Tag: Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park Early Morning Fog

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Photographing fog has been on my list of things to do for quite some time. Being that fog is unpredictable and happens early in the mornings, I have been procrastinating on setting my alarm. However, yesterday I saw that there was a dense fog advisory and high probability for fog so I decided to get up early and make a trip out to Everglades National Park.

The fog cooperated and was fairly heavy. The sun was scheduled to rise around 6:50 AM but did not make an appearance until after 9 as a result of the fog. I did not have a real plan on how to shoot the fog so I experimented as I went. I captured a few decent shots and learned a lot for my next photo trip.

I found that fog is best captured with a long lens that compresses the scene and more accurately reflects the scene. Unless you are in white out conditions, fog is more noticeable in the distance than right around you. This is more accurately captured and/or accentuated with a long lens versus a wide angle lens.

I still need to find the best subject matter to compliment the fog. I tried pine trees and cypress trees yesterday. Next trip I will work with some of the lakes and/or boardwalks.

Another lesson learned was that color photos and fog tend to be bland. I found that if I converted them to black and white they had more emotion.

Everglades on Ice

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While looking at the weather forecast yesterday afternoon I came up with an idea for what could be a unique photograph. Yesterdays forecast called for the coldest weather South Florida has seen in more than 4 years. The lows in the interior were thought to dip to the mid 20’s to low 30’s and a freeze warning was issued by NOAA. I envisioned trying to capture an image in the everglades with white frost within the landscape. A unique image that would be hard to repeat unless you had the right conditions. I called a friend of mine, Robert Chaplin, and asked if he was interested in tagging along with me. He said yes, so we headed out this morning at 5:30 AM to see what we could create.

Unfortunately for us, but good for the local farmers, the temperatures were running some 4 degrees higher than forecast and the wind speeds also stayed higher than forecast limiting the formation of frost. I had hoped to have widespread white frost on the ground to set my scene but now I would have to find something else. We ended up at the Pahayokee Overlook Boardwalk. Man made objects, especially those raised off of the ground tend to freeze/frost faster than living plant matter. Luckily for me the Payhayokee Boardwalk was iced over when we got there from top to bottom.

I set up my shot to use the Boardwalk as my leading line and main subject matter since I was hoping to accentuate the icing. This proved problematic since prior to the sunrise there was no light to reflect off the ice and make it recognizable as ice. I ended up using my flash and flashlight to try and make the ice more visible. I never did end up with exactly what I was hoping for but I still managed to capture an image that is captivating and has visible ice. The only problem is that without the background story one may not realize that the white color is ice and not the normal color of the boardwalk.

Luckily as a bonus I captured a few other good photos both prior to the sun rising and afterward. I even got a visit from one of the local owls. All in all it was a successful trip even if not exactly how I planned it.

On the way out I stopped back by the Cypress Dome with the blooming Everglades Daisy’s to give it one more try. I know there is a good photo in there I just am having a hard time finding a way to capture it with my camera. So far I like this effort the best. I will see if it continues to grow on me.

Everglades National Park Scouting Trip

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For Presidents Day I decided to take a day trip out to Everglades National Park to explore a few trails and Cypress Domes I have not been to in a while. The weather was great, not to hot, and there were little to any bugs to speak of.

I started my journey in a well known Cypress Dome called Double Dome. Most of the dome was dry except for the deep hole in the middle and few deeper spots here and there. However, dry is relative when talking about Cypress Domes. During the wet season Cypress Domes typically are full of water, anywhere from shin deep to waist deep. Therefore, dry means no standing water. However, there was plenty of squishy mud. Between the wet season and the complete dry season is a time period where the ground is mushy and soft. This was one of those times. Some of the Bromeliads were in bloom and the resident large gator was there guarding his watering hole and female. I saw a few Water Moccasins but none wanted to be photographed. There were also a good number of birds flying around and feeding in the few water holes remaining, including a couple of Great Blue Herons.

My next stop was a smaller less well know Cypress Dome that was full of blooming yellow flowers. I tried to capture the scene but found it to be pretty difficult. The scene was just to busy with all of the flowers, cypress trees and branches and then the grass. I am sure that printed very large it would all seem proportional, but shrunk down on a computer screen or at low resolution it is just hard to not be overwhelmed by complexity and overabundance of details.

After photographing the Cypress Dome, I then hiked a few other trails but did not find anything of interest to photograph. I finished the day by hiking a trail I had never been on but had spotted from Google Earth. On the trail I came across an alligator that had died some time ago. All that was left was some bones and the skull. They had all been bleached white by the sun. I took a few photos of it just for fun. It appeared to be a fairly good sized gator when it was alive.

I could envision capturing some good photos from this new trail given the right conditions. I will definitely hike it again.

Snake Bight Boardwalk Sunrise Everglades National Park

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This morning a few members from the newly formed South Florida National Parks Camera Club took an early morning bike ride down Snake Bight trail in Everglades National Park.  The goal was to capture a sunrise over Florida Bay.  We left Homestead around 4:30 and arrived at the trial head around 5:30.  The trail is only about 2 miles long but at night in the dark it is much harder to traverse.  On this trip it was even harder than we anticipated due to the lack of maintenance and how overgrown the trail was.  In fact one of the members of our party encountered a fallen log that was not visible due to the high grass and fell off his bike.  No one was seriously hurt but he was definitely sore the rest of the day.

Eventually we made the Snake Bight boardwalk just at prime light.  I managed to capture a few images before the rest of the guys caught their breath and got their camera equipment set up.  As a result I was able to capture an image of the empty boardwalk and use it as a leading line toward the rising glow of the sun.  I was happy with the composition and colors in this image and will likely add it to my website collection.

Snakebight Boardwalk Sunrise

 

Geminid Meteor Shower 2014

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A photographer friend and I decided on the spur of the moment to head out to the Everglades to photograph this years Geminid Meteor shower.  We knew the almost full moon would rise around midnight so we only had a small window of opportunity to watch and photograph natures fireworks display.  We started at Mahogany Hammock and worked our way down to Flamingo.

I am glad we decided to make the trip because this years shower was the best I have seen in quite some time.  It seemed that every few seconds one, two or even three meteors were streaking across the sky.  We even saw a few green fireballs.  It may have also helped that we found a new dark site that blocked out much of the light pollution from Miami and the Keys.

I had a great time but did not come home with a lot of keeper images.  However, I did capture one good long exposure image and combined my three best meteors into the same image to create a more dramatic effect.

Everglades Lightning

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We have been having a very wet and stormy year here in Southeast Florida.  I decided to try and take advantage of the weather pattern to go out and capture one of my favorite subject matters, Lightning.  Each year I have committed to dedicate some free time to chase storms and create a lightning portfolio.  Unfortunately, every year something important occurs on the best storm/lightning days or nights.  At least this year I was able to spend a whole day chasing storms and as a result got some exciting lighting images to add to my collection.

I chased these storms from the entrance to Everglades National Park all the way to Flamingo.  A few times I probably got a little closer than I should have.  During one of the storms I could not get out of the truck because the lighting was almost directly overhead.  The bolt and thunder were occurring simultaneously.

 

Comet 209P/LINEAR

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I read about the earth passing through the Comet 209P/Linear dust trail and the prediction that it would to be a meteor storm with potentially up to 1000 meteors an hour.  Of course I decided to grab my camera and plan a trip out into the Everglades to find a nice dark site to witness this once in a lifetime meteor shower.  Unfortunately, the meteor shower was a complete dud.  I might have witnessed 5 meteors the whole night.  However, one of the meteors was the best single meteor I have seen to date.  It lit up the sky like a fireball and remained very vibrant for at least 10 seconds before exploding as it neared the horizon.

The bad news was that I had my camera pointed in the completely opposite direction.  Either way it was still fun to get out of the house and go see the stars and the milky way.  I took a couple of images of the milky way before heading home around 4:00 AM.

Everglades Milky Way

Lunar Eclipse/Blood Moon

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The last time I observed a lunar eclipse I was in high school which by now is many many years ago.  Therefore, I decided not to miss this mornings lunar eclipse despite the middle of the night timing.

I met up with some photographer friends of mine in Everglades National Park around 1:00 AM to try and capture the lunar eclipse on digital film.  We started our adventure at Pine Glades Lake and then decided to venture out into one of the cypress domes to try and shoot the eclipse through the forest of trees.

The cypress dome did not produce any useable images.  However, I did capture a good image of a lone cypress tree with the moon above it.  I used a flashlight to paint/illuminate the tree during the exposure.  I also took two images and combined them into one.  One image exposed for the night sky and the other exposed for the moon.  For the moon exposure I also changed to a longer lens.  Using my 16-35 causes the moon to look miniscule in the image.  Whereas with my longer lens I can capture a moon that looks closer to what I perceive in real life.

One of the more interesting images I captured was of the lunar eclipse just before it was completely blocked by the earth’s shadow.  I captured this image at Pine Glades Lake just as a layer of fog had started to develop above the lake.  I used some rocks as a foreground subject.  During the exposure I flashed the high beams of my truck to illuminate the fog in the distance as well as the rocks.  The image looks as if the bottom of the moon is illuminating the fog but it is not.  I also converted this image to black and white.

It was amazing to witness the eclipse from beginning to end.  This was especially true of the effect the eclipse had on the night sky.  Prior to the eclipse the moon was causing too much light pollution to see anything but the brightest of stars.  During the peak of the eclipse the stars became instantly visible and thousands were visible all at once.

I had a good time observing nature and trying to photograph what I was witnessing.  Here a few images from this morning.

Pine Glades Lake Sunset

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I went down to Everglades National Park after work on Tuesday to meet up with my friend Robert Chaplin at Pine Glades Lake to try and photograph a sunset.  Robert has been teaching a photography workshop in Everglades National Park all this week and I told him I would come down to meet his class.

I decided while I was down there to borrow Robert’s Canon 8-15 fisheye lens and give it a try.  I primarily like to shoot wide angle with my Canon 16-35 Is II.  I have always thought about trying a fisheye for getting an even wider perspective but to date have not had the opportunity.  My wallet may regret trying out his lens.

I set up my shot using the rocks and shoreline to lead the viewers eyes to the post sunset glow.  My first few shots had my tripod legs in them as I did not realize how wide a fisheye’s perspective actually was.  I also used HDR to take three exposures to compensate for shooting directly into the light.  This allowed me to capture the detail in the rocks and water as well as not have any blow outs where the sun had just set.  It turned out to be a beautiful sunset with rich color and great reflections.

I may just start looking around for a good used fisheye of my own.

Pine Glades Lake
Pine Glades Lake

 

Cigar/Cowhorn Orchid

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Yesterday I ran out to Everglades National Park to check on a Cowhorn Orchid I found last year but never got to go back and photograph.  The orchid is in full bloom but looks as if the blooms are already starting to wither.  There were also some other orchids in bloom nearby.  The wind was really whipping making it impossible to get a crisp shot of the blooms.  I took a few shots but did not really like any of the results.  I may try to sneak back out there this weekend and hopefully with better conditions capture an image I will like.