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Saturday Evening at the Beach

This is Saturday Evening at the Beach. After an early dinner I noticed the clouds looking good for a sunset so I headed towards the ocean. I’m glad I did because the display was well worth the effort. At times like this everyone is lined up along the shore with their smart phones snapping away, I arrived just in time and this was the first shot out of my camera. Talk about cutting it close.

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Saturday Evening at the Beach
Saturday Evening at the Beach on Anna Maria Island Florida

I stress myself out sometimes when chasing sunsets. Getting in the right place at the right time can be easier said than done. That’s mostly because I have to drive here. I suppose it would be easier if I lived right on the beach. (Note to self).

When the sun gets low on the horizon there are only about three minutes to get a shot. Its better to get here a half hour ahead of time but I’m rarely that organized.

sunset photos from the gallery

This time of year we start to getting tourist and winter residents so the traffic also plays into the equation. Even though I know all these things I still manage to show up at the last possible moment.

I suppose my tombstone will read, …”He arrived at the last possible moment, better late than never”.

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Wide Angle View

This is a wide angle view of the Gulf of Mexico I took from Emerson Point in Florida. I made this with the new Laowa 12mm f/2.8 lens that was created through the help of a Kickstarter. The claim to fame on this lens is that there is no distortion. That’s something hard to do but someone figured it out and this is the result. Generally we use software to remove the distortion of a wide lens, but in this case it’s not necessary. Anyway, it’s kinda cool in a geeky kind of way and I’ll be carrying the lens with me in the next little while.

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Wide Angle View
Wide Angle View from Emerson Point

Sometimes I’ll drive to this spot if I think there’ll nice sunset. It’s one of my goto spots for sunsets since it’s so close to home. Normally there are a handful of other peopler her with cameras looking to snap some nice pics.

I don’t mind repeating myself because mother nature never does. So no matter how many times I come to the same spot, it will always be different.

After the sun sets the park ranger usually comes along to shoo everyone out of the park. It closes right after sunset and if you linger too long they will let you know. I used to get annoyed by that but I have since come to realize that the park is the domain of the wildlife. As soon as it gets dark the road fills with all manner of creatures coming out for the evening. So it makes sense that we should give them their space not to mention it can be dangerous if cars are on the roads at the same time.

sunset images

So basically I come, I shoot, I depart. A very quick excursion close to home and without a whole lot of effort.

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First Impressions

This smokestack was one of my first impressions of Amsterdam as I took a cab to the hotel. I shared the ride with another traveller who asked our driver about it. Slightly annoyed, the driver replied that it was obviously a power plant. Perhaps a lot of people ask the same question upon first arrival.

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First Impression
First Impression of Amsterdam

A few days later I spied the same stack from atop the A’DAM Lookout and thought it and the clouds made for an interesting image. With this images I’m not trying to make a statement about fossil fuels, pollution or any such thing. Just the spectacle of a cylinder venting warm vapor into the cool November air. It’s something I could see myself staring at if I was a child. But I’m not, yet I stared just the same.

I recently posted a stack like this that we have back in Florida. Again, the spectacle of it against the sky is an odd attraction for me. It defines the horizon and connects the earth to the sky in a strangely fascinating way.

urban exploration images from the gallery

This abstract image is nothing more than a spectacle. It may be a first impression or it may be something for a child to stare and wonder. Or, …it may be nothing more than the musings of my wandering mind.

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Slow Train Through Heaven

I took this on a slow train through heaven, otherwise known as the line from Seward to Anchorage. It was in the middle of summer when the days were long and the weather was warm. As we rolled through the mountains we spotted bears and moose along side of the train.

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Slow Train Through Heaven
Slow Train Through Heaven – aka Alaska

I stood on a platform between the cars and snapped pictures for much of the five hour journey. We had a choice between the train and a bus but choose the train even though it was slower. Given a choice I will always take the train, it’s my favorite way to travel.

The river here is the runoff of a glacier that’s just off to the left. This is in Kenai Peninsula Borough which according to Wikipedia is about 16,000 square miles, half of which is water.

A train is perhaps not the best way to see everything, but it’s a good way to see parts of the land not accessible by road. As large as this land is the borough has a small population. That leaves a lot of room for wilderness and that’s mainly what I saw the whole way; beautiful pristine wilderness.

landscape images in the gallery

By setting the ISO on my camera to 200 I was able to freeze the motion of the train. The shutter speed was one two-thousands of a second. That’s fast enough to remove all trace of motion. Taking pictures hanging out of a train may not be the best way to get a photo, but you work with what you have. And on this day I had a slow train through heaven. That’s something I could work with.

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Winding Roads

I spent a recent afternoon on some winding roads north of Toronto. The drive is nice any time but this time of year is hard to beat. The days are quickly getting shorter and there are dustings of snow here and there. Coming from Florida this was an exceptional treat, not only the colors but the cooler weather as well.

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Wnding Roads
Winding roads in Ontario Canada

Whenever I saw something I liked I just pulled over and took a shot out the window. That’s a lazy way to take photos but I couldn’t help it, I was in a lazy mood.

Sometimes laziness works, luck works too. Sometimes getting a good photo of a landscape is a meticulous process of preparation and execution. Other times a simple shot out the window will do. I admire photographers that go to great lengths, it shows in their work. Sometimes, I do that, especially when I have more time. But given a quick afternoon drive and a camera, I’ll go with the flow.

autumn photos from the gallery

It’s a little like taking photos when you’re on a tour. Your time is not your own, your on a tour, following a schedule. So you do your best and get what you can. Sometimes its like that when I have a short time to go take photos, I just go with the flow and have fun.

One thing is for sure, the worst day of taking photos is still better than the best day at work. And this was not a bad day by any stretch of the imagination.

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Morning Sunburst

A morning sunburst of light is projected from behind the clouds. This was from behind our house in Palmetto Florida. I noticed these rays for several days in a row on account of the type of clouds, this time I was within reach of the camera. In fact I took this though an upper window, right through a glass pane. Normally that’s not optimal but this time it worked out.

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Morning Sunburst
Morning sunburst in Palmetto Florida

How can you not be happy when you see this? Its like a wake-up call from the sun itself, “time to get out of bed!”.

I don’t pull out my camera that often at home but this time I couldn’t resist. We get equally awesome scenes in the evening in the other way, but there are just too many distractions with houses and such.

full gallery

For some reason this reminds me of a corny TV commercial of a guy dressed in a sun suit. He’s a hopelessly optimistic and talking about breakfast, I think it’s an ad for Jimmy Dean breakfast food. In any case he ends up making everyone feel better.

Back to the real world. Now that we are all awake its time get up and get breakfast. I’m just say’in.

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Stuff of Dreams

The sunrises and sunsets in the last week have been the stuff of dreams. That’s because we are transitioning between seasons and thunderclouds are being replaced with wispy Stratus. This has had me a little stressed, as I’ve been too busy to get out, or more accurately, I’ve had really bad timing. By the time I notice its too late, or at least I think it is. All that aside, on this morning I grabbed my bag, still in my workout clothes and headed for the river. I stood out on this pier for a four-minute exposure of the sunrise over Bradenton.

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The Stuff of Dreams
The stuff of dreams is what this scene in Bradenton Florida reminds me of

What I find so fascinating is that the exposure shows the movement of the clouds which seem to travel in different directions depending on their altitude. I suppose a pilot or someone more acquainted with weather knows of the phenomena, but I’m a simple man and I get amazed by such things.

It was rush hour and the bridge was packed with traffic, but of course it doesn’t show up on account of the length of the exposure.

monochrome gallery

So anyway, I managed to reduce a little stress by getting here on this morning, but there are many more times I have missed. I should be happy when I see a beautiful scene, but if I don’t have my camera I end up wishing I did. I think that’s a hazard of the occupation, as a photographer it’s hard to turn off the need to capture and just enjoy the scene, unless of course I’m taking pictures. But I’m working on it and one day I’ll be happy either way, with or without my camera.

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Sea and Sky

The Sunshine Skyway is almost ten miles long and as you drive across you have great views of the sea and sky. When you are in your car it looks like you are driving into the sky. Maybe that’s where it got its name, (that’s just a guess on my part).

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Skyway Clouds
Sea and Sky from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

On this morning I came to a little island on the northern stretch to take pictures. 
 
In the summer the clouds form large columns that tower miles into the sky. When the sun is low on the horizon the light hits these columns at different angles depending on the elevation. What I notice is that the lower section of the cloud columns have warmer colors whereas those higher up tend to appear white. My guess is there are more particles in the lower atmosphere.

In Florida, when you see thunderclouds in the afternoon the variation in colors is hard to miss. In this image the clouds are about fifteen miles in the distance but you can still see the variation in colors.

cloudscapes in the gallery

This is another long exposure panorama. It’s a thirty-second exposure that I took one morning just after dawn. I stitched two images to create the panorama. This vantage point is about ten minutes from home so it’s an easy spot to get to. I had to cross the bridge to get here and then again to get back. I suppose that means I had my head in the clouds at least twice before breakfast. Not an unusual thing for me I suppose.

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Lights Reflecting in Sarasota Bay

Lights reflecting in Sarasota Bay on a recent evening. I’ve taken similar images but of course each one is a little different. This is a long exposure panorama of three separate images; the exposure is about ten-seconds and it makes the water look smooth. Panoramas over the water work well only if the water is smooth. Otherwise there are noticeable lines where the wave patterns are stitched together. That’s because the waves from each picture are in different positions and don’t match when combined. A little tip for the day.

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Lights Reflecting in Sarasota Bay
Lights Reflecting in Sarasota Bay

I’m addicted to long exposure photography, I love how it transforms a scene, making it seem almost serene. I’m also addicted to night or low light photography, I like how the mood shifts when the bright light of day fades. When I get to combine the two I’m in my happy place. It’s a lot of fun and I never quite know what I’ll end up with. The main thing is to keep experimenting and, of course, having fun.

panoramas from the gallery

Anyway, now that the weather here in Florida is finally cooling a bit from the long hot summer, an evening outdoors can be refreshing. A cool dry breeze is something I haven’t felt around here in about six months, so now that thats starting I think its time to get out and enjoy the weather. Not that I need an excuse but for me that means doing more long exposure panoramas. Stay tuned, more images to come.

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The Old Pier

This is the old pier in St. Petersburg Florida. I took this a couple of years ago before they began tearing it down. In fact, they just removed the last piece of it couple of days ago. A new pier will be built in two years, but in the meantime pictures are all we have. It’s a little sad.

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The Old Pier
The old pier in St Petersburg Florida

I liked the old one, it had a certain charm to it. But St Petersburg is a thriving city and they want something new that reflects a more modern aesthetic. Two years is a long time to wait for the new pier.

From a photographic perspective I’m a pier fanatic. When you stand next to one it creates a leading line out into the water. When you stand on top of one it’s more symmetrical. This pier is (or was) the largest in central Florida. It’s the only one I know of that you could drive on. I suppose that’s why the new one will take so long to build, it’s a large project.

sunrises photos from the gallery

I just happen to notice this image at about the same time as I read about the completion of the demolition. A coincidence I suppose, or maybe it’s the ghost of the old pier reaching out for one last hoorah. Whatever the case, may she rest in pieces.