A rendering of a brilliantly orange sunrise over Stiltsville in Biscayne National Park. This is the Baldwin, Sessions House.
Stiltsville Brilliantly Orange Sunrise
Tag: sunset
Naples, Florida Colorful Beach Sunset
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.
Long Pine Key Campground Sunset
I ran out to Everglades National Park yesterday after work to try and capture a sunset. Yesterday was very hazy due to the Saharan Dust in the air and I was hoping this would translate into a vibrant sunset. I decided to try a spot I know near Long Pine Key and capture the sun setting behind the pine trees.
Due to all the rain we have been getting this year, the water levels are up and most of the normal low areas have at least a few inches of water flowing over the land. This was the case at my sunset spot as the walking trail was covered in up to six (6) inches of water. I used the flooded trail as a leading line in my photo taking the viewer to the setting sun. I tried to balance the scene with a yearling pine tree that was growing next to the trail. I was pretty happy with the results, capturing one shot with a sunburst and another after the sun set with the glowing thunderhead in the distance.
After the sun had set I turned around and shot the rising moon over the pine trees using the same flooded trail as a leading line to the moon.
Fakahatchee Strand Ghost Orchid and Turner River Road Sunset
I took a trip back to the Fakahatchee Strand in an attempt to capture a ghost orchid shot I was happy with. The first trip produced some good photos, the second not any. I figured the third time would be the charm. I did get a few ghost orchid shots that I was happy with this trip but do not know if they will make the website.
This particular orchid is up high resulting in having to point the camera upward to photograph it. Unfortunately, this also results in getting blowouts from the bright sunlight coming through the dense canopy of trees. The last time I shot it there were so many blowouts behind the orchid it distracted from the orchid and killed the shot. This time I went later in the afternoon when the sun angle was lower. There were still blowouts but not as many and in better controllable areas of the shot.
When I first got there the sun was still higher in the sky and was directly in my shot. I decided to try and create a sunburst in my image with the ghost orchid in the foreground. I accomplished my goal but not sure I like the final product. The sunburst is unique but also distracting.
After shooting the orchid I went over to Turner River Road to shoot a sunset with the same lilies I had used as a foreground subject for the lighting storm I shot there last week. I captured two sunset shots that I was really happy with and will likely make the limited edition everglades gallery on my website. Both sunset lily photos are HDR’s to account for the dramatic differences in exposures needed to capture both the foreground lily and the bright sun.
Florida Keys Photography
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.
