photography Archives - Page 9 of 25

June 2, 2016June 3, 2016

Dead Pool

My guess is that this standing body of water is covered in some type algae which has robbed it of oxygen. If I’m right about that then there really is no life here, just a still quiet dead pool.

I first noticed this while hiking through here and recently came back with my mountain bike and camera. Its inside a state park and there are several of these standing pools of water, but this one grabs your attention because there are no birds or life of any form and has this smooth velvet-like green carpet on the surface.

However in the hurricane season when we get torrential rains and a high tide at the same time these pools get reconnected to the bayou and probably come back to life for a short spell as the water becomes oxygenated again.

Some of my favorite images from the gallery

Anyway, there is a path around it and plenty of angles to look at this spectacle. With the bayou, mangroves and wetlands so full of life this presents an unexpected sight. It reminds me of the Tolkien Dead Marshes. In one sense it appears quite beautiful but I fear that if I get too close I might never be seen again. I can’t help but let my imagination runs a little wild when I see sights like this. This is a real-life dead pool. Your oxymoron for the day.

June 1, 2016June 2, 2016

Punta Piedrita

This is from a few years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I took this from a hotel room we stayed at before boarding a cruise ship. It was early in the morning before leaving the hotel and as I opened up the glass door to the veranda my lens immediately fogged. I had to be patient and wait for fifteen minutes or so while the temperature of the glass equalized with the outside air. That happens when you go between air conditioning and a hot humid climate. Coming from Florida I should have been used to it.

When we got on the ship and headed into the Caribbean the same thing happened all the time. The cabin was climate controlled and as soon as the camera hit the outside air it fogged. The same happened with eye glasses. The best thing is to let the camera warm for about thirty minutes before shooting. As I said, I should have known because I go through the same routine every summer here in Florida.

More from the beach gallery

Anyway, we were only here in San Juan for a couple of days. The sights, food and people were all amazing and I’d go back in a minute. The people that I know and have met from here all have a combination of purpose and friendliness that is unique to this island. I believe this island and its people are a treasure of the caribbean.

May 27, 2016

Stuck on a Bridge

A shot of the main bridge near my home between Bradenton and Palmetto. Apparently this is now due for replacement. Bridges have a life span and this one is at its end. I imagine that to replace it will be a couple years of chaos, but that’s the price to pay for progress I suppose. In the old days the bridges were flat, not arched like this. When it came time to replace them they simply turned them into fishing piers. I don’t suppose that will work with these arched versions, they’ll probably just demolish the whole thing.

The traffic over this bridge can be horrendous. But I don’t stress it, besides, what can be better than to be stuck on a bridge in Florida; you can look out and see sailboats or dolphins, the scenery is pretty good. I look forward to getting stuck on bridges here, especially drawbridges, they’re my favorite. Everyone stops and turns off the engine and some folks like me get out of our cars. Its fun to watch the bridge rise and the sailboats pass. I’ve spent a lot of time in traffic over the years, but getting stuck on a bridge in Florida changes your perspective on the experience.

More bridges from the gallery

They’re building another one about five miles upriver. I can hardly wait for that to be built so that I can get pictures from and around it. Anyway, for someone who loves photographing bridges I suppose I live in the right place.

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016

It Just Seems That Way

This is another image from Bean Point at the tip of Anna Maria Island. There is no parking and so the only people that show up here are those living or staying within walking distance. That’s why it’s one of my favorite places for photography at sunset.

A continuing theme for me is to use clouds in an image to represent proportion and scale. So typically people or manmade subjects become small in relation to the clouds and surrounding environment. The purpose is to draw attention to the scale of nature around us. For me the message is one of reintegration into our otherwise ignored surroundings.

More images of Anna Maria Island from the gallery

Only after I became a photographer did I even begin to notice things around me, such as the formation of clouds. Now I look at the world different from before, I see our existence in relation to our environment. That provides a sense of perspective, something to glimpse a grander scale of things. Without that we tend to focus on small things in front of our faces without ever looking up. It’s like zooming out on a map; we begin to seem insignificant. But of course we are not, it just seems that way.

May 22, 2016

Plan B

This morning I came to this tower to take a picture of the full moon as it set to the West. Only it didn’t turn out all that good and as I stood here wondering what to do I turned around and noticed the sunrise from behind these clouds. This observation tower is at Neil Preserve in Bradenton. I came here at the crack of dawn and got eaten alive by the bugs as I walked the path from the parking lot. But on top here was a nice breeze and a welcome respite from the mosquitos below.

This is my Plan B shot, the one I didn’t come here for. With photography, and life in general, it’s always good to have a backup plan if the first one falls through. I have a little voice in my head that tells me to turn around. Well, maybe more of a habit than a voice. Nevertheless sometimes I listen and turn around and look for opportunities in the other direction. My own philosophy is that I should have everything I need, I just need to keep an open mind and look for whatever comes my way.

More sky images from Manatee County

That makes every outing a challenge. Life is the same way, each day a challenge, each challenge and opportunity to find a creative solution. There I go again. It seems relating photography to life is also a habit of mine. At least it’s not a voice in my head.

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.

Rainbows in the Night

The Ringling bridge in Sarasota is a favorite subject of mine and finding a new perspective is a fun challenge. This fifteen-second long exposure was taken from a mile away. I used a tripod and manual focusing to make sure the details were as sharp as could be. If you zoom in you can almost see into the windows of the buildings more than a mile away.

I geek out about technical aspects of photography, I’m easily impressed by how sharp an image is or how may megapixels it has, but it shouldn’t end there. The image also needs to be something I like. That part is subjective, but I have a little trick to help me figure that part out. I look at a thumbnail of the image and if it catches my attention then it might be worthwhile.

I think that a small image can help me decide if I like it DESPITE all the technical geekiness that I love so much. In other words, it short-circuits the left brain and goes straight to the right. If the image is not interesting enough to want to get a closer look, then it’s probably not that interesting up close.

More Ringling Bridge images from the gallery

That’s my little tip for the day. It generally works but as with everything there are exceptions. So what do I see when I look at this in a thumbnail? Rainbows in the night. Now you can go zoom in a geek out at the detail.

May 11, 2016

What Dreams May Come

This is a stretch of Highway 41 in Punta Gorda Florida; southbound on the left and northbound on the right. The image is a dreamscape of sorts, how I imagine it looks in a dream.

Have you ever noticed that an artists rendering of a building or architecture is always a little prettier than reality? That’s because its the artists idea or conception of something that, in the end, will never quite look that good. Nevertheless, we hold onto that image in our minds until the project is complete. We go along with it, the artist’s idea that is, because it’s now what we imagine also.

On a slightly different tack, if it wasn’t for dreamers we would never get anywhere. Those who dream new things are catalysts, agents of change, maybe even radicals. Dreamers tend to be disrupters, people that are not afraid to disregard norms on the way to a new normal. Dreamers are generally ahead of their time and quite often not appreciated, only in retrospect do we think of them as genius.

More dreamscapes from the gallery

So back to the photo, I manipulated it until because I had an idea of what it might look like in different circumstances. It’s not a radical new idea but it’s my idea of what something could look like. Maybe, one day, something will come of it. You never know.

May 10, 2016

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.

Before Dawn

This is another long exposure of the public pier at Anna Maria Island in Florida. It was just before dawn and as usual there were already a few people milling about, mostly fishermen or those who came only to watch the sunrise; another typical morning at AMI.

Probably because of where I live I’m fascinated by bridges and piers, we seem to have a lot of both. How they make these piers, one piling at a time is amazing. To me its counter intuitive to think that you can build a solid structure into the floor of the sea. Even though it’s only a few meters deep it’s submerged. How they drill and then make sure the piling is stable is something I’d like to understand.

More images from Anna Maria Island

Pilings are big business here on the gulf coast because there are a lot of companies that specialize in it. It seems there’s always construction in the water and most of it is concerned with pilings. On the other side of AMI, facing the gulf, they are building a pier. It seems to me that the work is super slow, they’ve been at it for almost a year, but I suppose that’s the nature of the job. You don’t want to leave it to just any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Anyway, thanks to the folks that make these pilings we can sit on a pier and wait for dawn as though we hadn’t a care in the world.