beach Archives - Page 18 of 22

May 15, 2016May 16, 2016

East View

I’m standing on the pier at Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg looking east at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on a Sunday afternoon. That’s the bait shop on the right where you can get a few items while you fish on the pier or wait for the ferry. This is a nice place to check out if you come here to visit.

They also have a campground not too far from this spot as well. I’m born and raised in California so I’m not sure what its like to camp near the beach in Florida. When I think camping I think of mountains, lakes and streams. Wouldn’t it would be too warm for a sleeping bag? I think my three season bag would be uncomfortably hot. Maybe just a light blanket is all I’d need. The more I think about it the more I think I should try. Who knows, I might like it.

I just noticed that you can see the whole length of the main span of the Skyway from here. In total it’s about ten miles across the bay, here we see about five miles of it.

What Once Was

This is a shot of palm trunks on Egmont Key. At the far end of this deserted island is a forest of dead leafless Palm trunks on the beach. It’s an unusual sight, I’m not sure what happened, but there they are, poking out of the sand, remnants of a past event.

Perhaps it was a hurricane, about ten years ago we had several. I know of another place along a different beach with a bunch of dead tree trunks from past hurricanes, it’s a little erie and beautiful at the same time.

Two Worlds

I think the reason I gravitate to these types of images has to do with an idea. I imagine an ethereal world that coexists with the one we’re in. If more than one radio frequency can exist in the same place, perhaps it applies to other things as well. Images like this are like focusing an imaginary lens on a world nearly adjacent to our own. The image has parts of this world and parts in the next, a peek through the veil.

When I took this I was on approach to the ferry pier at Fort DeSoto Park. I sat at the front of the boat as we returned from Egmont Key. My idea was to capture the pier from the perspective of the water, yet I wasn’t quite satisfied with the result. That’s when my right brain took over and I imagined a world just out of vision yet overlapping with this.

some of my favorite images from the gallery

I suppose another reason I gravitate towards images like this is the theme of simplicity. I’ve been posting about that recently. Living in a complex world I long for simplicity, so when I let go of critical thinking for a moment I gravitate to a more relaxed place. In that world the water is smoother and the clouds flowing. It’s a world that surely exists my mind, and for all I know, beyond that.

April 28, 2016April 28, 2016

Oasis of the Mind

This is another image from Egmont Key near Tampa. I like to describe it as a deserted island because that’s what it is. You can take a ferry here but there are only two scheduled trips a day. Once you get here there are no concessions, only a lighthouse, a dock, and miles of empty beaches. I walked the whole length of it a few weeks ago and it was, I must admit, a little therapeutic.

Switching gears for a second, last night I watched a show on cable about people that move to Alaska. It basically followed them as they hunted for a house and during that they would describe why they wanted to re-locate. Invariably people wanted to get back to a simpler way of life.

I think there’s something to that, as we live complicated lives we foster a desire to return to something more meaningful. For me that means walking a deserted beach once in a while with nothing but the sound of the wind, the waves and the gulls to contend with.

More abstract images from the gallery

I think peace is a state of mind. Maybe the trick is to find that deserted beach in my mind and go there for a few minutes each day. I’d also like to go to Alaska or a deserted island but sometimes the oasis in my mind might be a little more accessible.

April 17, 2016

Heron and the Bridge

It seems whenever I’m taking photos near the water here in Florida, herons are never too far away. They’re skittish to be sure so you can’t just walk up to them and expect to get a picture. Having a telephoto lens helps a lot, with this shot I was back a ways and still able bring the bird up close. I’m not a wildlife photographer, but once in a while if the opportunity presents itself I’ll go for it. Real wildlife photographers have a lot of patience, and work long and hard to get a good image. In this case I positioned myself so the heron was framed by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and fired away.

While I was here a couple of serious or “real” wildlife photographers walked up. They had big heavy long lenses and tripods that looked like something I’d expect to see on an African safari. They were here taking photos of the birds including this one. They had serious looks on their faces to go with the equipment they were carrying. Anyway, I got my shot, nodded to them and left the bird in their expert care.

Even today, a couple of weeks after I took this shot, I was by the water again and another Heron landed right in front of me. Again I tried to work him into the shot from a good distance so as not to spook him. Not always do the shots work, but it never hurts to try. When I take photos I try to keep my eyes open for any happy coincidence that might happen. Sometimes it helps to add another element to the story, sometimes it might even become the main subject. Anyway, in this case it just seemed to work, thanks to buddy bird here.

Some of my favorite images from the gallery

April 6, 2016

Out of the Box

This image is right out of the box, basically just as I shot it, nothing added or subtracted. I consider myself a pictorialist and it’s not often that I post an image that I haven’t processed, but this just seems to work for me.

I took this on Fort Lauderdale beach in southern Florida along the Atlantic coast. I got up early one morning to take pictures before the beach got too crowded. Actually, this was my second walk on the beach, I had been here before sunrise as well but as you can see the beach was still quite deserted, normal I suppose for a Sunday morning.

check out more images in the Florida gallery

One thing that struck me was how the sand felt. As I walked my feet would sink in several inches, almost as though it were a type of quicksand. That made for an arduous trek up and down the beach. Another way to put it would be to say it was a good workout; either way it took serious effort. Anyway these imprints were left in the sand where others had walked. I like how it looks well trodden yet empty at the same time.

Funny thing is I didn’t notice the seagull when I took the picture. That happens a lot, I’m usually so engrossed in looking for a scene that things can happen that I don’t see until I look at it later. I think that’s just a natural consequence of being out taking photos, good stuff is bound to happen.

April 3, 2016April 5, 2016

Deserted Island

Today I visited the deserted island known as Egmont Key. It’s near the big city of Tampa but completely removed from civilization. There is nothing here but an old fort, a ghost town, a lighthouse and miles of empty white sand beaches. Today was warm and sunny, yet there was only a handful of people that bothered to take the ferry out here. That meant I could walk for miles along the shore without seeing anyone. I walked the circumference of the island and somewhere halfway between one end and the other I spotted this couple.

The island reminded me a little of the island on Lost, except there are no mountains. I think that during WW2 there was a lot of activity on account of its location as a gateway into Tampa Bay. But now it’s a state park accessible only by boat and so remains largely deserted save for a park ranger, sea birds and a few daily visitors.

More beaches from the blog

To get here you catch a ferry from Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg. There are only two scheduled departures in the morning and then two return trips in the afternoon. The last return leaves at 2:30 so if you miss it you’re on your own. You might as well look for a place to shelter for the night. In that case you could wander over to the ghost town, I’m sure they’ll have a room there.

More beach shots from the gallery

April 1, 2016April 5, 2016

The Last Flash

There is a moment, just as the sun disappears behind the sea, that you can get a flash of light across the water. This was taken at that moment. Even though it lasts no more than a second I don’t advise looking at the sun to see it. However since I started shooting with a Sony camera I’ve seen it several times. That’s because I can look though the electronic viewfinder and my eyes are protected from the harmful brilliance of the sun.

Even rarer is something known as the “green” flash, at least that’s what I call it. Anyway, under certain circumstances and at the exact second the sun disappears, you may see a greenish-blue flash. I did not see it this day but I have seen it once in Florida. I was watching the sun set over the water and a gentleman came up to me and asked me if I’d ever seen it before. I responded that I’d never even heard of it. He said it was somewhat rare yet he watches for it everyday. A few seconds later it happened and we both looked at each other in amazement.

More images of nature from the blog

Anyway, back in San Francisco where I took this, I was at the bottom of a set of cliffs at Point Lobos State Park. By the time I climbed back up and walked back to the parking lot it was after dark, but it seems a lot of people linger here late. A scene like this is hard to leave, and besides I didn’t want to miss the last flash.

Check out my favorites from the gallery

March 31, 2016April 5, 2016

Sunny Day

Island Park in Sarasota waterfront is a spot to chill for a bit, even if it is a hot day. I prefer to take images at dawn and dusk, but this was smack dab in the middle of the day. Even though its spring, the brightness of the image is reminds me of the long hot season ahead. Right now it’s March break and we have great weather and visitors from all over, but in a month we’ll begin the long hot days of summer when everyone goes home and the pace of life slows down a bit.

This is another example of how I like to fill up the frame with abstract content like clouds. In this I’m closer to the rule-of-thirds, a simple rule where the subject is divided in thirds. Rules can be broken, but I think it works fine here. This is also another example of how I mix street and landscape photography. I’m basically out shooting landscapes but noticed this frame and someone in it. Bonus.

Crossover

The sun is setting and I’m at the beach. I have exactly three minutes left to find one more composition. Those are some of the thoughts going through my mind at moments like this, it’s like a game and it can be a lot of frantic fun. Such was the case when I found myself behind some seagrass and a tree that created a kind of frame and just then these folks walked by. Click.

Checkout some more of my recent beach photography in the blog here

Framing an image is an important aspect of street photography. Find some interesting scene and wait for someone to walk through it. When people are in an image we tend to put ourselves into that scene whether we realize it or not. In this way artistic images have a way of pulling us out of ourselves.

My earlier landscapes almost never had people in them. Someone once pointed this out and I started to take notice. Now I’m not so concerned with finding landscapes without people, if I do great, but not required. So this resulted in a blending of my love of both street and landscape photography. Now when shooting landscapes I will often look for a frame and wait for someone to walk through it. In a long winded way this is the thinking that went into this image. It’s a crossover of sorts.