Florida Keys Photography

I recently was given the opportunity to tag along on a Florida Keys Workshop put on by a local Photographer Robert L. Chaplin.  The workshop started out early in the morning with a trip to Anne’s Beach in the middle Keys.  I captured a great shot of a Mangrove Tree illuminated by the morning sunlight with a color sky and wading Egret.

From Anne’s Beach we went further south to Robbie’s to capture some Tarpon pictures before the crowds showed up.  I got two I liked.

After Robbie’s we continued further south to the old Bahia Honda bridge.  Along the Bahia Honda Beach I found some driftwood that had washed ashore and had been bleached white by the sun.  I used my wide angle lens to get close to it and capture a nice scene between the blue sky and water and white wooden tree.  I also got a good shot of the Bahia Honda Bridge that I liked as well.

We left Bahia Honda around noon and continued our trip south where we started to encounter Florida’s thunderstorms.  While we pulled over to try and capture some lighting shots I found a picturesque lagoon and waded in to try and photograph a lone mangrove I liked.  I was able capture a dramatic storm cloud in the distance to give my mangrove tree a nice back drop.

We did not make it to Key West this trip as we were all getting tired.  We decided to start working our way back north and home.  On the way we saw a great line of thunderstorms coming in off the Atlantic and pulled over near the card sound bridge to intercept them.  I got a great shot of the sun setting with a lightning strike in it surrounded by silhouettes of the nearby mangroves.

All in all it was a great trip and I am glad the Robert Chaplin invited me to tag along.

Fakahatchee Ghost Orchid

I have been monitoring a Ghost Orchid I discovered in Fakahatchee Strand for the past few weeks and waiting on it to bloom.  I knew it was getting close to when it would be in full bloom and did not want to miss getting some photos of it before it withered and died.  Luckily when I got there the Ghost Orchid was still in full bloom but I was a few days late as it had alreadys started to turn brown in a few places.

I spent about and hour shooting the orchid in different light and compositions.  The day I went was during the rain storms that we had been having hear in South Florida that were lasting days at a time.  I got lucky in that once I got to the site the rain had gone from a downpour to a sprinkle and eventually became intermittent.  This gave me a small window of opportunity to take some shots before the rain started again.  Unfortunately, it also meant very low light conditions as it was cloudy and I was under a pretty thick tree canopy.