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Pine Glades Lake Sunset

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I went down to Everglades National Park after work on Tuesday to meet up with my friend Robert Chaplin at Pine Glades Lake to try and photograph a sunset.  Robert has been teaching a photography workshop in Everglades National Park all this week and I told him I would come down to meet his class.

I decided while I was down there to borrow Robert’s Canon 8-15 fisheye lens and give it a try.  I primarily like to shoot wide angle with my Canon 16-35 Is II.  I have always thought about trying a fisheye for getting an even wider perspective but to date have not had the opportunity.  My wallet may regret trying out his lens.

I set up my shot using the rocks and shoreline to lead the viewers eyes to the post sunset glow.  My first few shots had my tripod legs in them as I did not realize how wide a fisheye’s perspective actually was.  I also used HDR to take three exposures to compensate for shooting directly into the light.  This allowed me to capture the detail in the rocks and water as well as not have any blow outs where the sun had just set.  It turned out to be a beautiful sunset with rich color and great reflections.

I may just start looking around for a good used fisheye of my own.

Pine Glades Lake
Pine Glades Lake

 

Cigar/Cowhorn Orchid

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Yesterday I ran out to Everglades National Park to check on a Cowhorn Orchid I found last year but never got to go back and photograph.  The orchid is in full bloom but looks as if the blooms are already starting to wither.  There were also some other orchids in bloom nearby.  The wind was really whipping making it impossible to get a crisp shot of the blooms.  I took a few shots but did not really like any of the results.  I may try to sneak back out there this weekend and hopefully with better conditions capture an image I will like.

Reddish Egret Dance at Eco Pond

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I decided to head back down to Eco Pond on Monday morning to spend some more time trying to photograph the birds.  Last time I was there I had to rush off and leave before the birds had really become very active.  This time I could stay until it got too hot or the birds left whichever happened first.

Just like on Saturday, there were about the same number of birds and variety of birds.  Although this time I also saw a pileated woodpecker.  The pileated woodpecker looks like woody woodpecker the cartoon with the tall triangular pointed red head.  I would have like to have captured him in flight but he never got close enough.

I did get some more shots of the lone reddish egret fishing/dancing across the pond.  The reddish egret was very active this morning and was using all of his fishing tricks to catch breakfast.  He did his dance across the water as well as his raised wings pretend shade trick.  It was if nothing else entertaining to watch.

The roseate spoonbills still were not very active and just sat across the pond on the dead branches before eventually just flying away.  I will give it a few more weeks before trying back to see if more birds have arrived and the activity level increases.

Before heading home I also walked some of the Coastal Prairie Trail at the south-west end of the flamingo campground.  I plan on coming back when I have the time and energy to walk the entire length.  All in all it was a good morning of photography and time spent in the Everglades.

Click on the thumbnails for the full image.

Everglades National Park Eco Pond 2014

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Had the pleasure of being asked to give a presentation to the Focus on Parks Miami Dade youth group about my photography and passion for Everglades National Park.  The presentation took place at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park.  The group consisted of about 20 middle school children who were going to be spending the next two (2) days in Everglades National Park learning about the ecosystems, conservation and photography.  This was many of the children’s first time visiting the Everglades and they were excited to see the birds, alligators and other wildlife up close and personal.  The Focus on Parks Miami Dade is a six (6) week program that visits various parks throughout Miami-Dade County and gives each child a camera in which to capture their experiences and teach them about photography.  I am glad I got to be a part of their first visit to Everglades National Park.

I have not had time lately to make it out to the park so I decided to take advantage of my time in the everglades by running down to Eco Pond around sunrise prior to meeting with the kids at 10:00 AM.  Last time I checked on Eco Pond was back in December and there were almost no birds to speak of.  This time there were a good number of Roseate Spoonbills and snowy egrets, with the occasional cormorant, tri-color heron, reddish egret, king fisher, ibis, duck and osprey.  However, the birds have still not shown up in large numbers as they have in years past.  Hopefully, they are just late this year due to the warmer weather and higher water levels.

Unfortunately, I did not get to stay very long and due to the cooler morning the birds were not very active.  The Roseate Spoonbills for the most part sat stationary on the nearby driftwood.  The Reddish Egret was the most active bird in the bunch and as a result I was able to get some good shots of him flying around and fishing.  In order to make it back to the Anhinga Trail I had to leave  just as the birds started to become more active and start feeding.   Captured two decent shots of some birds in flight.  I really like the reddish egret shot.  I have a few more I may go through and post later.

 

Everglades City Museum of the Everglades Photography Exhibit

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I am excited to announce that I will be exhibiting my work at the Everglades City Museum of the Everglades during the month of February 2014.  I will be hosting a meet the artist reception on February 8 from 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM.  The title of this exhibit will be “Favorite Times in the Glades” and display many of my images from my adventures throughout the Everglades Eco System from Fish Eating Creek south to Flamingo.  I will have a handful of new pieces that I will be displaying for the first time as part of this exhibit.

The Everglades Seafood Festival will take place in Everglades City from February 7-9 and features live music, great food, vendors and arts and crafts.

The Marjory Stoneman Festival will also take place in Everglades City from February 18-22.  I hope you will put both of these fun events on your calendar and stop in and see my exhibit while you are there.  You can visit my online gallery at www.stephenshelleyphotography.com.

Naples, Florida Colorful Beach Sunset

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I attended the 29th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference in Naples, Florida this past weekend.  This is my second time attending this conference and I really enjoyed learning more about conservation, preservation and restoration issues affecting the Florida Everglades.  I also spent some time promoting the new National Park Trolley that was recently launched by the City of Homestead.  I will have another blog post specifically discussing this conference.

The purpose of this blog post is to post a few pictures I took while attending the conference.  I was able to run out to the beach Thursday night before the kick-off reception to capture what turned out to be an amazing sunset.  There was a large cloud bank out over the water that seemed like it might block the setting sun.  I looked up the azimuth of the sunset and checked it with my compass.  It turned out the sun was going to set just on the edge of the cloud bank.  I set up my camera and tripod using some nearby rocks as a foreground subject and hoped that the sun would light up the clouds once it sand below the horizon.  I got lucky and the sunset was beautiful to witness.

I used a slow shutter speed to cause the water to blur and give the image a more dramatic feel.  I used an aperture of f18 or higher to slow the shutter speed but also to give me a nice sun star as the sun sank low on the horizon.  Lastly, I used HDR to capture the full dynamic range and allow for me to see the foreground rocks as something other than black silhouettes.  I was happy with the resulting photos and will likely add one of them to my gallery of images on my website.

I also took a few shots late Friday afternoon after the conference dinner to utilize the almost full moon and empty beach.  I liked the result but would have preferred a cloudless sky or puffy clouds to the thin wispy clouds that were present.  I tried to turn the camera at an angle that would capture as little clouds as possible and more stars.  The resulting image was fun to capture and I will make a note to try and do some more full moon light photography in the future.

Click on Thumbnail for full size image.

 

City of Homestead Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks Designation

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The City of Homestead recently passed a resolution designating and branding itself as the “Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.”  I collaborated with the National Parks Service and the National Parks Conservation Association to present this concept to my fellow colleagues on the City of Homestead Council.  I am excited that my colleagues unanimously passed this resolution and support the concept of linking the City of Homestead to its two neighboring National Parks, Everglades and Biscayne.

The purpose of branding the City of Homestead as the Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks is twofold.  The first is to capitalize on the ecotourism generated by these parks annually.  Each year more than 1.5 million visitors visit both Everglades and Biscayne National Park each year.  Presently many of these visitors are bypassing the City of Homestead on their way to our neighboring national parks.  By branding the City of Homestead as the Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National parks, as well as creating National Parks themed attractions, it is hoped that these visitors will begin to associate the City of Homestead with Everglades and Biscayne National Parks and plan their vacation and stay in the City of Homestead.

There are many other gateway cities that also border National Parks nationwide.  Many of these gateway cities build their entire economies around the tourists that flock to these national parks annually.  A great example is Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and every summer is packed with visitors and tourists who are entering or leaving the Smokey Mountains.  As a direct result of the tourists, Gatlinburg is filled with attractions, hotels and restaurants.  The City of Homestead is unique as it is a gateway city bordered by two national parks instead of just one, and therefore has the potential to attract and capitalize on an even more diverse group of travelers.

The second purpose is that by becoming a gateway city the City of Homestead also takes on the ability to help advocate for our neighboring National Parks.  This can be in the form of bringing attention or awareness to conservation or preservation issues or advocating for additional federal funds to help with management of the natural resources.  Working as a team, the national parks and the gateway cities are more powerful and have a stronger voice than they would merely by acting alone.

Designating the City of Homestead as a Gateway community is only the first step in a more comprehensive plan.  My goal is to advocate to enact other programming under this Gateway umbrella that will help to further build a partnership with the National Parks and attract tourism dollars to the City of Homestead.  One of the first such initiatives is the launching of the City of Homestead’s National Park Trolley service.

The National Park Trolley is a concept that I have been working on for more than two years and is a collaborative effort between the City of Homestead, the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association.  The National Park Trolley will leave from Historic Downtown Homestead and travel to Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Homestead-Bayfront Park every weekend from November through April of each year.

Riders of the National Park Trolley will not have to pay admission fees to enter any of the parks.  Also, there is a tour guide on board each trolley that will give a presentation about the history of Homestead and the National Parks as well as the surrounding agricultural lands while traveling between each destination.

The National Parks Trolley stops at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park as well as the Anhinga Trail.  In Biscayne National Park the Trolley stops at the Dante Fascell Visitors Center and also at Homestead-Bayfront Park.

For more information on the Homestead National Park Trolley or to plan your trip to any of the parks you can visit www.cityofhomestead.com/gateway.

Another concept that is being discussed and studied is an iconic attraction that will be built downtown only blocks away from the National Park Trolley stop.  The iconic attraction is presently slated to contain an Everglades themed IMAX theatre like entertainment ride as well as a satellite Everglades National Park and/or Biscayne National Park Visitors Center.  If constructed, this iconic attraction will help to increase the likelihood that the City of Homestead will be the central hub for visitors planning trips to either national park and hopefully lead to other attractions, restaurants and hotels to service the increase in visitors and tourists to the area.

I am very excited about these projects and very thankful for the many people who have worked so hard on these projects and this concept with me.  I hope that this is the beginning of a new direction and identity for the City of Homestead and look forward to working on more new projects in the future.

Now that these projects are completed and underway I hope to have a little more free time to get back out and enjoy these parks myself before I get bogged down with a new project.

City of Homestead Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Park

City of Homestead National Parks Trolley

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Today I am excited to announce that the City of Homestead launched its free National Park Trolley Service.  The National Park Trolley will provide free transportation from Downtown Historic Homestead to both Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.  The trolley will also make stops at Homestead-Bayfront Park.  I have been working on this project for the past two (2) years and I am excited that this concept has now been implemented.  This project is a collaboration between the City of Homestead, the National Parks Service and the National Parks Conservation Association.

Riders of the National Park Trolley will not have to pay admission fees to enter any of the parks.  Also, there is a tour guide on board each trolley that will give a presentation about the history of Homestead and the National Parks as well as the surrounding agricultural lands while traveling between each destination.

The National Parks Trolley stops at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park as well as the Anhinga Trail.  In Biscayne National Park the Trolley stops at the Dante Fascell Visitors Center and also at Homestead-Bayfront Park.  The National Park Trolley operates every weekend from January through April this spring.  In the fall, the National Park Trolley will begin running in November and run through April of 2015.

For more information on the Homestead National Park Trolley or to plan your trip to any of the parks you can visit www.cityofhomestead.com/gateway.  I personally am thrilled about utilizing the trolley for photography excursions into both national parks this spring.

TrolleyFlyer

Everglades National Park Bobcat

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I had planned on going out this past Thursday night/Friday morning to shoot the Quadrantids Meteor shower but a cold front came through making seeing the stars impossible.  I therefore, settled for trying to shoot a sunrise and then doing a little exploring before heading back to the office for some work.  The sunrise was only mediocre, again due to the cloud cover from the cold front.  I also tried shooting a wort grass prairie but again did not capture anything good.

The highlight of the trip came from spotting a bobcat on Bear Lake Road while looking for some orchids.  The bobcat stayed on the road for quite some time giving me the opportunity to change lenses and get off a few shots before he disappeared into the woods.  I captured one image that was ok but required alot of cropping to make it usable.  It works for a documentary shot if nothing else.

Here are a few images from the trip.  Click on Thumbnail for full image.

Giminids Meteor Shower 2013

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Woke up at 2:00 AM this morning to run out to Everglades National Park to try and photograph the Giminids Meteor Shower.  The moon did not set until around 3:30 but I wanted to get out there early to figure out the best spot to shoot from.  I did not shoot the setting moon but it was a vibrant yellow and even a little orange as it sank below the horizon.

The Geminids Meteor shower started its peak this morning but is not supposed to reach its full potential until tomorrow morning.  However the moon set earlier today and I decided to give it a try when I had more time before the sunrise.  The meteors were very active and I observed hundreds over the course of 2 plus hours.  However, many were faint with only a handful of really bright fireballs.  Unfortunately, I was not able to capture many of them with my camera due to the random nature of were they would appear.  I only managed to capture one small meteor as it streaked across the sky.

I also shot a few long exposures while I was out there as well as using my flashlight to do some painting with the stars as my backdrop.  Either way I had a great time observing natures fireworks.

Click on Thumbnail for full size image.