Sunrise...

Sunrise, my favorite time of day, as the world around me starts to wake up. I head out early, in the dark. I arrive in the dark because the best sunrise photographs are taken before actual sunrise. I sit in the dark and listen to the night. Then it starts to happen. The first shots are on the tripod with a long exposure. The light is constantly changing. The shutter speeds get shorter and shorter, starting at minutes and ending with fractions of a second. Sometimes the clouds are low and nothing happens for awhile and then suddenly it is very light. Sometimes the clouds and the vantage point are just right and the sun comes up like a huge orange ball. Sometimes there are no clouds at all, just orange. But each one is different. Then when it is finally light I head out, either to take more photographs or home to grab a quick nap. The trip back is very different than the trip out. There are more cars on the road, the world is starting to move around. Pretty soon, it’s just a normal day but I feel slightly different, a little more connected to the universe, a little more serene.

The photographs above were all taken at the same place, at approximately the same time of year, but different years. If you look closely you can see the same tree line. The same, yet different.

Catching up - Everglades and Naples National

Well I’m quite a bit behind… Three shows in a row plus a trip to the Everglades will do that to me. So to catch up:

Wilma did quite a bit of damage to the Everglades National Park on the east side. The Anhinga trail is missing quite a few trees which means many of the birds seem to have moved elsewhere, although I was a couple weeks before prime time at the Anhinga Trail. I did see some great blue herons, a green heron, the resident egret, and the usual cormorants and anhingas. The woodstorks have moved to Paurotis Pond, on the other side so they are very hard to see. I also saw a couple pink dots so there are roseate spoonbills there as well. Eco Pond looks rather decimated. I'm not sure if that is drought or hurrican effects although there are a lot of down trees in the area. I saw and photographed some plovers but that was it. The old Flamingo hotel is boarded up and there are a lot of trees missing. There was an immense group of alligators at Anhinga Trail, probably a mother and offspring. The mangroves at West Lake look like they took a beating as well. But hurricanes are nature’s way and nature doesn’t answer to people.

There was a lot of activity at Shark Valley though. I even got to see and photograph a yellow crested night heron. It looks like a dull great blue heron. It’s going to take me a great deal of time to go through all the photographs, especially with another show in a week but keep an eye out over the next month or so and I’ll try to post here as I put them up on the website.

My sister and I took a side trip to the Alligator Farm and I finally got to see and photograph a Florida Panther. It was in a cage though. I’m still working on a couple leads I have to get some photographs of a Florida Panther in a rescue setting. Of course I’m also keeping a lookout in the wild but the changes of seeing one, with the right lighting and conditions is pretty slim. We also took a great airboat ride. I don't much like airboats for photography, the noise keeps the birds away, and it's probably not too environmentally sound but it was fast and fun and a great break.

After that it was on to Naples National. A much more pleasant show to do than St. Stephens but I was also able to stay at the vacant home of a relative and didn’t have a hotel to contend with. It was HOT. A welcome relief from the rain but I was lucky to have a booth location under some trees with a slight breeze. Other locations, I heard, were not nearly as pleasant. That evening I called my uncle, who is in Virginia, to see if he thought it was okay to get into their pool. They were expecting snow, he was not amused. The show was okay, so far my best show of the year, but definitely down for me. People were buying, but they were buying small. I sold a framed panoramic and everything else was matted pieces. I paid $3.41/ gallon for mid range gas….. I also managed to back into a tree and break a back window, not a mark on the tree. And my car was broken into while I was gone. All in all, I was glad to get home.

So this weekend I’m at Leesburg. The weather is absolutely beautiful and the people are pleasant. The hotel room (Days Inn) is nice. Actually, except for my aunt and uncle’s and of course home, the nicest (and cheapest) place I’ve stayed for the past three weeks. Sales are going fairly well and I think it’s going to be a good show. I’ll let you know in my next post.