Mangrove – Stephen Shelley Photography

I ran out this morning for a quick early morning photography trip. My main purpose was to go to Eco Pond in Flamingo to see if the birds had arrived yet. However, I got talked in to getting up early enough to shoot a sunrise on the way down by Robert Chaplin who was also headed out to Everglades National Park.

We stopped at a place I have shot before but never liked any of my results. It is a location with numerous mangrove trees growing in small clumps surrounded by shallow water. In theory this spot should produce some great sunrise photos but to date has not been productive for me. This morning at least produced a photo I like compositionally but I am still not sold on it. I wish I would have had more clouds or more overall color reflected in the water. However, I still like this photo and I will continue to clean it up a little bit to see if I can get a final result I am satisfied with.

I recently was given the opportunity to tag along on a Florida Keys Workshop put on by a local Photographer Robert L. Chaplin. The workshop started out early in the morning with a trip to Anne’s Beach in the middle Keys. I captured a great shot of a Mangrove Tree illuminated by the morning sunlight with a color sky and wading Egret.

From Anne’s Beach we went further south to Robbie’s to capture some Tarpon pictures before the crowds showed up. I got two I liked.

After Robbie’s we continued further south to the old Bahia Honda bridge. Along the Bahia Honda Beach I found some driftwood that had washed ashore and had been bleached white by the sun. I used my wide angle lens to get close to it and capture a nice scene between the blue sky and water and white wooden tree. I also got a good shot of the Bahia Honda Bridge that I liked as well.

We left Bahia Honda around noon and continued our trip south where we started to encounter Florida’s thunderstorms. While we pulled over to try and capture some lighting shots I found a picturesque lagoon and waded in to try and photograph a lone mangrove I liked. I was able capture a dramatic storm cloud in the distance to give my mangrove tree a nice back drop.

We did not make it to Key West this trip as we were all getting tired. We decided to start working our way back north and home. On the way we saw a great line of thunderstorms coming in off the Atlantic and pulled over near the card sound bridge to intercept them. I got a great shot of the sun setting with a lightning strike in it surrounded by silhouettes of the nearby mangroves.

All in all it was a great trip and I am glad the Robert Chaplin invited me to tag along.