Tag Archives: Florida

Place to Rest and Contemplate

Leu Gardens
Orlando, Florida

One of my focal areas for photography is public and private gardens. I couple this interest with collecting ideas for our own landscape development of Heatherwood. Many of my photographs are simple records of interesting things elements. For others, I try to create an image that reflects the feeling I have for a specific garden design. Yet, for those special ones, I try to create an image that provides a unique perspective of what I see. My adventure through a garden is multi-dimensional. Many times I come up with ideas, but no real “keeper” images. Other times I leave with a nice portfolio of images that presents the beauty of my visit. Other times I come up with a few (maybe one) images that I feel illustrate a little creativity.

The above image is one where I am trying to create the feeling that I experienced when I saw this vignette. It is a peaceful setting where I could relax in the shade, enjoy the beauty of what is around me, and contemplate what is right with this world. It represents a design element that I am trying to create with portions of our Heatherwood landscape. Of course, here in Central Washington, the moss covered trees and tropical vegetation will be replaced with conifers, local trees, and understory vegetation.

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For the eyes of the world …

Kennedy Space Center Entrance
Merritt Island, FL

“For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon, and to the planets beyond and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.”

John F. Kennedy

Six years can make a tremendous difference. When I visited Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 2014, the attitude of many of the KSC employees was very negative. President Obama had recently cut significant funding for NASA and the Space Program. The Administration was pushing for commercial ventures to move the Space Program forward. Severe cutbacks were being made across the Program. Many KSC employees did not see a future ahead for them.

This March during our visit to KSC, things seemed quite different. There was a a flurry of activity preparing for future launches. International commercial joint ventures had taken over the responsibility for commercial launches. Programs are being put in place to return to the Moon and to launch manned space flights to Mars. Global governmental and private entities are binding together to tackle this venture. Funding is being provided by private, commercial, and governmental sources.

Where have I been? I am embarrassed to say, but my eyes have been closed to news regarding the International Space Program for years. I was totally taken back to the level of activity going on. It made me want to put my childhood “Space Cadet Wings” back on. Kennedy’s vision is moving forward!

Just check NASA’s web site for what is going on!

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Love Triangle

“The Rest of the Story”

Here is the rest of the romantic story from yesterdays post.  The male on the right is the one that is working bringing in the materials for the nest.  The one on the left is the one who is having the fun.  The female in the middle innocently looks on.  Oh well!

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An Unhappy Pair

Nesting Blue Herons – Florida

One year ago, I and a couple of great friends were getting ready to go down to Florida to photograph at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I am not a wildlife photographer, even though I work hard at it when I get a chance. What I enjoy the most is just watching the bird or animal behavior.  If a good image comes to me, I will gladly receive it.

We watched this pair of herons at a wetlands reserve between Titusville and Orlando.  They had quite an interesting behavior pattern.  The female (the one behind) was not a very faithful partner.  The male would leave the female to gather more twigs to build the nest.  While he was away, another male would fly in and mate with the female.  The first male would see the other and rush in with his beak filled with a branch chasing the second male away.  He would stay in the nest with ruffled feathers for a while, then go back out and collect more branches.  As soon as he left, the other male would fly back in.  This occurred over and over while we watched the show. 

I may be imagining this, to me it looks like the male in the foreground looks a little pissed off, while the female looks a little bored and disgruntled.

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Change of Pace

Roseate Spoonbill

I needed a little change of pace and started reviewing some photographs from an earlier wildlife photography trip.  In my review, I found this “fellow” just waiting to be processed and displayed.

Lesson Learned:  It pays to go back and review old images from time to time.

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Pay Attention!

Danger – Gator !!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had placed my full attention toward shooting the terns as they were diving.  I sat down along the path so I could brace my elbows on my knees as I followed the birds.  After we finished, I looked down and saw this young gator sunning itself less than 10 feet from my legs.  Holy XXXX, did I jump.  Even though the area had warning signs about alligators, I had not even thought about it when I sat down.  My eyes were on the birds in the sky, not at the water’s edge in front of me.  That is the rest of the story.

How many times have I focused on capturing an image without paying attention to what was around me.  This is truly a lesson learned!  Be safe out there!!!

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Flying Birds – Phase III (Difficult)

Diving Tern

Now things really get tough.  Capturing a diving tern is not easy.  They dart changing directions constantly as they fly looking for little morsels in the water.  Once they see something, they dive at 1000 miles per hour (or so it seems).  To catch a dive, I had to actively follow the bird as it darted above, keeping it in focus.  Then as soon as it makes a motion down, I start shooting and drop my camera to the water as fast as I can.  My camera shoots at 10 fps and I still caught only a couple of dives in the 250 images I shot.  We shot for about a half an hour.  I was exhausted from the concentration that I had exerted.  I was ready to quit.  But this is not the end of the story.  Wait for my next post …

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Flying Birds – Phase II (Medium)

Nesting Great Blue Herons

Now things are getting a little more difficult.  The heron’s flight path was erratic and now I had to worry about timing and composure within the frame.  Here, I was trying to capture a specific action of the male landing to bring the female branches to make a nest.  I made a lot of errors including not leaving enough room at the edges of the frame.  Many of my images clipped the wings of the heron as he landed.  Also, I had a difficult time focusing on the main subject.  There were many other things going on around me and I would try to capture them as well.  I missed several opportunities to capture special actions of this couple.

There is also a little story behind these two love birds.  Even though the male was working hard to bring the female twigs for the nest, she was not very faithful.  When he would fly to get more twigs, another male would fly in and “do its thing”.  The first male would quickly fly back to chase the second one away.  It was rather comical to watch their behavior.

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Flying Birds – Phase I (Easy)

Wood Stork at Orlando Wetlands Park

This and several other Wood Storks helped me practice panning to follow their flight patterns.  These storks would fly from one set of trees to another set of trees about 500 – 1000 yards apart.  I was on a hill positioned at right angles to their flight path.  All I had to do was to pick up their flight from one set of trees and follow it to the other set of trees.  Their flight path was straight without any erratic moves.  All I had to worry about was the correct exposure, shutter speed to freeze action, and achieving the initial focus.  Pretty easy …

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Here’s Looking At You

Florida Sandhill Crane

This guy walked right in front of me.  I had to back up to achieve focus.  The Orlando Wetlands Park was like walking in open zoo.  It was a great place to practice bird photography.  My next challenge was to try to capture birds in flight.  This turned out to be quite a bit more difficult and a subject for future posts.

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