2017 Florida Storm

Night photography is a passion of mine and one of the challenges can be to try for lightning images. Summertime in FL usually means plenty of storms. Unfortunately this summer while it has been wet the evening storms have been infrequent and the opportunity for lightning even less. Last week we finally got a break. After checking the radar often it appeared a line of storms to the northeast was heading south. I called a friend and her first words were “I wondered when you’d call.” I grabbed my gear and swung by her house. I’d heard about a small park with picnic tables that had shelters over them and the bonus was it faces east over a lake. Perfect for us. We got there as one storm was passing to the east so we each picked a table and set up the tripods. There wasn’t a lot of rain but the shelters enabled us to keep on shooting without risking the cameras.

After a while the storm passed and it appeared that part of it was heading west, towards the Gulf. We hopped in the truck and headed west. Deciding to go straight out to Ft. Island Trail Beach. There are tables there with shelters, too. The beach is lit by large sodium lights, so the sand looked pretty orange in the images, but I toned it down a bit. It was a good night all in all. 

2016 Bandon, first week

Bullard Beach SP is a really good location to use as a base. The campground itself is really nice and it’s handy to so many interesting places. Soon after I arrived I took a drive up to the Charleston area, to Sunset Beach SP and Simpson’s Reef. Photographing wildlife is always a draw for me and I spent about 3 hours watching the sea lions (both California and Stellar) and seals (harbor seals and Northern Elephant

Northern Elephant Seals

seals). The N.E. seals were pretty lethargic, laying on the beach and occasionally using their flippers to toss sand on themselves. I never did get to see one in the water but the others were having a great time of it.

Bandon has lots of sea stacks and good access to the local beaches. Yesterday there were some harbor seals resting on a large rock so I was able to get a few images.

This morning there were some clouds with sunlight breaking through so I spent some time photographing some of the sea stacks. I haven’t used ND filters much and decided it would be good to play around with them. Very interesting results I think.  

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2016 Goosenecks SP, Utah

My last night on the road before getting to Goosenecks SP in UT was at a small campground in Bernalillo, NM, just north of Albuquerque. Each campsite has electric

Coronado RV park, Bernalillo, NM

hookup with water nearby. What caught my eye was the special shade shelters each site has over their picnic tables.

I decided to try to get into Goosenecks SP in UT because I’d heard so many good things about it. It is dry camping with no shade and no water available but if you arrive prepared you can really relax and enjoy it. It is named because over millions of years the San Juan river has carved deeply into the desert rock making several unique goosenecks. We did see some rafters on the river. I think they put in at Bluff and given the distance to be covered it must be an all day trip at least to get to the take out.

I met some really nice folks at the campground, campers like me. One group was in a borrowed coach and they hosted campfires every night. On Friday we were able to watch the ISS (International Space Station) pass overhead. I didn’t think to get my camera out but did 2 nights later and captured it. Another camper here was an experienced astronomer with a large telescope. His knowledge of the stars was impressive and he invited folks to view various planets and stars each night.

One gentleman expressed an interest when I mentioned photographing the Milky Way

Milky Way over Goosenecks SP, UT

so I helped him get started with night photography. I think he’s hooked now!

This has been a really good place to spend a few days and I look forward to staying in touch with my new friends.

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2016 A Florida River Trip

When I was at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico last November I met a nice couple (from NM) with ties to the Lake Panasoffkee area (about 25 miles from my home). I suggested they get in touch if/when they came down later in the winter.

Osprey

They did and since Bob is an avid photographer he suggested we rent a boat and go out on the river to see what we could find. Great idea!  Fortunately he is familiar with the river and outboard motors and was willing to navigate. As we started out there were osprey working on a nest. We started out on a small inlet into Lake Panasoffkee and headed west towards the Withlacoochee River via Princess Lake.

We saw quite a few birds, but getting sharp images was a challenge since the boat was in motion 99% of

Wood Stork

the time, either because we were going forward or drifting in the current.  It called for fast shutter speeds and a steady hand (no tripod). I got many more blurred images than sharp ones but it was a good day over all. We saw only a couple of other boats, fishermen.

 

There was a good variety of wading birds and many Red Shouldered Hawks.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Some of the birds were very skittish, others much less disturbed as we went by or slowed to watch them.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Herons are very difficult to capture so we were very pleased this one didn’t take off immediately when we slowed and circled near it.

 

We also ventured into a couple of sloughs looking for birds, didn’t see any

Cypress swamp

other than a few ibis in among the cypress but the waters were very still and we took advantage of that to get some nice reflections.

We were rather surprised that the only osprey we saw were right at the start, none along the river or small lake and we only saw 3 gators. I suppose the gators were there but staying down in the water nice and warm since it was rather chilly.

 

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2015 Bosque del Apache, variety

Up and out at dawn to see the cranes fly out from the safe pond where they overnight, three mornings so far and each one slightly different.

 

Later in the day I did another drive around the loops and happened on a Mule Deer doe with a fawn. A lit
tle ways past them I noticed a couple of Javelinas in the ditch on the right side of the road. I slowed down to see if they would emerge, then stopped and got out of the truck. I stayed near the front end but watched all around. Just spotted two of the critters as they had crossed the road and went into the brush. But, the third one took its time and I managed to get a couple of good images. Charming critter, huh?

Stopped in at the Visitor Center and looked around, lots of good info there! Very nice shop, too. I’ve made a practice of collecting a pin and patch at each national park, wildlife refuge or similar place I’ve visited so I got those.

Later in the afternoon, after a brief rain I went back into the refuge and was treated to a bright bit of rainbow. 

Got one image over some of the water then moved along the road and got another with some snow geese (the white line you can see) in the frame.

 

 

 

I was parked at the side of the road and four cranes came pretty close (the t
ruck makes a great blind if you are quiet and just stick the camera lens out the window). A beanbag thing I made years ago worked great over the edge of the window to rest the lens on.

End of the day I went back into the refuge hoping to catch a good sunset. Wonderful way to wrap up the day!

2015 Tennessee Waterfalls, days 1-3

I’m camping at Fall Creek Falls SP in Tennessee for this week, have a list of waterfalls I’d like to photograph and am getting lots of exercise! Hikes to the falls vary and than heavens the weather has been sunny but not too hot.

Fall Creek Falls

Water in a lot of places is extremely low, making some of the waterfalls more like water drips. Oh well,so far I’ve found some rewarding ones to make up for the less than exciting ones.

Twin Falls, Rock Island SP

Twin Falls, is made up of many waterfalls, from biggies to much smaller ones. Lots of choices there for photographers.

Today I went way north to Northrup Falls, challenging hike to the falls but rewarding since the trail takes you right behind the falls.

Northrup Falls, Colditz Cove State Natural Area

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2015 Florida nights

Our trip was cut short and I’m sorry to have ended the posts rather abruptly. We got home OK and I’ve helped Donna get some great mods done on her Casita.

Milky Way at Shell Mound, Lower Suwannee NWR

Fortunately we’ve had a couple of decent nights out, the first was an extremely clear night a good friend an I went to Shell Mound. It was about the best view of the Milky Way we’ve ever had.

We watched as a storm grew over Cedar Key and caught some of the lightning.

Milky Way and storm over Cedar Key, FL

Even the north end of the Milky Way was clear.

 

 

 

A couple of night later I went to Yankeetown with friends. The Perseid Meteor Shower was supposed to peak and we were hoping to

Storm over Withlacoochee Bay, FL

photograph a few. There was a big storm  north of where we stopped and we got to see some very interesting cloud formations lit up by the lightning.

Very late the storm subsided and the clouds cleared a bit. The next morning I discovered I had captured a meteor after all.

Perseid Meteor