Piers, Pilings and U-Turns

A Groupon deal came along for a hotel in Dunedin, a place I have been wanting to visit for awhile. So, I jumped on the deal and booked a room for a quick weekend trip. My main objective was to shoot the sunset at Honeymoon Island State Park and also the old wooden pilings in Dunedin. With only time for one sunset location, I choose Honeymoon Island and thought I could photograph the pilings in the morning.

Reddington Fishing Pier

On the journey to Dunedin, I did some scouting of other areas close by. I actually started in St. Petersburg at Reddington Pier. It's a nice old wooden fishing pier. After that I stopped at the Seacoast Seabird Sanctuary. Many birds are being rehabilitated there but there are many free roaming birds hanging around. A few steps away on the beach were numerous species of shore birds who are not bothered by people. It was also beastly hot so I moved on.

Next was Clearwater and Pier 60, but by now the beach was way too crowded and I was not interested in paying $5.00 to park for a few minutes. The last stop before Dunedin was the Heritage Museum in Largo. I wanted to go back and take some HDR photos of the old garage with the wide angle lens I had rented for the weekend.

Heritage Museum in Largo

Dunedin is a nice small town on the water and really close to Honeymoon Island State Park. The Pinellas Trail runs through the town, but I will wait until cooler weather to bring my bike. After checking into the hotel and getting some early dinner, I drove over to Honeymoon Island. I checked out several spots before I ended up at the end of the island that is less inhabited and more rocky. I found the spot I wanted for sunset just as the sky changed from clear to dark, ominous looking clouds rapidly moving west. Pretty soon the sky was overall grey and the torrential rains came. Sitting in the car I watched as everyone there eventually left. I decide that I had no where to go so I waited out the storm. Ten minutes before the sun was supposed to set, it started to clear a bit. I grabbed my gear, wrapped in plastic, my umbrella and headed to the beach. I wasn't leaving without a few shots. The state park closes ten minutes after sunset so I was rushing to get shots and get leave.

Honeymoon Island an hour before sunset

North beach at Honeymoon Island as the storm clears.

The next morning I got up early to try and get some shots of the old pilings in Dunedin. I parked close by and set up to get some long exposures. The sun was rising behind me so the light was mostly flat. The sky was mostly cloudless and the water was fairly still. One solitary sailboat was anchored out in the harbor.