Tag Archives: rainbow

What is that?

Merritt Island NWR, , , , , , , , ,

As I was starting home from Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge yesterday morning, I decided to make one last stop along the causeway. Looking around, I noticed something in the distance rolling around in the water. I couldn’t tell what it was and I wasn’t carrying the long lens, so I walked over to the car to get it. I thought it’d be gone by the time I got back but it wasn’t. This is the first image I made:

What it that?

I still couldn’t see it really well in the view finder. I thought it might be a manatee’s head or maybe even part of a dolphin. Then I saw this:

Cormorant vs. fishCormorant vs. fish

So now I knew what it was! The bird struggled for several minutes trying to swallow that huge fish. It would hold it under water for a while (changing its grip?) before bringing it back up in the air. It eventually got it arranged just right and managed to get it all down. This was the fish’s final view of things – Circle of Life.

Eye to eye: Cormorant vs. fishEye to eye

The weather on this trip was somewhat unusual. I almost always go over there in the mornings. One reason why is that it hardly ever rains early in the day. Most of our rain comes down in afternoon thunderstorms. But this time there was a big downpour as I drove around Black Point Wildlife Drive and even a rainbow!

Wetland rainbowWetland rainbow

Overall, birds are still a bit scarce out there. I did see some of our usual ones including Pie Billed Grebes, a Red-shouldered Hawk, Ospreys, Great and Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Tri-colored and Little Blue Herons, Mourning Doves, Common Gallinules, American Coots, a few gulls and terns, Anhingas, and (of course) Cormorants. And Jim Boland reports that there are two Bald Eagles hanging out near stop 11 on BPWD although I wasn’t looking for them and didn’t spot them. I also saw a few fast, un-identified tiny birds (UTBs?), a Belted Kingfisher, and some Blue-winged Teals – so maybe more winter visitors will arrive soon.

I’ll leave you with one more photo from the trip. I stitched this together from 21 frames  made with my IR modified camera. I’m not sure who / what left that vehicle track there – maybe rangers doing some maintenance? Seems like a great place to get stuck. Anyway I think this gives you an idea of the landscape in the area.

Black Point vistaBlack Point vista: Monochrome, IR, stitched panorama

You can view many more of my Merritt Island National Wildlife photos in this album on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/albums/72157627776386723. And you can scroll for a long time through posts on this blog about MINWR and Black Point Wildlife Drive at this link: https://edrosack.com/category/photo-ops-in-florida/merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge/

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. I hope you all are staying safe, and taking care of yourselves, your friends, and your families. And if you don’t recognize something, keep watching – you might get a photo out of it!

©2020, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Counting our Blessings

VARIOUS, ,

Hurricane news has dominated this week, and it’s been hard to think much about photo ops.  Irma’s path through the Caribbean and Florida left huge swaths of devastation –  destroying lives, homes, livelihoods, and infrastructure.  The Keys are especially hard hit.  I’m sure you’ve seen reports so I won’t repeat them here.

I will let you know that our family is counting our blessings.  We have some roof damage, and we’re dealing with a few other repairs (and damage from the Equifax leaks too!) but all of our utilities are working.  There are many places close-by that are still without power.  It seems like most businesses in Central Florida are gradually re-stocking and re-opening – so unlike some, we’re able to get groceries and gas.

Bright Double Rainbow after Hurricane IrmaBright Double Rainbow after Hurricane Irma – Our daughter MK (and her cat Milo) stayed with us during the storm and when the Orange County Florida curfew ended on Monday night, we drove her back to her place. On the way home, we saw this incredibly bright double rainbow and stopped in the empty McDonald’s parking lot to make a photo with my iPhone. The skies were clearing and hopefully it’s a sign that everyone affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are on the way back to recovery.

There’s still a lot of flooding in Florida and more is forecast.  In our area, Lake Jesup is over its banks and may go higher.  I’m guessing that  the flood waters will drown the late September / early October sunflower fields along the north side of the lake this year, similar to what happened in 2008 after Tropical Storm Fay.  Even if they do bloom, getting out to them will be a soggy mess at best.  We’ll probably have to wait for next year.  Hopefully then we’ll be wondering about photo ops again instead of storms.

To everyone suffering from the effects of the recent hurricanes, our hearts go out to you.  For the rest of us that haven’t suffered as much – take time to remember how lucky we are and what’s really important.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  I’ll try to get back to the normal blog articles  soon.
©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Followed by Rain Clouds

Cruise Ships, OUTSIDE FLORIDA,

The weather was poor at times on our eastern Caribbean cruise late last year.  We had strong winds and high seas on two days that kept us from doing things we wanted.  And it seemed like clouds and rain followed us everywhere.

I didn’t mind.  I’ve written before about the benefits of clouds in landscape photography – clear blue skies can be boring!  And so I looked for interesting clouds and lighting:

Saba IslandSaba Island – Near the British Virgin Islands. 9 frame stitched panorama.

And started noticing rainbows too.  You can’t have rainbows without rain clouds!

Double Rainbow at Saba IslandDouble Rainbow at Saba Island – 4 frame, iPhone, RAW, stitched panorama.

We were in Road Town Harbor as squalls moved through, and saw this  rainbow develop across from the ship.  I looked for but didn’t see a pot of gold (or leprechaun) in the water at either end!

Rainbow in Road Town HarborRainbow in Road Town Harbor – 3 frame, iPhone, RAW, stitched panorama.

On another day in San Juan harbor we saw this:

Rainbows over the cruise shipRainbows over the cruise ship, San Juan, Puerto Rico – single frame, iPhone, RAW

Cloudy skies add interest, and chasing rainbows is fun photography.  I really didn’t mind being followed by rain clouds.  You shouldn’t either – look for all the opportunities it creates.

You can see more photos from the trip in this album on Flickr.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some cloudy sky photos!

©2017, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Back home from Alaska

Alaska, Cruise Ships, , ,

Lynn and I are so fortunate.  We’re home again after a wonderful vacation! Round trip, we traveled 5,092 statute miles by air to / from Seattle and 1930 nautical miles by ship, as far as Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Along the way we visited our good friends, the Sullivans. We saw beautiful sunsets and sunrises, glaciers, mountain vistas, humpback and killer whales, sea lions, harbor seals, otters, many birds including bald eagles, a bear blob, and several types of fish including spawning salmon. We saw the sites and shopped in Seattle, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria, panned for gold and went to salmon bake dinners. The Holland America MS Westerdam is a superb ship, with a fine crew, although we were also thrilled by roller coaster like rides through gale force winds and 25+ foot seas.

Photography wise, it was a target rich environment, but the weather was mostly overcast with fog, low clouds and frequent rain. I took too much photo gear, but since I had it with me, I used most of it. I made thousands of photographs and my friend Sully made thousands more. Many of these are bracketed or panorama sets. I plan to go through them, choose the selects, and post process them as time permits. Hopefully there will be a few that are worth sharing here on this blog and in some galleries. I think that the next three or four of my posts will all be Alaska related. I also want to go through and create a photo book about our trip.

But we just got home, we’re tired, and we have to go to work tomorrow. For now, here’s one photo I really like.  We saw this rainbow on our first day at sea, about an hour after leaving Seattle.

IMG_0506-2