This image shows an unusual perspective Tampa Bay’s Skyway bridge. I was standing along a seawall at a rest stop along the causeway that connects the two sides. The bridge appears small, but it’s close to 400 feet high.
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An unusual perspective of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Florida
I’ve been sitting on this photo because I can’t decide whether I like it or not. I overthink things, but it does have some redeeming qualities, so I guess I like it for now.
However, I do love this location on the bay because it’s one of the few places on the west coast where you can see the sunrise over a vast body of water. And now as I’m writing this, I’m deciding that I need to get up early and come back. Maybe I can try this shot again and settle once and for all if I like it.
Fort DeSoto Park is a nice place to go for sunsets here in the Tampa Bay region. This scene is typical of what it looks like in the evening and, is why I keep coming back to take photos.
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A typical evening scene at the Fort DeSoto fishing pier
If you followed the path of the sun due west for about eight hundred miles, you end up near Corpus Christi Texas. To do that though you should be in something larger than a rowboat. Speaking of which, I took a cruise out of here once, and when we passed this pier in our big ship, it looked so small that I almost didn’t recognize it.
In case you’re interested, I set the aperture on the lens to f22 for this shot. That’s a little extreme, and it does some interesting things. First, everything is in focus, from the railing to the end of the pier. Second, it adds contrast to the sky so that we can see the sun rays pointing upward. There are pros and cons to using such a high f-stop, mostly cons; but sometimes it can work out. I think this is one of those times.
Here’s a shot of the pier at Redington Shores Florida. I took this on one of my first drone flights and I was about a half mile away sitting in a chair. It’s very easy and probably a lazy way to take a photo, but there was still a little stress involved. I couldn’t see the drone even though I knew where it was. I positioned it and took a few snaps and then brought it back to where I was sitting. I breath a sigh of relief when the drone comes back and I can see it again.
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The Pier at Redington Shores as taken from a drone (DJI Mavic Pro)
I’ve had it now for a little over a week and I’m getting used to flying it. The stress is still there, although manageable. Even though it gives me a live view I find it a little disconcerting when it’s so far away. I have no idea what can go wrong and a little mistake can be costly. Add to that you have to be mindful of aviation, and where I live there is no shortage of that.
But with the risks comes a little reward. I am getting perspectives I could only dream of and it’s taking my photography into another dimension, figuratively and literally. Now that I’m not limited by altitude I can revisit familiar places and take completely different photos. I have a long list of locations to hit and that’s a great problem to have.
Thanks to the automation of the DJI Mavic Pro, I’m getting efficient at it as well. I can have it in the air, take the shot, break it down and move on within 10 minutes. In some ways I prefer that to the longer flights, less can go wrong and there’s less stress to deal with. After all, this is supposed to be fun, right? Notwithstanding the learning curve, it really is.
A few days ago I was headed up to New York City from Tampa. We left with plenty of time to spare but by the time we made it through traffic and security we only had fifteen minutes before boarding. We ended up making some bad food choices in a frantic attempt to get a meal in the few minutes remaining. No sooner had we done that than an announcement was made that the flight was put on a two-hour ground delay due to weather. This is the scene from the bar at Pei Wei across from our gate where we made more questionable food and beverage choices.
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Two-hour Ground Delay at Tampa Airport
I am completely amazed at how I was able to make this photo. It was taken with an iPhone7 and then edited it in Lightroom mobile on the same device. By using the camera inside mobile Lightroom the images were saved in RAW format. That allowed me to recover a more detail, shadows and highlights than I might ordinarily.
The other cool thing is that Lightroom on the iPhone is hooked up with Lightroom on my laptop. As I was siting here editing the image on my iPhone, it and the edits were being save in the cloud. I opened up my laptop and started using Lightroom where I left off from on my iPhone. I continued using some of my favorite software including Photoshop and MacPhun’s Luminar as well as a few others, finally ending up with this.
Personally I am amazed, because it really felt seamless hopping from one platform to another. Sure, there is not as much detail as if I had used my three-thousand dollar Sony camera, but there is way more detail in this than I would have expected. You can see both our JetBlue aircraft and clouds at the gate across the way as well as interesting details in the darkened restaurant. For sitting at a bar in an airport, it ain’t half bad if I do say so myself.
This time of year we have colorful clouds at dusk nearly every night. This is a shot from a few days ago in my neighborhood. Normally for a shot like this I would use a tripod but I just ran out of my house in awe. Getting this image pushes the Sony sensor to the edge of its limits in terms of recovering shadows and details. If you zoom in you can pick out a lot of noise and flaws. Nevertheless I was able to get the scene in unfavorable conditions on a moments notice. I wish I had used a tripod, but in the end the Sony sensor compensated very well.
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Colorful Clouds at Dusk in Palmetto Florida
Where I live there seems to be some kind of atmospheric border. At around sunset each day the east boils with violent ominous clouds and the west is lit with broken clouds in a cascade of colors. I will see completely different weather depending on which window I look out of. It seems like the border between these two conditions is right over street. As soon as the sun sets the clouds settle down and any local storms subside. The tropical climate here in Florida can be truly different from one block to the next.
By the next morning the sky is blue without a hint drama or clouds. But as soon as the sun heats up the clouds re-appear as though out of thin air. They get thicker and more dramatic throughout the day until thunderstorms appear and then dissipate at dusk. It’s a predictable pattern that repeats each day. Only when we get tropical depressions does this pattern change and then it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen.
If you read this blog occasionally maybe you wonder why I write about images. It’s because it helps me to integrate with it on more than one level. After writing about an image it has it’s own story and it seems to take on a life of it’s own. Now when I go back to look at an image I remember it’s story.
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Why I write about images on the blog is to create a story about each one
This is St Petersburg Florida across Tampa Bay. At this time of year we get thunderstorms that clear in the evening around sunset. I took this right after the storms and about two minutes after at sun had set. The clouds are a peachy orange from the glow of that hour.
Most photographers post images without a word. Sometimes images are so strong they need no words. But, for whatever reason I take the time to write a story. It’s totally unnecessary but I do it anyway.
The urge to write is something I’ve had my whole life. My grandmother was a writer and maybe some of that rubbed off. Half the time I have no idea what I’ll write but it eventually takes shape. Once I write some thoughts I’ll revise, edit, and revise until it’s done; then the story and image are posted together.
Now having said all this about that, today’s images is created with post processing. I imagine the bay produces these reflections, but of course it does not. So to get the final result I took one part picture, one part imagination and a hand full of words and mixed them all together. This is what I ended up with.
I took this a couple of years ago at a kite festival on St Pete’s beach in Florida. This was part of an exhibition in synchronized flying. There were a couple more kites out of frame and they would all fly together in formation. The people flying these were pros that knew what they were doing. Who knew there was such a thing as professional kite fliers? Certainly not me, but you know what they say, follow your passion.
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Follow your passion even if it means flying a kite
I’m not sure how they didn’t get the strings tangled or how they maintained their distance, but it was nothing short of precision; like the Blue Angels but a lot less risky. I’ve had a smaller version of one of these kites for years; it’s a lot of fun to fly but is anything but precise. I can appreciate how much practice must be involved. As it turns out some of these people came from other states to participate and compete.
I follow my passion for photography, as do these folks with their kites. Together there’s a symbiosis of sorts; each benefits the other. It reminds me of an event I was photographing a couple of weeks ago. There were professional athletes involved and several came up to thank me for being there to capture them. At first I was a surprised but later realized we both benefited. I fed off the energy of the athletes and some of them performed better for the camera. We elevated each other.
One of the unexpected pleasures of photography is coming in contact with people that are passionate about something. That cross-pollination creates an energy that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as there is passion involved. When that happens the sky’s the limit to what you can do, even if it means simply flying a kite.
Last Sunday we went for a walk at this park in St Petersburg. Then after that we went to a nearby outdoor café and met some friends for dinner. The whole afternoon and evening was an exercise in downtime.
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Exercise in Downtime – what you do to recharge is just as important as what you do.
I look forward to the downtime of the weekend. That’s when I get recharged for the week ahead. But truth be told I’m not that good at it; doing nothing that is. But doing nothing is just as necessary as breathing in. I think of what I do most of the week as an out breath, a hundred little acts of creation. So whether I’m good at disengaging or not, it’s still necessary.
I’ve even started to practice doing nothing. That sounds like a joke but its not. In the morning I just sit still for ten minutes. It’s a way of training myself to disengage. The idea is to be comfortable with it and carry that into other parts of the day or week. I’m so used to doing things that something as simple as sitting without a cellphone or book is a challenge. But I’m getting better at it even though I have a ways to go.
I’ve challenged myself to do things my whole life, but it never occurred to me that downtime was so important. Now that I know that, I can practice it. The whole thing sounds completely backwards. I just have to do nothing about it. Okay, that one was a joke.
There is a colony of skimmers on the beach not far from my home on Anna Maria Island. They have a patch of sand that they come back to each year to hatch and nurse their young. It’s normally taped off so we don’t interfere with the hatchlings. Anything that hatches and nests in the sand is quite vulnerable. The adults take turns guarding the nest. In fact the whole colony, whether they have chicks or not, pitch in on security detail. It takes a village to raise a skimmer.
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Skimmers on the Beach in St Petersburg Florida
This is taken at a different location in St Petersburg. Lowering the camera close to the water helps see from the perspective of the wildlife. The small flock of skimmers was picking at the sand while some children swam behind them. With me in front I was surprised they stayed in place for as long as they did. Like so many birds in Florida they’ve grown accustomed to us.
Now is the time of year we also find turtle nests in the sand. Isn’t it odd that the turtle just lays the eggs and then takes off? It’s so unlike other creatures that stick around and nurse their young. After hatching the baby turtles make a dash to the water to avoid being eaten, and then try to avoid the same fate in the water. I don’t blame the mom for not wanting to stick around; the odds seem so slim.
But the good news is the turtles are back on the rise after years of decline. Thanks to the watchful eyes of countless volunteers using GPS and meticulous notes to identify and monitor the nests.
Just taking a walk along the beach you would never know the amount of drama taking place in the very sand beneath your toes.
This is the seawall and fishing pier at Fort Desoto Park in St Petersburg. We drove up here the other day to walk and watch the sunset. When we arrived we’d just missed a couple of large cruise ships passing out of Tampa Bay; all the ships pass this point.
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Seawall and Fishing Pier at Fort Desoto Park
The cruise ships that leave out of Tampa are typically sailing to Mexico, the western Caribbean and now Cuba. Just a few weeks ago the first US based cruise ships departed for a port of call in Cuba. That was big news around here.
It takes about an hour of driving to get here from my home on the other side of the bay. I was talking to a neighbor who has a boat and he comes here in the afternoons to fish. I was surprised to find that out but I think it might actually be shorter to get here by boat.
This is a good place to fish and last year I saw a guy over by the pier catch a six-foot Tarpon. But you have to be careful because once hooked, the sharks like to come by to steal the catch. I’ve heard that Dolphins can do that as well. All’s fair in love and war, and I suppose for serious fishermen it’s a real war out there.
I don’t have to worry about any of that because I get my fish from a menu. I am not in any way shape or form a fisherman. Sure, I’m probably missing out on a lot of fun, but I’ll stick to taking photos for the time being.
