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Roaring Brook Nature Center 2

I took this about three years ago at a little park called Roaring Brook Nature Center on Canton Connecticut. The pond empties down the mountain at a dike and indeed the brook does roar at that spot. Here is another image from nearly the same spot.

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Roaring Brook Nature Center 2
I took this on a nature walk a few years back.

I was here in spring which of course is when all the streams and rivers are full of melting snow. Spring is also the season for pollen and they get it heavily in Connecticut. My rental car was covered with a yellow layer so thick it resembled volcanic ash.

I’ve also been here (not this spot exactly) in Autumn and of course, the scene is quite different. All of New England is ablaze in colors and it’s a great time for a road trip.

more landscape photos from the gallery

This particular visit was a difficult one. We had just lost one of our beloved dogs from an unexpected illness and I was feeling sad. That’s when I looked up this little park figuring it would do me some good to go for a nature walk. When I saw scenes like this it helped take my mind off the pain. Times like that are never easy.

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Stars Above Terra Ceia

This is a minimalist view of Terra Ceia Bay which is a short distance from my home in Palmetto. There was no breeze, so the water was like glass. I made several stops and each picture I took featured reflections in the water.

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Stars Above Terra Ceia
The view of Terra Ceia Bay on a calm morning

Yesterday I mentioned the topic of light pollution and if you’re interested I found a link to an online map. This shows the levels of artificial light on the ground at places all over the earth. Even though this image of Terra Ceia was taken about an hour before dawn, the band of light on the horizon is the tell-tale sign of a city. Sadly, it seems there are not many dark skies on the eastern half of the North American continent, at least not where I live in the United States.

more night photos
Nonetheless, we still have stars and every evening when I walk my dog I look up at them. I think that in decades to come space travel will become common, and we’ll have the luxury of seeing the stars unobstructed by atmosphere. Until that time, at least now I have a map to find the darkest skies.

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Ugly Crane

This ugly crane sits in the water not far from home near the bridge. Seems it been there for EVER. The last thing I thought I’d want to do is take a picture of it.

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Ugly Crane
Symmetry from reflections can form compositions of the most unlikely subjects

However, symmetry from reflections occur all around us and can form the seeds of compositions using the most unlikely subjects.

I took about a dozen photos of the crane over the course of five minutes. This was the first image, but as the minutes ticked on, the breeze started, and the water began to ripple. By the last frame, the clarity of the reflection was lost.

other photos along the Manatee River

If there is a moral to the story it would be to keep your eyes open because you never know when the conditions will be just right for a particular subject, even an old ugly crane.

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Two Hotels in Barcelona

Here is a shot from atop the Grand Hotel Central in Barcelona. I took this in the morning on my first trip here. Morning is a better time for these kinds of shots because around sunset the pool will surely be filled with guests sipping martinis or sangria, as the case may be.

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Two Hotels in Barcelona
From the pool at the Grand Hotel Central looking towards the Hotel Arts

Looking at this I just realized that the second building from the left is the hotel I stayed at on my second trip, the Hotel Arts. I should have known because there are no other tall buildings in this section of town. Perhaps unknowingly I was seeing reflections into future, or some such thing.

more from Barcelona

I did come up in the evening with my camera, but it just wasn’t the same so I’m glad I was here at sunrise. This hotel is in the gothic section and that other one is along the beach, two completely different areas with their own character. About the only thing they have in common are martinis and sangria.

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Sailboats in La Grande-Motte

I was La Grande-Motte a couple of years ago walking around with my camera. A friend who was running some errands dropped me off for the morning. It’s a seaside resort town on the Mediterranean and in that respect has a lot of similarities to where I live in Florida. I was here in the off-season so it did not have the normal crowds.

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Sailboats in La Grande-Motte
Sailboats in La Grande-Motte

I could be wrong but it seems like there are more sailboats in Europe than in the states. I’m no expert but I think we have more powerboats in the US. Nevertheless these long rows of docks are common in southern France.

more images from France

The symmetrical leading lines of the rows reflecting on the water fascinate me. For that matter, leading lines and water always grab my attention. It’s something I’ve taken photos of over and over again. There is a good explanation for it, I’m sure.

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Oasis in Plain Sight

One of the things I like most about Sarasota is their public spaces. This is a good example of that, an oasis in plain sight.

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Oasis in Plain Sight
Oasis in plain sight – Bayfront Park in Sarasota

I took this in the middle of summer when we get amazing clouds. I don’t normally take pictures of city parks but this one is situated right on the inter-coastal waterway so I couldn’t resist.

Every time I drive by this park seems empty. I’m not sure if people just aren’t aware of it or what, but it’s the perfect spot. Just stop the car, walk over to the water and sit on a bench. As far as parks go this is one of the prettiest in the area.

more Sarasota photos

This is an HDR image; I took three photos with different exposures and combined them in AuroraHDR. It makes it possible the show the whole range of light when there are extreme ranges like this. It’s hard to take an image like this any other way.

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Simplicity of the Scene

I am fortunate because I can drive to the beach in a few minutes. I’m double fortunate because I like photography. Those two reasons conspired to get me to the beach the other day where I simply walked up and down taking photos. This is one of my favorite due to the simplicity of the scene and the timing of the shot.

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Simplicity of the Scene
Simplicity of the Scene – photography at the beach

I was lining up to get the sun reflected in the puddle and noticed the skimmer out of the corner of my eye. I took three rapid shots with this being the best. To be honest, while I love this shot, it’s not all that hard to do. It simply boils down to being in position and noticing things. In fact, awesome things happen around us all the time however we’re usually too preoccupied to notice. When you put yourself in a receptive state of mind you see quite a lot. That’s the essence of this type of photography.

For instance I’ve noticed that pelicans fly in formation at dusk and dawn. I’ve also seen these skimmers active just as the sun is setting. So basically I’m half expecting to see them fly through the frame when I’m here. It’s not luck, it’s odds and they’re in my favor.

more beach from the gallery

Anyway, it’s nice to walk the beach and look for scenes. Things are happening all the time and when I see them I do my best to capture them. The same applies for different genres such as street photography, urban exploration, architecture photography and travel photography. Maybe we can come up with a new type of photography that’s about capturing scenes around us. It will be called scene photography, …or not. I might need to put a little more thought in to that.

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Lookout Tower

This is from Robinson Preserve in Bradenton. The reflection of the lookout tower caught my attention as I rode a bike along a trail. Normally the water is not this still during the day but there was no breeze on this warm winter day in February.

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Lookout Tower
Lookout Tower in Bradenton’s Robinson Preserve

These towers appear in most Florida nature preserves and state parks. I realize now it’s because the land is flat and a tower is the only way to see over the ground cover. I’d never seen these where I grew up in California because they have mountains and all you have to do is climb a hill.

As well, there are fire lookout towers across the state amongst the farms and ranches. The geography breeds an abundance of lightning which in turn creates brush fires each year. When I first arrived in Florida they made an impression on me and now I know why there are so many; flat land.

Landscape gallery

There are three towers that I know of nearby my home, this being one. I’ve taken pictures atop all three. They are for me the next best thing to having a drone for photography. One of these days I may get a drone so I don’t need a tower. Until that day I’ll look for nearby towers or bridges when I want to see the Florida landscape.

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Minimalism Dreamscape

This is an example of a minimalism dreamscape. It’s a scene I recently witnessed one morning while the fog was clearing from the Gulf of Mexico. Because it was morning there was an even light across the water and sky. A few moments earlier the fog obscured the horizon line between the sea and the sky. It almost felt like flying.

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Minimalism Dreamscape

Minimalism is about space that we impregnate with our thoughts and dreams. By placing our thoughts into the space we find ourselves inside the scene. The point is to leave room for interpretation. We each fill in with something unique, we see the scene in our own way.

Sometimes during the day my mind wanders and random thoughts pass through. It’s as though my subconscious is bubbling to the surface for a brief moment. Minimalism provides a canvas for that to occur whether we realize it or not.

other dreamscapes

This image is a dreamscape because it is not real. There are hint’s what I did this in the image. But more importantly it represents a feeling or idea that I have. Sometimes pictures are better than words for conveying ephemeral ideas like that.

The point of this composition is to leave room amongst the sea and sky for your thoughts.

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Light, Reflection and Color

This is a long exposure I took while walking under a bridge in Central Amsterdam. The hanging vertical lights and their reflections created an eerie effect. It’s a public space that’s transformed into a surreal display of light, reflection and color by night. Just one of many surprises I found while walking around the city of Amsterdam.

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Light, Reflection and Color
Light, Reflection and Color under a bridge in Amsterdam

I spent a lot of time along the canals at night. It seemed perfectly safe, save for the odd solicitations in a certain quarter not to be mentioned; but that’s another story for another day. No matter where I turned there were lights reflected on the water. If you’ve followed me you know that’s too much for me to resists; the lights that is.

I stood at this spot for a while taking pictures. Every now and then this space was filled with the rumble of trains passing overhead. I passed this same spot in a canal boat tour earlier in the day and it didn’t look anything like this. I would never have guessed it could be transformed like this at night.

European gallery

The reason I came to Amsterdam is that I had some photos being shown in a Museum in Harderwijk at an event sponsored by BTP and Rinus Bakker. My plan is to come back for the next showing and spend a little more time exploring places like this. Until then I’ll have to be content with my memories and photos.