One of my favorite things we did on our Florida trip in January was our ferry boat ride to Cayo Costa State Park. Cayo Costa is only accessible by ferry or private boat. There are no roads or bridges. It is about a half hour boat ride from Captiva Island to Cayo Costa. The ride was … [Read more…]
I was going to call this blog post Winter Hike, but it was 70 degrees this past Sunday when we went on this hike and it didn’t feel like winter to me. My son was visiting from the Chicago area and it felt even warmer to him. I took my camera with my Lensbaby Sweet … [Read more…]
The coquina rocks at Washington Oaks Beach have all sorts of interesting patterns – from round holes to weathered layers. Depending on the tides the patterns are enhanced by the ocean. I wrote before of my friend, Court introducing me to seeing faces in nature, which is called pareidolia. Now I can’t stop finding them … [Read more…]
This has been a fairly warm winter, but in mid-January, we finally got some snow. As it often happens around here in winter the roads are too dangerous to drive on when it snows, so we hunkered down for 2 days until it started to warm up. It had not been warm enough to freeze … [Read more…]
I have heard these waterfalls called both Mare’s Tails and Rooster’s Tails. This day they reminded me more of mares running and their tails streaming out in the wind. The rock formation in the stream bed causes the water to arch up and fall back down so that it looks like a tail. They create … [Read more…]
I visited the poppies by the expressway again. There are many poppies past prime, but still many photographs to be had. I have a photographer friend, Courtland White, who finds faces in landscapes. It is called “Pareidolia,” the human tendency to perceive patterns, particularly faces, where none exists. He says that once you see the … [Read more…]
Easter is a good time to go to the conservatory for an early look at spring and celebration. I loved seeing this Easter Lily with half of its petals having fallen to the ground, showing off the green veining on the inside. There was an amaryllis left over from the winter with a lovely flow … [Read more…]
In the winter when there are too many bare branches with no snow, I give into the excuses of too windy and/or too cold to go out photographing. I find a sunny window in our house and set up flowers in various patterns and color combinations. These photos were all taken in the upstairs bedroom of my house … [Read more…]
I love the magic of blur in a photo. Shooting wide open is one way to accomplish this. Lenses like Lensbaby can enhance this effect. Recently, I noticed some spectacular bubble and ovoid bokeh from heritage or vintage lenses. Vintage lenses can also be very sharp. Not only do vintage lenses only focus manually, but aperture, ISO … [Read more…]