Sarasota Archives - Page 7 of 16

October 7, 2016October 7, 2016

Sarasota Bay Mooring Field

This is the Sarasota Bay Mooring Field. If your anything like me you can be forgiven for not knowing there was a such thing as a mooring field. I just thought it was a bunch of sailboats docked in the bay. Well, well well, …not so. This is a reservation only mooring by the day, week or longer. I took this photo last weekend. Its is a three image panoramic view by the way, but…, I digress.

Daily Photo

After processing this image I went to Google Earth to look at it from the sky (so to speak). And much to my surprise this jumble of boats were actually lined up in neat little rows. That got me wondering and then I found they have a web site. And all this time I just thought it was just a random collection of boats.

sarasota gallery

As I stood at the waters edge I could here people talking and music playing music. In a way it’s no different then a campsite on water. There is a little beach where they can park their rowboats and go ashore to get supplies. Not far from here are all kinds of nice restaurants and even a Whole Foods market. With so much choice it seems like a very nice form of camping.

Now that I know all this is I feel smarter. All this time I was in the dark. People have been camping and having fun all this time and I thought you had to go to the mountains to camp. All it takes is a sailboat, a rowboat, a reservation at the mooring field and a bag of marshmallows.

September 16, 2016September 16, 2016

Sarasota Under the Clouds

This is a long exposure of Sarasota under the clouds. It was midday and I used filters that allowed me to keep the shutter open for over a minute. As a result you begin to see their movement as they rise up with the intense energy of the Florida sun. I love to observe clouds and this technique allows me to capture their movement.

Daily Image

Below is a flat perspective of the Sarasota skyline. The main downtown area is on the right. It’s not a big city per se, but big enough to have a lot of restaurants, an arts scene and a mini building boom. And of course we can’t forget the beaches, some of the best in the world. But I digress, I like putting things in perspective and to do that I take a step back, metaphorically and physically.

sky images from the gallery

This image is part of a reoccurring theme, let’s call it the open spaces theme. Often we don’t think of cities as having much in the way of open spaces. But if you look above the buildings you’ll notice there is all kinds of space. We are so oriented to the two dimensions of a flat earth, but really there is so much more above our heads, And when we take that into account there is a larger perspective that we easily miss. For a visual medium such as photography, using the open spaces above brings a different perspective we don’t always consider.

September 12, 2016

Low Clouds in Sarasota

I was driving and stopped to capture these low clouds in Sarasota as they blew over the buildings. Because it was also sunrise the combination of clouds and sun created a dramatic effect. The clouds just sort of popped up out of nowhere. I had been walking not far from here a few minutes before and they were nowhere to be seen. I suppose the rising sun created the right conditions.

The weather can change on a dime here. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the wind picking up over the water across the bay. Other times it can be more dramatic, like a thunderstorm seemingly out of nowhere. Because we spend so much time outdoors it’s a good idea to pay attention to these things. I’ve been out taking pictures of the sunset at a beach oblivious to a thunderstorm creeping up behind me. When that happens its best to get shelter right away.

Sarasota gallery

I talk about the weather a lot when wring about my photos. I’m laughing at myself because that’s what you do when you meet someone and you don’t know what to say, you talk about the weather. I think that’s funny because half the time I don’t know what to say about my photos so I suppose I talk about the weather. I’ll try to think of something else to say next time.

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016

Restored at Lido Beach

This is one of my favorite places to come and walk the beach. It’s on the southern tip of Lido Beach in Sarasota. The reason I like it so much is that’s it’s secluded and at the very tip of the key. Right behind where I’m standing is the end of the key and fishermen typically stand there to catch fish coming in or out with the tide.

Restored at Ledo Beach — Walking along the waves is a good way to get restored at Lido Beach

There are hotels up further to the right, but this spot is a park so if you come here during the sunset hour you can get lost in the scenery, breeze and warm water at your feet without the crowds you get in front of the hotels.

beach gallery

I work in an office all day and when I come here and walk in the water its restorative. It’s a natural consequence of being outside in a place like this. I have a dog that sleeps at my desk during the day. When I take him out for a mid-day walk he likes to lay down on the pavement and soak up the sun. He will not move until he feels better. I suppose that simple act restores something missing from being inside. The same is true for me when I come here to Lido, I am restored.

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016

Morning Ritual

First thing in the morning the water here is like glass. This is Benderson Park, an international rowing venue and I came here on Saturday hoping to find some athletes on the water. Save for the early morning joggers the place was deserted. That presented different opportunities on account of the clouds in the sky so I went with plan B.

Early mornings are not easy for me. I do get up and go out sometimes, but I can be a little grumpy; it’s a good thing I’m usually alone. It reminds me a little of my morning workouts. I, and about 20 others, show up at the gym several times a week for a bootcamp-style workout. Several of us are less than chatty at 6AM. However by the end of the workout we’re all smiles and high-fives.

That’s how I am with sunrise photography. I leave the house in my car fighting the urge to turn back. I’ll get a coffee at Duncan Donuts and proceed to a location. Once there I’ll look around and take a few shots. Maybe they’re not so great and again I begin to doubt the effort.

Sarasota County Images

But, if I stick with it and put one foot in front of the other, something might catch my eye, perhaps the light changes. Before you know it I am fully engaged in composition and capturing the light. Thirty minutes later I’m in the zone ready for more.

And that, in a nutshell, is my morning ritual.

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016

Waves and Sunsets

This is a typical scene from the South Jetty in Venice Florida. People showing up to watch the sun go down is a Florida pastime. It’s a natural thing to do especially if you come visit from somewhere else. Most people in Florida are from somewhere else, even if they live here. Florida is one of those places where people are migrating to.

As for myself, I was born and raised in California. It used to be that everyone relocated to California from somewhere else. I was born there and relocated in the other direction. But California is a beautiful state to visit, I love going back and as a photographer I see so much more than I did growing up.

sunset photos

Other than the sound of the waves and the sunsets there is not much resemblance between California and Florida, they both have their own unique beauty. But waves and sunsets are a good thing to have in common.

July 11, 2016July 11, 2016

Arc of the Sun

I took this in Venice Florida when I came down to take pictures at sunset. This is a fun place to visit and if you like photography you’ll appreciate it even more. I always leave with some great shots in my camera. Mind you, I take a lot of bad shots but that’s not the fault of the scenery.

In this case I used a telephoto lens fully extended at 240mm. When you extend a telephoto lens it has the effect of compressing distances. So in this case the sailboat and the sun are more or less equal actors in the scene.

Speaking of the sun, I just returned from Alaska and up there I noticed a big difference in how the sun looks. First, it has a low arc in the sky as opposed to Florida where the arc is high. Second, in Florida it’s dark about 45 minutes after sunset whereas Alaska seems to have perpetual dusk during summer, I never once saw it completely dark.

more sunset photos

Anyway, I always like it when I can include the sun in my photos. Something about it just amps up a scene.

June 27, 2016

Water Pier Cloud

This is the pier in Venice Florida on a cloudy afternoon. It’s the best pier around so when I come here I shoot it from as many angles. In most cases I have the pier pointing out to sea from the left or right of the frame. In this case I’ve take a more direct angle by having it bisect the water and clouds. This is an angle I like very much, especially when shot with a telephoto lens. As you can see I’m not exactly head on, rather I’m on the beach angling out, but the perspective of the telephoto lens has it appearing rather flat.

Piers and bridges are a major source of inspiration for me. I have no idea why that is. Maybe it’s because they are objects that interact with bodies of water. If I lived in the mountains I’d be shooting waterfalls and lakes but in Florida it’s rivers, ponds and seasides.

Images from Venice Florida

The final toning of this image was created with a Trey Ratcliff Lightroom preset called “She Finally Awoke”. I’m a big fan of Trey’s presets which I use for inspiration when starting an image. But in this case I used it when finishing and I didn’t change the preset one bit. That’s unusual for me but in this case it worked exactly the way I wanted it to. Anyway, that’s a little behind the scenes info on some of the aspects of how I created the image. There is a lot more but for now that’s the short version.

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016

At a Deeper Level

I took this early one morning at the fishing pier in Sarasota. This is a long exposure that I’ve manipulated to enhance the water and the reflections. As you can see in my gallery I create images as much from may camera as my minds eye. I’m not so interested in documenting a scene, rather using the camera and my techniques as a canvas for my imagination. This is perfect example of that.

The idea is that I try to bring my own expressions to an image. I do it mostly for myself because its creative and I get great enjoyment from it. As I create each new image I discover a part of myself in it. So each image is a part of me and as I share it we connect through a part of my imagination. In this way we might just be communicating at a deeper level than through other means.

 the florida gallery

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, other times no so much. Ideas for images come to me either as I take them or later as I think about them. Regardless, it’s free flowing, there are no rules or guidelines, just me playing with images all of the time. Even when I’m not engaged in creating images I’m still thinking about them. That’s what I call an upward spiral of art and creativity. I can think far worse things to be immersed in.

June 16, 2016

Colors of Venice

With a title like that you’d think I was referring to the town in Italy. On the contrary this namesake town in central Florida has its own colors painted in the sky. Sometimes I’ll head down here if we’ve had rain showers since that’s usually followed by a sunset. This day was no exception and I’m glad I made the effort.

I’ve posted different versions of this pier, but the sky ensures each one is unique. Landscape photography in Florida usually has the sky play a major role. At times my photos are tied to the whims of the weather. I know that sounds strange but I think there’s more than a grain of truth to it.

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Even if I go out and the clouds are not cooperating I still end up walking the beach. I have little to lose and everything to gain chasing clouds for a good shot. That reminds me of storm chasers, I’m kind of like that although I’m more of a sunset chaser. Much less risk and stress involved.