Since my last post to this blog, there was a fire in the grasses at Celery Fields park, Sarasota, Florida. We haven’t had rain in weeks and the whole county is under a fire alert. The shallow ponds in which sandhill cranes spent the nights have almost entirely dried up. That would have happened even without the fire. But, now the surrounding area stinks with a scorched smell. There are only vulture birds, now.
March 12, 2009
March 4, 2009
Bird Photography
We have been busy traveling between birding spots in the greater Sarasota area. The best places to see large groups of birds that we have found are Celery Fields park, Turtle Beach on Siesta Key, and the Venice Rookery, Venice, Florida.
Celery Fields park, east of I-75 and south of Bee Ridge Road, in Sarasota used to be a celery farm. There is a gazebo on a small hill near the road with room to park about 10 cars. There are several species of very small water birds in the ponds, red wing blackbirds in the low shrubs, a hawk can often be seen in distant trees, and turkey vultures sometimes circle overhead. But, the big attraction for bird watchers are the sandhill cranes that fly into the pond just before sunset each night. They fly in groups of 2-5 and eventually there are 15-25 cranes in the shallow ponds.
Turtle beach has the usual pelicans and several varieties of gulls. Sometimes a big Louisiana Blue Heron is seen shadowing a fisherman and hoping for a handout. There are lots of stilt birds walking in and out of the waves looking for a meal. The largest number of birds appear in flocks of 40 or more in the late afternoon. Sometimes there are more gulls than one can count.
The Venice rookery is a small collection of trees on a small island in a pond off Route 41 near Jacaranda Blvd. in Venice, Florida. Blue herons, night herons, ibis, anhinga, and other birds fly in just before sunset to spend the night in the trees.
December 19, 2008
Loggerhead turtles
For the first time in my life I saw newly hatched loggerhead turtles emerge on a Florida beach. What a privilege to see those wonderful creatures on their first day of life. The babies are so small they fit in the palm of your hand and grow to be bigger than you could lift. Here is the picture we made using the inexpensive zoom lens camera we keep in the car. No tripod or add on lenses. It is not too sharp focus because the baby turtle was covered with sand. We did not see if the turtle made it out into the Gulf of Mexico. It had a lot of beach to cover and there was a lot of wave action. 
October 1, 2008
Photographing tropical fish
Recently we worked at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. They have large, clean aquariums with many species of tropical fish. Tripods, which are essential when using slow 100 ISO film, are allowed. Only fish in sharp focus will be considered for publication, so, we always check before traveling to a photo location and make sure tripods are allowed. Here is a lionfish now on sale at Cafe Press.
July 10, 2008
Photographing Florida
We just returned from several days in and around Pine Island, Florida. While there, we stayed at the Bokeelia Tarpon Inn, a friendly bed and breakfast. We hired Captain Jim Welch and the “Lady Bokeelia” a 25 foot boat to take us on a hunt for dolphins and water birds.
Our inventory is now full of fresh Florida images including anhinga, ibis, sea hawks, dolphin, boats, and palm trees.
March 29, 2008
AKC Dog Show
We made lots of great pictures at the AKC dog show today. It was held indoors, but the area was well lit. Derk made digital pictures and I used a fill-flash for pictures on ISO 100 35mm slide film. We also photographed dogs in the exercise area outside.
No photography was allowed inside the show ring. That is understandable because it certainly would distract the dogs, handlers and judges. The show, itself, had 1 photographer with a digital set-up who photographed the winning dog at each judging.
The yorkshire terrier below was photographed with Derk’s digital Nikon.
February 8, 2008
Photographing Marine Life
Derk had an interesting day at Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. He used his Nikon D200 digital camera, no flash, and no tripod. The pictures are great! We worked there on two earlier occasions using film, flash, and tripods. So, it came as a welcome surprise that the digital camera, alone, could do the job.
Mote has the usual aquarium type tanks for tropical fish. The biggest problem photographing in that area of the facility is the ever present hobby photographer or visiting school group.
Mote also has a huge aquarium tank for manatee. It is necessary to use wide lens because the manatee are big. The best perspective for a picture is from the lower viewing area where you make an underwater shot. Reflections on the aquarium glass can be a big problem there.
Here are a couple of Derk’s pictures. The Jellyfish is available at kphotos.imagekind.com/TropicalFish as poster or framed print and the clownfish is also available there.:
July 12, 2007
Reviewing Orlando Film
Regardless of the heat we made great pictures of Orlando, Florida this week. A sample picture from Disney Marketplace is below:
July 10, 2007
Photographing Disney Marketplace
Today we got an early start and photographed Disney Marketplace before the heat became intolerable.
July 9, 2007
Working in Orlando
Yesterday and today we worked in Orlando, Florida. We have photographed Universal City Walk, Mall at Millenium, and the new Festival Mall. It is hot – 102 degrees today - feels like 115!!!
City Walk’s current theme is “Scream Louder” as seen on billboards over I-4 highway. And the 50,000 visitors were screaming Sunday!
Today we were seated at a window table at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant in the Mall at Millenium. Fascinating parade of different types of humanity.
