Tag Archives: landscape

Blue Cypress Lake

June 7, 2012Blue Cypress Lake, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, Techniquebirds, infrared, landscape, Middleton's Fish Camp, Osprey, reviews, Snake, sunrise, Swallow-tailed Kite, wildlifeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

What a beautiful place.

Blue Cypress Lake

I’d seen a few mentions online of Blue Cypress Lake near Vero Beach, Florida. It’s a long drive from Winter Springs – which is why I hadn’t made it down there. But that’s also why I was up at “0 dark thirty” last Saturday. Fortunately, I packed the night before so I was able to sleep in just a bit. I also didn’t want to arrive in the dark on my first time there. So Kevin M. and I met at 5:30 near his house and were off. There was a lot of fog and drizzle on our drive down, although it eventually cleared up and the clouds added some drama to the skies. We turned in to Blue Cypress Lake Road just after 7am, but were delayed by stops for photos of Wild Turkeys in the fields on the west side and three Otters playing in the road up near the lake.

At Middleton’s Fish camp, we first parked near the camp sites, but couldn’t really see much from the shore – although with the right lens a sunrise shot from the bridge over the canal might be very pretty. We decided to rent a small boat to explore out in the water and wow, I’m glad we did! We went north and scouted the trees, shoreline, and birds for about two hours.

The calm water and weathered cypress trees make for some outstanding scenery. We also saw literally hundreds of Ospreys and a good portion of them were carrying or eating fish. There were also plenty of alligators, a few quite large. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were also numerous and they serenaded us the whole morning. We heard an eagle but didn’t see it and although there are supposed to be hawks and barred owls, we didn’t see any of them.

Osprey Family – One of the many nests on Blue Cypress Lake. Many are just a few feet from the water. (Photo courtesy of Kevin McKinney)

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

According to the locals, the best cypress trees are on the west side of the lake (where Middleton’s is) both north and south of the canal. For sunrise shots, you’d probably want to get between the shore and some of the farther out trees. This might be tough, especially in the dark if you don’t know the lake. Be careful of hidden snags / submerged fallen trees that could hang you up! If you’re on the lake later in the day, a safer photo might be an evening sunset from a little farther out with a telephoto lens.

Many cypress trees: The north-west shore of Blue Cypress Lake, Black & White, Infrared

If you have an IR camera or filter, YOU MUST BRING IT to Blue Cypress Lake! I just love the way Cypress trees show up in infrared.

Depending on how much time you have available, there are a couple of other places you could check out in the area. On the way home, we went by Joe Overstreet Road. On the way we saw (and I finally got a photo of) a Swallow-tailed Kite. When we arrived, we saw Eastern Meadowlarks, Sandhill Cranes, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Bobwhite, egrets, herons, and other birds. We hoped to see a Whooping Crane, but no such luck.

Swallow-tailed Kite with snake

Tripod/Monopod:

I brought mine, but didn’t use it out on the lake. It’s not much use inside the boat. Although many people get out into the water to use theirs, I was a bit leery of doing this. If you do, just be very careful of the depth and your footing and be sure to watch for alligators!

Lenses:

I had a 16 – 35mm on one camera and a 28 – 82 equivalent on the other. I felt the 16 – 35 was a bit too wide for the conditions. Next time I go, I think a 24 – 70 would be ideal for Cypress trees / landscapes. For birds of course, you’ll want a stabilized telephoto lens that you can handhold in a moving boat. Kevin used his 70 – 300VR on his DX crop body for some great shots.

Best time to visit:

If you go in February – April, you’ll be able to see Osprey’s nesting, breeding and raising their young. Some of the nests are quite close to the water so you can get an excellent look. Just be sure you don’t stress the birds.

There will still be many Ospreys around to photograph the rest of the year. Many of them are fishing and carrying their catch back to a convenient tree, so opportunities for flight shots of these magnificent birds with their prey abound.

Of course, the cypress trees are here year round.

Other:

Middleton’s Fish Camp offers tours and rents boats, and cabins. If you also fish, they rent fishing tackle and sell bait. If you do want to rent or take a tour, call ahead for availability.

Summary

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	My Blue Cypress Lake photos on Flickr Kevin M’s Blue Cypress Lake photos on Flickr
Website:	http://www.middletonsfishcamp.com/
Address / Phone:	21704 73rd Manor Vero Beach, Florida 32966 1-800-258-5002 View in Google Maps
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Central Florida Photo-Op must do!

A wonderful, wonderful trip.

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

Memorial Day Weekend, 2012

May 28, 2012Casey Key, INSIDE FLORIDAbeach, landscape, sunsetEd Rosack

Florida and Florida beaches are a great photo-op, especially at sunrise or sunset – and Casey Key on the Gulf Coast seems to have a unique color pallet. It doesn’t hurt to have some stormy weather around to add drama to the sky and clouds. I saw the beach chairs sitting empty and pointing toward the setting sun and felt compelled to make a photo.

At the end of the day 2 – On Memorial Day Weekend 2012: The empty chairs in this scene made me think about past and present members of the military that can’t be with family to celebrate the holiday. To all those that serve or have served, thank you for your service.

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

Using aperture brackets to overcome blur and diffraction

May 20, 2012Cocoa, Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquelandscape, pier, sunriseEd Rosack

I finally made it over to Cocoa Beach in time for sunrise yesterday morning:

Sunrise by the Cocoa Beach Pier

In this photo, I wanted to use a long shutter speed to blur the water and show wave motion. I set the slowest ISO my camera supports (50), added a 3 stop neutral density filter, and used an aperture of f/22 which gave me a shutter speed of 2 seconds. I would have liked even longer, but this was as slow as I could get it under these conditions. I think the water came out pretty well.

As I made the exposure, I worried about two things: 1) Such a tiny aperture would lead to diffraction and blurring of small details and 2) Such a long shutter speed would add motion blur where I didn’t want any (boats and people). So how could I overcome this?

I was shooting in aperture priority mode and my camera was locked down on a tripod. So I made a second exposure at f/4 and let the camera set a shutter speed of 1/15 second. Normally when you bracket, you’re trying to change the exposure (or sometimes white balance or focus). This time, I was trying to bracket the aperture / shutter speed I was using, but keep the exposure constant. Having a second exposure let me load both images as layers in Photoshop. Then I used a layer mask to show the first exposure for the water in the lower part, and the second exposure for the upper area including the boat and pier. This let me have motion blur where I wanted it and still keep sharpness in areas where I wanted that. I think the technique worked pretty well. What do you think? Have you ever tried this?

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

Central Florida Bird update

May 6, 2012Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Orlando Wetlands, Viera Wetlandsbirds, BPWD, Great Blue Heron, landscape, limpkin, Spoonbill, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

The spring migration has made the last few weeks an intense time for birding in Central Florida. There was a fall out in Fort Desoto in late April where my friend Kevin M. sighted 110 different bird species in one day! As those migrants moved on, other locations have also seen a few visitors, especially smaller birds.

The activity at Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Orlando Wetlands Park, and Viera Wetlands is slowing down now from the peak nesting and breeding season. Most of the young ones are hatched, grown, and fledged, although you can still find some amazing sights such as a White Eyed Vireo nest next to the boardwalk at the MINWR visitors center.

At BPWD the water is quite low. We found some concentrations of birds in a few of the areas that did have water including Redish Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, etc. There are also some juvenile Green Herons in the bushes by the rest rooms. But the ducks seem to be mostly gone – even the moorhens and coots. And we haven’t seen any Kingfishers lately either. We did see an Eastern Kingbird on BPWD, and a Northern Parula and Grey Catbird at the visitor center.

Wading Roseate Spoonbill – feeding at BPWD

Orlando Wetlands is quiet too – both people and birds. I was the only visitor when I went by last Thursday morning. I saw a solitary Swallow-tail Kite fly by briefly (too fast to get a photo). And there were plenty of Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks, some hawks, limpkins, herons and egrets – but again the most of the ducks seem have gone elsewhere.

Mom and kid Limpkin on a sunrise stroll

At Viera Wetlands we saw a few of the usual birds and there are still some GBH juveniles on nests. Terns and Ospreys were putting on a fishing demonstration. It’s fun to watch this behavior and it’s a good situation for Birds in Flight practice.

Blue Heron Portrait

And even if the birding is slowing down, you can always find some landscape photo ops around the area.

Drippy: I was scouting for new sunrise locations and got to the Cocoa Beach pier a bit late. I decided to make a photo anyway… Next time I’ll be there before dawn.

If you click on any of the photos, they’ll open in Flickr, where you can see larger versions. You can also see some of my previous photos from:

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

Infrared Photography Follow Up

April 1, 2012Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Ohio, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C.birds, infrared, landscapeEd Rosack

If you’re a regular reader, you saw my post from a couple of weeks ago about infrared photography and how I post process my IR images. If not, please check it out!

That post concentrated on a single image and tried to show some detail on how I processed it. Today, I’d like to show you a few more examples of what you can expect when you try this very interesting genre of photography. I made these photos with my IR modified Olympus E-PL1 camera.

I R n Air: A river runs through the countryside in this B&W digital infra-red photo made out the window at ~30,000 feet. The IR light cuts right through the haze to show a lot of detail.

Palm Tree: IR sensitivity makes the foliage stand out against the sky in this false color image.

Calm water and birds: Bird photography is not a strength of IR, but the birds in the water and the ones flying through the frame add to this landscape.

Play time at Union Station: Buildings, architecture, and people can be good subjects.

Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin: IR adds a different look to this classic view.

I have some other IR photos on Flickr in this set. And you can see examples from other photographers in The Infrared and The Digital infrared groups on Flickr. How about it – are you inspired to try IR photography? Let me know if you do.

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

[Additional info, added 1/24/2014]: https://edrosack.com/2014/01/12/infrared-updates/

Orlando’s Leu Gardens

March 25, 2012Downtown Orlando, INSIDE FLORIDA, Leu Gardens, OrlandoFlowers, infrared, insects, landscapeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Do you enjoy gardening? Flower or landscape photography? Historical sites? Then Leu Gardens in downtown Orlando, is a place you should check out. It’s a 50 acre park on the grounds of the former home of Harry P. Leu, who donated the property to the city in 1961.

Hibiscus and sky

There are about 40 different plant collections in the park including aroids, azaleas, bamboo, bananas, bromeliads, camellias, citrus, conifers, crepe myrtles, conifers, cycads, ferns, flowering shrubs, flowering trees, gingers, heliconias, hibiscus and mallows,magnolias, ornamental grasses, palms,perennials, roses, trees, and vines. Many are labeled to help you figure out what you’re looking at. Various pieces of sculpture are also located around the garden as well as some interesting planters.

Pot Heads: Heads full of flowers: A Leu Gardens Planter

The gardens are arranged in sometimes geometrical layouts which can lead to interesting photos. These include the butterfly, kitchen, rose, and palm gardens along with many others. And don’t forget to see the fairly famous floral clock!

The Leu House Museum has been restored and is on the National Historical Register. It’s open for tours on the half hour starting at 10am (except in July when it’s closed for refurbishment).

Info for Photographers

Leu Gardens is very photo friendly. Photography and video is permitted for personal, non-commercial use, but commercial photography requires approval in advance.

The house at the end of the lane on one end of the gardens. False color IR photograph.

Photo hints:

A leisurely stroll through the grounds is the best way to find photo opportunities and will take you an hour or two. Make sure you carry your gear with you. The parking lot is too far to go back to if you want to switch lenses or grab a flash. Speaking of flash – some of the flowers are located in very shaded areas. I found myself making photos with my camera in my right hand and a flash in my left to help light my subjects.

Busy Bee gathers pollen at Leu Gardens

Tripod/Monopod:

Tripods are allowed and would be good for all the normal reasons. I didn’t bring one either time I visited. I know, I know – I should have, but I was just carrying too much already.

Lenses:

You’ll want to have your macro and wide-angle lenses with you. A longer macro will be most helpful. Not all the blooms and interesting plants are right next to the paths. And a longer distance to your subject will scare fewer insects away.

Best time to visit:

They’re open all year except Christmas day. Hours are 9am to 5pm. There are different plants blooming year round. Here’s a partial list by season (info from the Leu Gardens Map and Visitors Guide):

Spring	roses, hibiscus, day lilies, gardenias, trumpet trees, azaleas, citrus
Summer	roses, hibiscus, ginger, heliconias, canna, magnolia, crepe myrtle, banana, cassia, bird of paradise
Autumn	roses, floss silk tree, cassia, hibiscus, ginger, helconia, bottlebrush tree
Winter	camellia, pink trumpet tree, azaleas, orchid tree

They occasionally host flower shows. If you can catch one of those, you’ll be in for some extra treats.

Leu Gardens can be a very popular place, especially on weekends and during wedding season. I visited once when two weddings were taking place and almost got knocked over by two photographers running backwards photographing a wedding party. The weddings can sometimes block off areas in the park too. Another time I visited was on a Friday morning and I had most of the place to myself. So I’d suggest you try to avoid the weekends and weddings if you can.

Other:

Adult admission is $7.00, children in grades K – 12 are $2.00. If you can visit on the first Monday of the month, admission is free.

I did see some birds there during my visit including Cardinals, Woodpeckers, and Northern Mockingbirds, among others. And the birdsong adds a nice soundtrack to your stroll.

Summary

Please visit my Leu Gardens set on Flickr to see more examples of the photo ops you might find there. I’m sure if you go, you come up with many others. If you do, let me know about it.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157629660062855/with/7012298391/
Website:	http://www.leugardens.org/index.htm
Address / Phone:	1920 North Forest Avenue, Orlando, FL; Phone: 407-246-2620
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Botanical beauty. A great place for a walk with many fine photo opportunities.

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

Digital Infrared Photography – a post processing example

March 10, 2012Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, TechniqueCypress, equipment, infrared, landscape, treeEd Rosack

Introduction

If you’ve read through my blog or looked at my photostream on Flickr, you’ll already know that I enjoy black and white photography and occasionally post B&W images. Removing color from a scene abstracts reality – and emphasizes shapes, composition, and texture. The image becomes a bit unreal, but since we’re used to B&W – not too unreal. This makes B&W a great way to make your images stand out.

Another way to make your images stand out is by using infrared (IR) film or an IR modified camera:

IR captures a portion of the spectrum of light that’s different from what your eyes can see.
The spectral response makes blue sky look dark and foliage bright. This reverses a normal daylight scene’s brightness values, helps tame contrast, and allows you to shoot even when the sun is high in the sky.
You can interpret this alternate version of reality by processing your IR photo as B&W or various types of false color images.
IR can sometimes also capture details that aren’t seen with visible light.
If you use a modified digital camera, you may see improved detail in your photos, since the conversion process removes the anti-aliasing filter that most digital cameras use to slightly blur the image during capture (and remove Moire patterns and other aliasing artifacts).

I’ve gotten some questions about my infra-red images. And I haven’t written anything about technique recently, so in this post, I’ll go into detail about a recent IR image I made. I’m relatively inexperienced at this, but as a IR n00b I’ve learned a few things that may come in handy if you want to try it.

Messy knees: Cypress trees on the south shore of Lake Jesup. Cypress trees and their roots are good subjects, especially along the water where they’re usually found. The light hitting these tree trunks and the Spanish Moss also caught my eye. I’m still playing around with infra-red. There’s a range of post processing options available. I was hoping that this false color version looks just alien enough to make people take a second look. Click here to view a larger version of this photo on Flickr.

Camera

I use an Olympus E-PL1 modified for IR by http://www.lifepixel.com/ and I’m very pleased with the result.

Using a micro 4/3 camera has advantages for IR:

Older models like the E-PL1 are relatively inexpensive;
They have a large sensor (compared with compact cameras) which helps image quality;
They use the sensor for contrast type focusing so there are no focus calibration issues that can occur in a DSLR
Most have RAW format capture available

Settings

I shoot in RAW, not jpeg. For IR, it would be tough to get all the settings perfect in camera. Plus, there are a lot of post processing options which you’d give up if you only capture jpeg.

White balance is one thing that you should set. If you shoot in RAW, white balance can be adjusted in post processing. But setting a white balance in camera is important since it lets you judge your shots on the LCD screen as you take them. Unless you set a custom (preset) white balance all IR images would look very red. On my E-PL1 I use a temperature setting of 2000K which is as low as it will go. This camera has no tint adjustment, so photos still look blue, but it’s good enough for judging exposure.

Workflow

Here are 7 versions of this photo that show the processing steps I went through along the way. Don’t be alarmed – this is quicker and easier than it sounds.

1-Messy knees__IR21042 — This is the RAW photo straight out of the camera. My custom white balance adjustment isn’t able to completely correct the IR spectrum so there’s a pronounced bluish tint.

2-Messy knees__IR21042 — This is the image after white balance and levels adjustment in Photoshop. Other initial adjustments in LR or Photoshop may include a bit of noise reduction, lens corrections (if available), cropping / straightening, and spot removal.

Messy knees — In this version, I’ve used several copies of the same scene (shot from a tripod) to smooth the water’s surface and make the trees / knees stand out more.

4-Messy knees — This version has a Channel Mixer preset adjustment layer (red and blue colors swapped). Debra Sandige’s IR page (listed in the references below) has detailed steps on how to do this in Photoshop.

5-Messy knees — A Hue / Saturation / Brightness adjustment layer was used to modify the Hue in the cyan and blue channels so it looks a bit more natural.

6-Messy knees — This is after final adjustments in Lightroom: clarity(+47), vibrance (+24), medium contrast tone curve, sharpening with edge mask. (note: this is the same image as at top of post).

7-Messy knees — For comparison, a black and white conversion of the final false color image. I like the false color version better.

References

You can find out more about Infrared photography at these places:

This Wikipedia article has some background information on infrared photography – especially film techniques.
I had my camera converted by LifePixel and was extremely pleased with the result. They have a huge amount of IR information including tutorials, FAQs, and a blog on their website.
I read and enjoyed Debra Sandige’s recent book about IR photography. She’s very creative and presents a lot of good information. She has a page on her website with IR information.
Lloyd Chambers also has an intro to infra-red on his site and offers a paid site with more info.
The Khromagery website has several good articles on IR cameras and processing. They also offer an IR Photoshop action as a free download.

Conclusions?

So, is IR an infatuation? Will I use it for a while and then let it fade away? Will I only bring it out for special photo ops as inspiration? Will it take over my photo life to the exclusion of all other approaches? Who can say? You’ll just have to keep reading my blog and see what happens. Along with me.

You can visit my IR set on Flickr to see more examples of what I’ve done. What do you think? Is IR photography something you’d like to explore?

[Additional info, added 1/24/2014]:

https://edrosack.com/2014/01/12/infrared-updates/
Infrared Photography Follow Up (April 2012)

Three photos

March 3, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando Wetlandsbirds, infrared, landscape, Palm Warbler, sunriseEd Rosack

Five of us from the Photography Interest Group had a pleasant walk at Orlando Wetlands Park this morning. Here are three photos I made.

Water, trees and sky – made with my Infra Red modified Olympus E-PL1 and converted to black and white.

The view looking east at dawn this morning. The city did a lot of work last winter in this area. There’s more clear water now than there used to be and I think it’s much more scenic.

Palm Warbler – another life bird for me. I’ve seen these before, but this is my best photo of one and the first time I’ve actually identified the bird.

You can see other photos I’ve made at OWP in these sets on Flickr: set 1, set 2, set 3.

The Falcon and the Redheads

February 26, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Merritt Island NWRbirds, BPWD, infrared, jetty, landscape, Peregrine Falcon, Reddish Egret, Redhead duckEd Rosack

Another trip yesterday to the east central coast of Florida: Jetty Park in Cocoa and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (Black Point Wildlife Drive) in Titusville. Wow – it was a poor day for sunrise photos, an OK day for bird photography, and a great day for birding!

Dawn yesterday was nothing to get up for – cloudy, dim, no color. But we were up and out, so I made a photograph anyway.

Danger

That taken care of, I switched cameras and used the Sigma 150-500mm to scout shorebirds. There were many Gulls (Laughing, Ring-Billed, Herring), Pelicans and Black Vultures, a few Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, Northern Mockingbirds, and Ospreys, and a Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret. I also saw a couple of Hawks and was puzzled by the look of this one that flew over the jetty and out into the inlet until I got home and did some research. I’ve never seen a Peregrine Falcon in the wild before yesterday!

Peregrine Falcon

Reddish Egret in the surf – quite a “do”

By the time we moved up the coast to MINWR, it was a bit brighter and the conditions were better for photography. We’d heard about a sighting of a Redhead duck and wanted to see if we could find it. We came across it about half way round the drive on the right hand side swimming with several other ducks. I think it’s amazing how a few bits of data over the internet can lead to sighting a semi-rare (for Florida) bird. With so much information available it’s a great time to enjoy this kind of thing.

Redhead duck

Other birds we saw on BPWD: American Avocets, Common Snipe, Lesser Yellowlegs, American Robins, Roseate Spoonbills, Gulls, Belted Kingfishers, Northern Harrier, Northern Shovelers, Coots, Greebes, Green Wing Teals, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, Snowy Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Great Egrets, and others.

Once again, a wonderful day outside in our natural Florida paradise.

I’ve posted a few more of my photos on Flickr. You can see them in this Jetty Park set and this MINWR set.

Jetty Park and Merritt Island – 12 Feb 2012

February 18, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Merritt Island NWRbirds, BPWD, Eastern Meadowlark, jetty, landscape, Northern Pintail, Scrub Ridge Trail, sunriseEd Rosack

We had another very nice photo outing last weekend. We stopped first at Jetty Park in Cocoa for sunrise and to check out the shore birds. It was quite cold (for Florida) – about 32 degrees F with a 15 – 20 mph wind – brisk! We saw Brown Pelicans, Northern Gannets, Ruddy Turnstones, Royal Terns, and several types of gulls.

Dawn at Jetty Park: There wasn’t a lot of color in the sky, but I still like how this turned out

Next we went by the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (East Gator Road, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Scrub Ridge Trail, and the visitor’s center). MINWR continues to have large numbers and many types of birds. We saw several unusual ones (a Sora, Clapper Rail, Eastern Meadowlark) and many of the regular visitors (Redwing Blackbirds, Norther Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Ring Neck Ducks, Blue Wing Teals, Redish Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Tri-color Herons, Little Blue Herons, Little Egrets, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Coots, Morehens, etc.).

Male Northern Pintail

Eastern Meadowlark

There were disappointments at a few of the normal spots: The Great Horned Owl wasn’t on its nest, the Painted Buntings weren’t at the Visitor Center, and there weren’t any Florida Scrub Jays on Scrub Ridge Trail. But there weren’t any mosquitoes there either!

Jetty Park and MINWR are fantastic places to visit and very active now. If you haven’t been recently, go! You can see more photos I’ve made at these places here, here, and here.