Follow Me On My Photography Adventures
I am excited to announce the birth of my first child, Jackson Tucker Shelley. He was born on July 11 and weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Nevertheless, I will likely be taking a brief hiatus from my outdoor photography adventures. However, my indoor baby picture adventures are just beginning. I have a lot to learn as I have never really done much in the way of people pictures. It should be a lot of fun and give me a reason to buy new camera gear.
I brought my camera to this years 4th of July celebration of Homestead Miami Speedway in hopes of finding time to photograph the fireworks display. I have brought my camera the last 3 years but have yet to find time to use it. One downfall of being an elected official on the 4th of July is that you always end up being part of the programming. The last few years the program has occurred right before the fireworks have started leaving me no time to grab my camera and tripod and get to a good vantage point.
This year however the program concluded early enough to head outside and set up my camera to watch the show. This years fireworks were great and the City of Homestead Parks and Rec Staff did not disappoint. It took me a little while to get my settings right, and in the end I still did not figure out exactly the best method to capture the explosions, but still managed to get a few keepers.
My biggest problem was that I was so close to the fireworks it was hard to set my aperture and shutter speed correctly so as not to get blowouts to frequently. This was especially true during the grand finally in which I did not successfully capture a single usable shot. I will research the techniques better next year before trying it again.
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.
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.
I am excited that one of my photographs has been chosen to be featured on the cover of a National publication the Municipal Magazine. The Municipal Magazine is a publication that focuses on issues involving municipalities and governments. They chose a photo I took of the MacArthur Causeway in Downtown Miami.
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.
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.
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.
I decided to head back down to Eco Pond on Monday morning to spend some more time trying to photograph the birds. Last time I was there I had to rush off and leave before the birds had really become very active. This time I could stay until it got too hot or the birds left whichever happened first.
Just like on Saturday, there were about the same number of birds and variety of birds. Although this time I also saw a pileated woodpecker. The pileated woodpecker looks like woody woodpecker the cartoon with the tall triangular pointed red head. I would have like to have captured him in flight but he never got close enough.
I did get some more shots of the lone reddish egret fishing/dancing across the pond. The reddish egret was very active this morning and was using all of his fishing tricks to catch breakfast. He did his dance across the water as well as his raised wings pretend shade trick. It was if nothing else entertaining to watch.
The roseate spoonbills still were not very active and just sat across the pond on the dead branches before eventually just flying away. I will give it a few more weeks before trying back to see if more birds have arrived and the activity level increases.
Before heading home I also walked some of the Coastal Prairie Trail at the south-west end of the flamingo campground. I plan on coming back when I have the time and energy to walk the entire length. All in all it was a good morning of photography and time spent in the Everglades.
Click on the thumbnails for the full image.
Had the pleasure of being asked to give a presentation to the Focus on Parks Miami Dade youth group about my photography and passion for Everglades National Park. The presentation took place at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park. The group consisted of about 20 middle school children who were going to be spending the next two (2) days in Everglades National Park learning about the ecosystems, conservation and photography. This was many of the children’s first time visiting the Everglades and they were excited to see the birds, alligators and other wildlife up close and personal. The Focus on Parks Miami Dade is a six (6) week program that visits various parks throughout Miami-Dade County and gives each child a camera in which to capture their experiences and teach them about photography. I am glad I got to be a part of their first visit to Everglades National Park.
I have not had time lately to make it out to the park so I decided to take advantage of my time in the everglades by running down to Eco Pond around sunrise prior to meeting with the kids at 10:00 AM. Last time I checked on Eco Pond was back in December and there were almost no birds to speak of. This time there were a good number of Roseate Spoonbills and snowy egrets, with the occasional cormorant, tri-color heron, reddish egret, king fisher, ibis, duck and osprey. However, the birds have still not shown up in large numbers as they have in years past. Hopefully, they are just late this year due to the warmer weather and higher water levels.
Unfortunately, I did not get to stay very long and due to the cooler morning the birds were not very active. The Roseate Spoonbills for the most part sat stationary on the nearby driftwood. The Reddish Egret was the most active bird in the bunch and as a result I was able to get some good shots of him flying around and fishing. In order to make it back to the Anhinga Trail I had to leave just as the birds started to become more active and start feeding. Captured two decent shots of some birds in flight. I really like the reddish egret shot. I have a few more I may go through and post later.
