO 200, f/5.6, 14mm equivalent FL, 1/640 sec.).  I was glad I had an ultra-wide lens.  It all fits into the 14mm field of view from a close distance.

The Potomac River at Great FallsThe Potomac River at Great Falls.  (4 frame panorama, ISO 200, f/4.5, 28mm equivalent FL, 1/1600 sec., color image converted to B&W in Lightroom).   Although I grew up near Washington DC, I don’t remember ever hearing about the park until Lynn mentioned it on this trip.

Ceiling in the Library of CongressCeiling in the Library of Congress.  (4 frame panorama, ISO 200, f/4, 30mm equivalent FL).  Our tour of the US Capitol included a stop inside the Library of Congress.  I had to shoot from an awkward angle and stitch multiple frames together for this view. 

The Burghers of CalaisThe Burghers of Calais – Sculpture by Auguste Rodin, one of twelve original Bronze casts, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Mall. (Infrared, B&W, ISO 200, 34mm equivalent FL, f/4.5, 1/320 sec.).   I really like the way the IR  camera rendered this, especially  the bronze contrasting with the foliage.  There are some very impressive sculptures in the National Mall in DC.  You can read the fascinating background on this one at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais.

Washington Monument at duskWashington Monument at dusk. (Olympus High Res mode, ISO 200, 62mm equivalent FL, f/5.6, 1/8 sec).  There were hundreds (thousands?) of people just behind me at the Lincoln Memorial.  I moved to the water’s edge to avoid most of the tourists and frame this view.  I like the way this square composition shows off the symmetry.  I also like the light and reflections – the last time I was in DC (2008?) the pool was a mess!  After we left this time, we heard reports  that the pool had been drained due to duckling deaths (www.washingtonpost.com/local/malls-reflecting-pool-to-be-…). 

More DC photos in this album on Flickr, – check ’em out!

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

PS:

Happy Father’s Day!

My dad’s been gone for many years. It would be so wonderful to visit with him again, give him a big hug, wish him a happy day and enjoy his company.  And make a photo of us too.

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved