Mother's Day at Lowry Park Zoo

Finally made it to the zoo in Tampa. One more place crossed off my "photography places to visit" list. I hope I will make more visits to the Lowry Park Zoo. It is a good place to photograph animals since they are all in natural environments and there are not too many barriers to shoot through. Even places where there is a mesh, it is possible to focus past it and it doesn't show up in the image. The Safari Ride was not operational which would have provided some behind the scenes views of the zoo. Maybe next time it will be working. I used a 70-200 mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter. In most cases there was a railing or post to lean the lens against for stability.

Bok Tower Botanical Gardens

Seven Swans a Swimming

Swans are hatching all over the place at Lake Eola. Its hard to walk around the lake without stopping in awe of the tiny fuzz balls. I went down there to take some photos and also get some exercise. I ended up only walking a mile but came home with lots of photos.

St. Augustine Birding and PhotoFest

Although I only spent one day at the actual Birding and Photofest, I did go back on Saturday and played tourist. I just love St. Augustine because there is so much history. Most places in Florida seem so new compared to other places. Not so much with St. Augustine. We toured Castillo San Marcos since it was  National Parks week and the price was free. We also toured Flagler College. It is an amazing place and they let us take photos as long as we didn't use flash.

Beach at Marineland



I took three classes at the Whitney Lab on Thursday. I was especially excited to take Deb Sandidge's infrared class. Now I am researching the options to convert a camera to infrared. I learned about Action and Flight Photography from Kevin Karlson and De-mystifying Flash from Chas Glatzner.Now, its time to practice the techniques I learned. Can't wait for next year.

Flagler College formerly a hotel

The ornate ceiling Inside Flagler College

This was the largest indoor swimming pool at Hotel Alcazar

1955 Chrysler Imperial parked outside Casa Monica

Texture overlay on photo of the HMS Bounty Tall ship

Photography Workshop in Charleston



Oak Alley at Magnolia Plantation with the Singh-Ray Tony Sweet Soft focus filter



Magnolia Plantation Cypress Swamp




Magnolia Plantation





Slave Cabin HDR at Magnolia Plantation




Botany Bay with Texture Overlay




Cypress Gardens




Folly Beach Pier at Sunrise




Folly Beach Pier at Sunrise


I spent the first week of April in Charleston attending the Tony Sweet Photography workshop. It was an incredible week, with great people, excellent weather and an awesome instructor. I can't wait to do another workshop with Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone.

Bird Babies!!

Great Blue Herons nesting at Viera Wetlands

Great White Egret with babies at Gatorland

Catbird at Gatorland, and they really sound like a cat!

The weather was perfect over the Easter weekend. I finally found the time to get back over to Viera hoping I wasn't too late for some herons on the nest. Patience paid off and I caught the mom visiting the nest to feed the youngsters. I also made a trip out to Gatorland for their early entry to the rookery. Again I waited a long time to catch a shot where all of the babies were visible. This one nest was the only one where the vegetation wasn't obscuring views to the birds. I did clone out a fair amount of branches behind the mother bird.

The Big Day

Having recently watched the movie, The Big Year, I was excited to be out with a friend to explore some new birding trails. We headed out early to  a popular spot called Joe Overstreet which is south of St. Cloud and near Kenansville. Early morning fog made the sunrise spectacular. Both sides of the road had pasture land and sod farms. Meadowlarks were spotted on the fence posts, eagles soaring over the trees and sand hill cranes in the pastures. A group of cows came walking over to see why we were so excited about a small, yellow bird. There is something special about being out in the early morning away from the crowds of the city. At the end of the road is Lake Apopka and a boat ramp. Birds were plentiful at the waters edge.
The second stop was Three LakesWildlife Management Area. There seemed to be fewer birds, but we did get to see a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a new baby. I was really hoping  to see Crested Caracaras but didn't see any at the first two birding trails. We were heading back to town when I spotted a pair of caracaras on a telephone pole. I did get one recognizable shot of one of them flying away. One last stop in St. Cloud at the waterfront park where we added a few more species including a limpkin.
It was great fun exploring new areas and trying to see as many species of birds as possible. And it was The Big Day! At least for now.

An Eastern Medowlark posed on the fence post.