Tag: sunset

Anhinga Trail Special Project

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I was recently commissioned by a friend to try and capture a captivating photo of the Anhinga Trail. She had a relative whose father had helped to build the Anhinga Trail back it the 1960’s but unfortunately, had recently passed away. She wanted me to capture a photo that she could then have printed in large format and present to her relative as a memento to remember her father by. I spent a couple days scouting the location and taking some test photos from different angles and different times of day to see what I thought would best accomplish the goal. I ended up capturing three (3) good images. One was a sunrise, one a sunset and one late afternoon thunderstorms. My favorite was the sunset with a sunburst. Turns out it was her favorite one as well and the one that got printed and presented as a present. I really enjoy commissioned work as it forces you to think creatively and capture images or location you might not otherwise attempt. I have walked the Anhinga Trail hundreds of times but never saw it as a good landscape location. However, because it was the location she wanted, I made the attempt and ultimately got one of my all time favorite images.

An Old Favorite: Pine Glades Lake

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I decided to take a trip into Everglades National Park and visit an old favorite photography location of mine, Pine Glades Lake. This lake is where I honed my landscape skills and spent many sunset playing with camera settings and watching lightning storms in the distance. I even shot a few starry nights and lunar eclipses here. Therefore, it felt fitting to end my photography drought by visiting this once frequented location. I noticed that some of the trees in the distance had died off either from disease or from damage sustained years earlier by Hurricane Irma. These missing trees changed the feel of the lake and possible compositions. These trees always provided an interesting distant subject matter and silhouette against colorful skies. Without these trees I decided to see what else I could use to create a captivating and interesting photo. Ultimately, I ended up using some foreground trees and a short path that fisherman used when fishing the shoreline of the lake. Also, thankfully, the skies lit up in captivating colors that were reflected off the lakes calm surface. Overall, I captured a nice image and enjoyed the serene surroundings and the feel of camera in my hands again.

Everglades With My Son

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Since my son was born 6.5 years ago I have not had much time to engage in photography as my free time was consumed by other responsibilities. As a result, my photography has primarily been focused on family time and milestone moments instead of landscapes and wildlife. Now that my son is starting to get older, I am starting to introduce him to many of my hobbies and interests which includes photography.

Over the last couple of weeks we have taken some trips into the everglades to see the wildlife, hike the trails and take pictures. He started taking one of my old point and shoot cameras with him each trip and taking pictures of birds, alligators and unique trees. He also did his first swamp walk and really loved it, except when he found a deep mud hold and sunk to his waist. But he soon got over it and wanted to go explore other new areas. As a result of his interest in nature and photography it has allowed me to pick my camera back up and start capturing some new images with him tagging along. Hopefully, he continues to show interest in hanging out with dad and spending time in nature.

On the most recent trip with him we found a solution hole that had been uncovered during the parks restorations efforts to remove all of the holly bushes from the hole in the donut area. With the holly bushes now gone, numerous solution holes that were previously hidden were now visible, including the large one that I tried to photograph. It was so large that it made framing it difficult while still capturing the sun set over the horizon. It was a very cloudy day which I was concerned would make for a bland sunset. Luckily, the undersides lit up enough to give them some color and create a dynamic scene. This was my first landscape attempt in over a year and a half so it just felt good to compose a shot.

Sunset at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse

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I was in Tallahassee for business for a few weeks and decided to spend one of my free nights at the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse with my camera. The St. Marks Wildlife Refuge is a beautiful refuge with many different habitats and wildlife. While there I saw deer, turkeys, snakes, turtles, alligators, many varieties of birds and a variety of fish. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

My main photographic focus was the historic St. Marks Lighthouse. I wanted to capture a sunset over or behind the lighthouse. I originally envisioned lots of colorful clouds but when I was there a late cold front had passed through eliminating every cloud from the sky. I also struggled to find a good perspective that was interesting and still allowed me to capture the sunset it he background. The lighthouse is surrounded by a ring of tall trees that makes it difficult to capture it from up close. Instead a distant perspective must be used to keep the trees from stealing the spotlight from the lighthouse.

I settled on a view from the coast and used the water and grass along the shoreline to help compliment the scene. I also came across a recently deceased horseshoe crab that I volunteered to help give me an interesting foreground subject. I also experimented with a nearby rock which wasn’t as interesting as the horseshoe crab but worked well also.

All in all I was happy with the resulting images and given the tough conditions to work with think they came out good.

Everglades Coalition Conference 2017 and JN Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge

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I had the opportunity to attend my 4th Everglades Coalition Conference this year to continue learning about how I can help preserve and promote the natural resources that I enjoy capturing through the lens of my camera (see prior conference posts here and here). This year the conference was held just across the bridge from Sanibel/Captiva island and a short drive to the JN Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. I arrived at the conference a day early to give me an opportunity to visit JN Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge with my camera and see if I could capture some good images of their famous birds.

Last year my job kept me very busy traveling and did not leave much time for me to engage in any photography. Therefore, one of my goals for 2017 is to make some time to engage in the hobbies I love such as photography and fishing. To kick start this goal I spent a few hours in Ding Darling before the conference started. I managed to capture a few good images of some of the native birds and even captured a very vibrant sunrise.

One of the main things I learned about Ding Darling was that the tides have a larger influence on the birding than does the time of day. In most places the best time for seeing the largest variety and number of birds is to arrive early in the morning and to a lesser extent late in the afternoon. For Ding Darling this is only true if this time of day also corresponds with the occurrence of a low tide. On my trip low tide occurred just after noon. Therefore, when I arrived in the morning there were very few birds. I spent some time exploring the refuge and identifying some good future photography locations. I almost gave up thinking that I was a little to early in the season to see large number of birds, but decided to come back after lunch.

When I returned to the park after lunch the tide was nearing low tide and the birds were congregated in large numbers wading across the shallow flats looking for food. The good news was that I was able to spend some time watching the birds wading and eating, the bad news was the harsh midday lighting made quality photography difficult. To combat this I tried to photography birds that were located in sheltered areas or were sitting with good side lighting versus overhead or back-lit. I still managed to capture some good images but I they still exhibit strong contrast of highlights and shadows.

In the late afternoon I noticed we had some great high thin clouds that I thought would make a great reflector of color after the sunset. Therefore, I decided to stick around in anticipation of a good sunset. I was not disappointed, about 15 minutes after the sunset the sky lit up a vibrant yellow, orange, pink and purple. The thin clouds absorbed this color and reflected it back down on to the shallow calm waters to amplify the colorful show. Unfortunately, I did not have any great com-positional options to compliment the great colors. I like to use foreground subjects to anchor my photos and give my photography depth. The best I could come up with at this location was using the fast tidal flow from a nearby culvert to create a moving leading line to distant birds and ultimately the vibrant sky. It works but only because the sunset was so colorful.

While I was there exploring I also came across one large and one small otter walking down the main road and swimming in one of the tidal pools. Of course I did not have my camera in my hands when I saw them and by the time I came back with it they had moved on. I saw both of them around culvert 6 at different times making me think there is likely a family residing somewhere nearby.

I recommend stopping by Ding Darling if you are in the area. It is a nicely maintained refuge and I enjoyed my time there. However, for birding I believe there are equal or better locations in the southern everglades. Therefore, I don’t know that I would recommend traveling to Ding Darling specifically for birding if you did not live nearby or if you were not already in the area. Additionally, the birds were typically fairly far away requiring a long focal length (greater than 400mm) to generate quality closeups. Also, I was there on a Wednesday and Thursday and there were still large crowds all day long. This has a tendency to take away from the general nature experience.

All bird images in the below gallery were taken using my 70-200 mark ii with 2x iii teleconverter. Most images were also cropped to give the appearance a longer focal length was used.

Fort Myers Beach Sunsets

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My whole family decided to take a family vacation this year to Fort Myers Beach. We all had a great time and Jackson had a blast hanging out with his cousins. I also used this opportunity to add to my collection of beach sunsets. We had some great clouds and great sunsets almost every night we were there. For one of the sunsets I had to have someone hold an umbrella over my camera because there was a light rain falling. This resulted in an almost uniform orange glow across the sky as the sun set. It made for a unique and very colorful photo.

Bahia Honda Bridge

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My wife has requested that I capture a creative photo of the Bahia Honda Bridge to put on one of the walls in our house. I had a vision of the image I wanted to capture and so I headed down the keys chain to see if I could make her happy. I couldn’t. The image I envisioned needed the sun to be setting at a further Azimuth south. Unfortunately, it will not be in the position I want until later on in the fall. I will plan to return in another 6 months or so and try again. I still managed to capture a nice pleasing image but not what I wanted for the particular space on our wall.

Bahia Honda Sunset

Cityscapes

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While traveling on business to Jacksonville and Tallahassee I snuck in some photography time and captured some Cityscapes just at or after sunset. I tried to use the moving car lights to create some interest and give the image an active feel. I like the results of both images. One is downtown Jacksonville and the other is the Florida Capital in downtown Tallahassee.

Myakka State Park

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I had a conference to attend in the Tampa area and decided to bring my camera with me and stop by Myakka River State Park on my way back south to Miami. I first visited Myakka years ago when I was only 10 or so but remember being impressed with its numerous and large alligators. I returned about 4 years ago for the first time since I was 10 and spent a day exploring and hiking some of the trails. This time I did not have much time to spend in the park but still enjoyed what little time I did have there.

I managed to capture some interesting landscape shots and even tracked a few deer that where skittish but curious about my presence. All in all it was a good trip. One of these days I would like to return to spend some time kayaking the river and/or camp in the campground.

Palm Island Cape Haze, Florida

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This year my family and I took a much needed vacation to Palm Island Resort in Cape Haze, Florida. Palm Island is a beautiful and quiet destination with miles of undisturbed beaches and plenty of sea shells. I brought my camera with the hope of capturing some vivid west coast sunsets. The first 3 days or so did not cooperate with cloudy and raining skies. However, the last few days made up for the first few days with some great sunsets.

The only problem I had was trying to compose the shots with something interesting in the foreground so that the image would be more dynamic. I had to get creative as nothing jumped out at me. To make it harder I was also trying to keep an eye on my one year old while trying to set up my shot. All in all I am happy with the results.

On this trip I also had an opportunity to use my Outex cover some more. I really like this cover as it gave me the opportunity to create some unique photos that would have been impossible without it. I am still figuring it out but I am making progress.