Tag: Stephen Shelley Photography

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.

 

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.

Biscayne National Park Workshop

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This past Sunday I rode along with the Kendall Camera Club to Biscayne National Park for a photography workshop led by park volunteer and professional photographer Arend Thibodeau.  I had a great time learning about Biscayne National Park and seeing what photo opportunities exist near the visitor center.

Biscayne National Park is 95% water.  The non-water portion primarily consists of small islands stretching throughout Biscayne Bay.  For this workshop, we stayed on the mainland and focused on the enviroment surrounding The Dante Fascell Visitor Center.

The water in Biscayne Bay is clear blue and teaming with aquatic wildlife.  We started our workshop by walking a mangrove surrounded boardwalk and walking trail that takes you along the shores of Biscayne Bay.  Depending on the tide, there are great landscape opportunities in the late afternoon if you have a low sun angle and billowing clouds.  The shoreline is covered in mangrove roots and rocks making for some interesting foreground subjects for any landscape shot.  I also used some of the park benches as a foreground object and liked the effect.

There were a fair number of terns, gulls, egrets and cormorants if birds are what you are looking for.  However, there are much better photography locations for birds such as Everglades National Park.  There are also very large land crabs that are present in the park but they are very elusive and non-cooperative.  Lastly, for those photographers who like people, the boardwalk and walking path also had a good number of fisherman or others just enjoying the park making candid people shots another option while here.

On the other side of the Dante Fascell Visitor center is a concrete walking path around the parking lot that is surrounded by various palm trees and other natural plants that make for some easy access flora and fauna shots.

I had a good time discovering Biscayne National Park and hope to go back again when I have better light and more interesting clouds.  We were there around mid-day with very little cloud cover resulting in very contrasty landscapes with harsh light and dark shadows.  Below are some of the shots I captured while walking around.

Click on the Thumbnails for full size images.

 

Everglades National Park Astrophotography Trip

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I have not been on a dedicated astrophotography trip in almost 2 years.  The last time I went was during the summer.  I wanted to see if the crisp cool air made the visibility and resulting photography any better than the heavy humidity laden summer air.  I also wanted to see if the Milky Way was visible during the winter time here in South Florida.

The answer to both questions is that yes the cool crisp air makes for better visibility however the Milky Way is not visible in the winter night sky in the northern hemisphere.  The Milky Way moved below the horizon right around the time of sunset.  It will not be visible again at night until the late spring early summer.  Therefore, although shooting during the winter time is more enjoyable due to cooler temperatures and better visibility, the subject matter is less captivating without the Milky Way visible in the night sky.

I took a few shots but primarily spent my time scouting for future trips when the Milky Way reappears.

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Thanksgiving Cruise 2013

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This year for Thanksgiving I went on a cruise with my wife to the Southern Caribbean.  We sailed on the Carnival Breeze to the ports of Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curacao and Aruba.  I spent more time relaxing than I did taking photos but did manage to capture a few good images to bring back home with me.  This was also the first time using my new Canon 5d Mark III full frame camera.  My prior camera was a crop sensor Canon t2i.  I am very happy with my choice and upgrade.

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NASCAR Drivers at Homestead-Miami Speedway Ford 400

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A few shots I got of the drivers at the Ford 400 Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  While I was shooting the practice on Friday I was able to get a few shots of the drivers getting into or out of there cars.

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NASCAR Championship 2013 at Homestead-Miami Speedway

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Finally got a chance to pick up my camera and do some photography after an almost 6 month hiatus.  Took the opportunity to head out to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the NASCAR Championship races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I got a few good shots of the Friday night truck race and one or two of the Nationwide series race.  Unfortunately, I had other commitments on Sunday and although I was able to watch the race could not sneak away to capture any images.  This was also my first time shooting a night race.

For the night time shots I used an ISO of 1600.  My goal was to keep my shutter speed around 1/125 to 1/160 of a second in order to show the movement of the cars around the track.  I used the 70-200 IS II with a 1.4x iii teleconverter.

Click on the Thumbnail for the full size image.

 

Photography to be sold at RF Orchids

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I am excited to announce that my photography will be available for sale at RF Orchids in Homestead, Florida.  RF Orchids address is 28100 SW 182nd Ave  Homestead, FL 33030.  RF Orchids sells high quality orchids of every variety in addition to fine art.

Presently, I have on display four (4) photos printed on canvas and gallery wrapped.  There are two birds/avian photos, one roseate spoonbill and one great blue heron, and two (2) flower photos, one ghost orchid and one cardinal air plant/bromeliad.

Roseate Spoonbill 16×20.  Great Blue Heron 16×24.  Black and White Ghost Orchid 10×20 limited edition #23/120.  Hybrid Cardinal Air Plant/Bromeliad 16×24 limited edition #21/120.