inspired photography with just enough perspective
Photos of Manatee County
I captured this earlier this evening close to my home in Palmetto Florida. We have some cool air and wind which created these long crazy clouds as the light of dusk painted the water. Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the states and among other things, I’m thankful for amazing displays like this every now and then.
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Meanwhile back in Florida… The clouds do cool things like this all the time, …well a lot of the time. Sometimes I’ll check the local news webcam which is located at the beach to see what the cloud situation is and if it looks good I’ll head over for sunset. Today, by chance, I sat under that same webcam as it’s located at The Beachhouse restaurant. So, while sitting there I got it in my mind to check the webcam, and sure enough the scene in front of me at the beach was unfolding on my iPhone. Weird, I know. No, there’s no point in any of this. Happy Monday everyone.
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This is a path through the mangroves at a place known as Leffis Key in central Florida. It’s a little nature preserve where you can watch all kinds of wildlife and about half of the trails are on these boardwalks. I came here early one morning to capture the rising sun peaking through the mangroves and just to walk along this path to take it all in. It was a warm morning and mostly the birds were about their business starting to fish for a meal. In any case, as I write this I’m about a thousand miles from here and it’s below freezing outside; I can’t wait to get back to the warm climate and walk again through these mangroves.
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I’ve been taking a lot of autumn shots lately, mainly because I live in Florida and fall colors is something we miss out on. However what we don’t miss out on are palm trees, they’re everywhere. What I never realized before is how many species of palm there are. Not that I’m any good at identifying them, but the more you look the more you begin to notice the differences. Growing up watching Gilligan’s Island I basically thought that all palm trees had coconuts. Boy was that ever wrong. So I decided to take a break from fall colors and post this image of a couple of palms near my home. Just don’t ask me what kind they are.
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Pelicans get real busy at sunrise and sunset, they all seem to be going to and fro, a little like commuting to work. During the day they hang around the piers and fishing boats, but at night I think they must have certain places they like to bed down at. The more I look at the animal kingdom, the more things I find in common with us humans. In fact, to aliens animals and humans might look even more similar than we’d consider ourselves. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and may your commute be as smooth as that of the pelicans. 😉
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This is Bean Point which is at the end of Anna Maria Island here in central Florida. When I arrived a group of people were watching the last remnants of a waterspout that seemed more a curiosity than any real danger. It’s no wonder that meteorologists like this area. Changing subjects, I’ve recently come to learn that these tall grasses are known as sea oats. That’s cool, but what I really want to know is if they’re gluten free. Okay, that was dumb.
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With winter coming here in Florida the season for these big clouds is coming to an end. It’s not like we have a real winter, it’s more like summer with warm weather and sunny skies. However there’s no intense heat to produce the evaporation and energy required for these clouds to form. This weekend I took a quick trip up to North Carolina and we had a freak snow storm. Having just finished a very hot summer in Florida it was a breath fresh air and a very quick and very awesome taste of real winter, not the kind we get in Florida.
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On Anna Maria Island there are a couple of little towns that have a beach on one side and the inter-coastal waterway on the other which is where dozens of sailboats dock. Each sailboat has a rowboat that allows the occupants to row to shore. In fact you see that all up and down the coast; little rowboats on the shore waiting for their owners to row back to their sailboat. I was up at the crack of dawn in one such town and I notice this man and his dog heading back to the boat. Must have been a long night.
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These are a set of flowers in a field that I captured shortly after sunrise on Anna Maria Island. There are worlds which exist at different scales that we pass by each day. Every now and again I am reminded of that through photography.
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This evening I went to Bradenton Beach to catch this partial eclipse just as the sun set upon the Gulf of mexico.