Dawn Sunshine Skyway Bridge

I'm always trying to find a different perspective when I'm photographing a familiar site. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Ft Desoto, Tierra Verde, Florida is one of my favorite scenes to photo. Not only because it's the Skyway, but because I love to photograph bridges. I'm always on the lookout for a new one to photograph.

It's strange, I've photographed this bridge, especially at dawn and sunrise, hundreds of times and most of them from the same location on East Beach, and never thought to turn the camera on its side. I was pleasantly pleased with this shot.

Whenever I'm out with my photography students, I tell them to not be a "walk-up-shooter". Spend some time exploring the view; look up, look down, walk all the way around the subject if possible, take shots from near, from far, well you get the idea. I tell them this because it's one of my faults that I'm trying hard to overcome. I'll have to practice what I preach more often.

Sunrise Over the Skyway

I have been doing this shoot every year since my friend, Linda Weekley, told me about it in 2006.

Once a year, the sun rises between the spans of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tierra Verde. I get this shot from East Beach in Ft Desoto. It happens only for 2 days a year, and it's never the same time.

That means that starting in October, I have to check where the sun rises so I can estimate when it'll be right there between the spans. I go probably 2 or 3 times in October, then once a week, down to every couple days to catch it just right. I got lucky this year; my friend, Jim, was there yesterday and let me know today would be the day. Jim is a member of my photography group, and they're all involved with this as well. As a matter of fact, it's become a tradition with the group. We all go out there for sunrise, then go to work from there if it's on a weekday.

I just made it on time today. I usually go at dawn, but today was the day the time changed (from Daylight Savings Time) and I got confused. I got there just before it rose. These are the photos I got from when I got there until it was just right.

If you go back in my blogs, you can compare this year's with each previous year. It's pretty cool.

It's still as exciting to see it today and it was back in 2006 when I caught it for the first time.

Dawn at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Another day having to get up to check where the sunrise is and still no sunrise! Now I have to get up again tomorrow. I don't want to miss that window.

I do like this morning's dawn, though. I'm happy with this shot. I sure wish I could post it larger so it isn't so compressed. I caught it today during low tide and the water looked like glass. I think this is the first time I've ever seen the bridge reflected in the water in this spot.

I like the color, too. Nothing was done in post processing except straightening. I have to do that to all my photos where the horizon shows. I have astigmatism (I think that's how it's spelled), so everything I see as straight is crooked.

Setting used for this shot were 15 seconds at F8, -1/3 exposure compensation, in aperture priority with partial metering off the water, at ISO 200 to keep the noise down as much as possible. I used my 55-250mm IS lens.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge Sunrise

This is the time of year when the sun rises right between the spans of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Every year, around this time I start going there to check out where the sun is because it only rises between the spans for 2 days from this spot. Every year it's at a different time to complicate things even further.

I went for the first time on October 27th. It is impossible to tell where it rose because it was hidden by the heavy cloud cover. If I can get up in the morning, I'm going to go back to check it out.

Unfortunately, the jpg compression took a lot of the beautiful color and contrast in the image away.

This image was shot on a tripod, at ISO 200 to keep the noise down, for 1/25th sec at F4 using partial metering in aperture priority. Nothing other than straightening the horizon was done in post processing with Adobe Lightroom 2.5.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

On Saturday, I participated in a joint meetup between my photography group and another fitness/adventure group. Not many people showed up for the event, but I had a great time and met some very nice people at the event.

Besides meeting new people, I also found two new places with interesting views of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tierra Verde, FL. I have been looking for a place to get this angle for many years and never knew this place existed, although I've seen photos of this angle. Now I know where to get these photos. This angle shows the steep curve of the bridge.

For those that don't know about this bridge, this is the second bridge built to cross the water of Tampa Bay, connecting St Petersburg with Sarasota.

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge was the site of a number of tragic events, including the collision of the US Coast Guard ship Blackthorn and outbound freighter Capricorn in 1980 which claimed 23 sailors' lives, and a structural collapse caused by a collision with the bridge support by the inbound freighter Summit Venture in 1980 which killed 35 people.

The Sunshine Skyway is a cabled main span approximately 5.5 miles in length with a vertical clearance of 199 ft. Construction began in 1982 and was dedicated in 1987 and cost $244 million dollars to build. It is constructed of steel and concrete. The Travel Channel rated the Sunshine Skyway #3 in its special on the "Top 10 Bridges" in the World. The bridge is considered the "flag bridge" of Florida.

Settings used for this image are exposed at 1/2000 at F7.1 at ISO 200 with +1/3 eV, at 208mm hand held. My White Balance was set to Cloudy, which rendered the image too blue. The image was color corrected with PhotoShop.

More of Ft Desoto Park

While getting my memory cards ready for my shoot last night, I found that I forgot I had some photos from last Sunday's Ft Desoto shoot. This was one that I almost missed.

It was made a little earlier than the previous post, probably an hour before sunset. I knew there'd be a marvelous sunset because of the beautiful clouds in the sky--if they didn't hide the sun, that is.

It's days like this that make me love Ft Desoto. Every time I go there, this is the atmosphere. It's always peaceful, quiet and I feel like I'm on my own private beach. Ft Desoto is spread out over so many miles that even on a busy weekend, there's plenty of beach for everyone. If you want to find that "private" solitude, there's a spot for everyone. On the other hand, if you're one of those people that like to people watch, and like to see many people on the beach, you can also find that there, too. It's just the perfect place.

It is also one of the only beaches you'll find that you can see the sunrise and the sunset from the same beach. It's a must visit if you're not from this area. If you are, then you already know about this beautiful place and have experienced all it has to offer.

Summertime at Ft Desoto

While at Ft Desoto the other evening, I saw this woman photographing something on the beach. I'm not sure if she was photographing the woman and boy walking in front of her, or just the beach in general.

For me, I saw a perfect shot with the Laughing Gulls flying all around her and the pink tinge in the clouds that can only be seen during sunset.

When photographing the sunset, we usually get mesmerized by the beauty of the sunset itself. Don't forget to turn around. You just might spot a much better image like this one. The light is warm, directional and the textures, forms and shapes are brought out like no other lighting.

For this image, the light was coming from the sun about a 90° angle to my subject which as previously mentioned, brought out the texture in the sand and sea grasses. I shot this image at 1/800 (to stop the motion of the birds in flight) at F5. Since there was a lot of light areas, I added 1 stop exposure compensation to keep the birds, skin tones and sky from being underexposed. For those of you who use point-n-shoot cameras, if you have a beach or snow mode, this would work well for this type of image. My ISO was set at 200 and I used my 55-250mm lens at 96mm. I used Aperture Priority mode and Partial metering.

North Beach, Ft Desoto

Last night, I went to a conference at North Beach in Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde, FL. As I walked along the beach, I couldn't help but notice the quality of the light. There's nothing like the late afternoon light to bring out the best in a photograph.

I spotted this lone umbrella between the sand dunes. There was quite a bit of beach stuff all around, and the people it belonged to were no where in sight. They were most likely enjoying Ft Desoto's warm, summer water. If you've never been to Florida in the Gulf in the summertime, you would not be able to imagine how nice the water is. It's almost like taking a bath. It was a comfortable 84 deg F. No wonder the people weren't around their umbrella.

I walked around this umbrella trying to find a decent vantage point to make my photo without all the beach stuff around it, hoping all the time that the people who owned wouldn't return to spoil my photo. As luck would have it, I finally found a place to stand where the stuff wasn't showing--just a lone float and an umbrella. Perfect!

I made my image, satisfied with knowing that I had the perfect shot to show what I was feeling in my mind when I first spotted that place with that beautiful, warm, summer light.

My camera was already set at ISO 200, and I shot it at F4.5 at 1/200 sec. I probably should've shot it at F8 or higher, but it looked fine in the viewfinder, except for some dark shadows that I knew if I didn't add a little bit of light, they'd have gone black. So, I added 1 stop eV, and using about 79mm on my trusty 55-250mm favorite walk-around lens, fired the shutter to make a very nice shot. I was lucky to have that sand dune hide all the stuff around the umbrella.

It's times like this that makes me happy that I'm a photographer and can record beautiful scenes like this one. Florida is truly paradise.

Sandwich Tern

My grandson, Bill, and I went to the beach today at Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde. I hadn't intended on taking any photographs; just enjoying the water for a change.

The water was a warm 79 Deg. F; still a bit cool for me. I like it best when it's about 85 Deg. I did enjoy it even though it felt a bit cool. I haven't managed to find the time to go to the beach since I moved back to Florida 3 years ago.

I brought my camera and was glad I did. After about a 1/2 hour in the water, I became bored and thought I might as well photograph some birds while I was there. The area I usually go to at Ft Desoto is partially cordoned off because the birds are nesting this time of year. Amongst the Black Skimmers nesting on the beach, were a few of these cute little Sandwich Terns. It's so much fun to watch them diving in the water for fish. I shot this one just before his dive. They're way to fast for me to catch during a dive unless I can get very close. Since this area is roped off, I couldn't get too close, so I had to photograph them up in the sky.

Sandwich Terns aren't very big when compared to the other birds or even when compared to Gulls. I only had my 55 - 250mm lens with me, so it was pretty difficult catching them at all.

Since the sun was pretty bright and this white bird was backlit, I opened up my exposure by 1 stop. I couldn't see the histogram on my camera (I need to get one of those hoods); I had to guess that the exposure was fairly close. I probably could've opened up by another 1/2 stop to get more detail in the shadows. Anyway, it isn't too bad like it is. Thank Heaven I shoot RAW. Shooting RAW has saved my butt many times when I don't get the exposure right on. It's especially important when shooting fast moving objects and there isn't enough time to be checking exposure and adjusting it.

Reddish Egret

What a day we had today! My friends and I went to North Shore Park in St Petersburg for the sunrise and our plans were to go directly out to Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde, to photograph birds and meet another friend there.

We planned to leave Ft Desoto around 9:00 am. After the sunrise, we started to drive to Ft Desoto, and kept seeing things to shoot that we just couldn't resist. With all that traveling and stopping, we didn't arrive at Ft Desoto until after 9:00. Most of the birds had their breakfast and were napping or roosting.

That didn't stop us from finding a few to shoot. This beautiful Reddish Egret was very obliging and let us all get some great shots of him. If you've never seen a Reddish Egret forage for food, you've been missing some very curious behavior.

They stand really still in the water while they look around. All of a sudden, you'll see them run around in all different directions. Then they put their head down while holding their wings semi outspread to shade the reflections on the water and to disguise themselves to the fish. Once they've made their catch, the whole scenario begins again.

Oh yes, the sunrise was beautiful. Here's a little peak!

Mabel Orchard Spider

I shot this Mabel Orchard spider while on my meetup in Ft Desoto. These spiders are really tiny, and it's the first time I've ever gotten a shot decent enough to print.

While this one isn't perfect, I like it anyway. I'd probably give it a 4 out of 5 stars if I were to rank it. I'd like to have seen a little more detail where his eyes are.

Mabel Orchard Spiders (leucauge mabelae) are in the Large-jawed Orb Weaver family (Tetragnathidae). They are easily recognized by their unusually large, powerful jaws, or chelicerae. They have 8 eyes and 3 claws on each tarsus. These spiders are only 1/2". Mabel Orchard spiders can be found in woodland edges and shrubby meadows from New England to Florida and west to Texas and Nebraska.

This species hangs below its web until prey is detected, or waits on a stem nearby with 1 leg in contact with a web strand.

Orchard spiders differ from other large-jawed spiders in possessing a small plate underneath thath protects the opening of the female sex organs.

Brazilian Pepper Tree

This image of this Brazilian Pepper tree was taken during my Ft Desoto meetup with my group while walking along the one of the nature trails.

Distribution of Brazilian pepper tree throughout Florida is widespread, although limited to the warmer areas due to sensitivity to cold temperatures. Brazilian pepper can be found as far north as Levy and St. Johns Counties, and as far west as Santa Rosa County. It is an aggressive invader of disturbed habitats; this characteristic has led to its placement on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s list of invasive species. Many plant communities such as hammocks, pinelands and mangrove forests are often invaded and dominated by Brazilian pepper tree.

This shrub/tree is one of the most aggressive and wide-spread of the invasive non-indigenous exotic pest plants in the State of Florida. There are over 700,000 acres in Florida infested with Brazilian pepper tree. Brazilian pepper tree produces a dense canopy that shades out all other plants and provides a very poor habitat for native species. This species invades aquatic as well as terrestrial habitats, greatly reducing the quality of native biotic communities in the state.

Brazilian Pepper trees (Schinus terebinthifolius) are native to Brazil, as their name suggests. They were brought here in the late 1800's because of their ornamental value.

North Beach, Ft Desoto

This beach is so beautiful and Sunday morning we had the prettiest clouds! It was cool, breezy and very dry. One of the best days we've had since the hot summer.

The sand dunes are planted for conservation. They help keep the sand from eroding. Keeping our beaches in shape like this is a lot of work and very expensive.

This is North Beach at Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde, FL. In 2005 it was rated #1 beach by Dr. Beach. You can see why in this image.

Herring Gull

This Herring Gull had just landed on the beach at North Beach in Ft. Desoto, in Tierra Verde, FL. My friend and I headed to North Beach right after watching the sunrise on East Beach.

I went to Ft Desoto this morning chasing the sunrise again. It was another incredible sunrise. It rose right between the spans after we moved to catch it there. It's still coming up a bit left, so with a little luck we'll still be able to photograph it between the spans for another week.

Friday's my day off, so I'll be giving it one more shot (not pun intended).

Daybreak, Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Yet another trip to check where the sun would rise. I'll be doing this until I catch the sun rising right between the spans of this bridge.

This morning, though, I got a very pleasant surprise. I also caught the moon setting. In all the times I've been here, I've never seen the moon set over the bridge. It made me happy I didn't opt to sleep in today.

This image was taken from the turn-around on East Beach at Ft Desoto Park in Tierra Verde, FL.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge Sunrise Check Up #2

We went over to check up on the position of the sun as it rises yesterday. This first one is a look at it in total darkness.

The next shot was taken at dawn.

The third shot, almost at sunrise. And finally, the sun rose. It still isn't between the spans, but I'll be going back to check it on Monday. Hopefully, it'll be a bit closer.

In 2006, it rose between the spans on Dec. 2nd, and in 2007 the date was Nov. 15th. It appears that it's about 2 weeks earlier every year.

It only lasts for about 2 days, so we have little chance to catch it until we have to wait another year to try it again.

Ft Desoto Sunset and Fisherman

This was one of the most incredible sunsets I've seen in a long time--even the birds cooperated.

This was taken during a workshop with my friend, Jim Sykes, on sunsets and moon rises. We went to one of my favorite places, Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde, FL. We started at the old fort, than as soon as the sunset faded, we headed for East Beach to catch the moonrise.

East Beach is still in Ft Desoto about 3 or 4 miles to the east. We were hoping to catch the full moon rise between the spans of the Sunshine Skyway bridge, but it rose a bit to the left of the bridge. I think I'll be going back once a month to try to catch the full moon rising between the spans. With a little luck, I won't forget about it and not go.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Every year the sun rises between the spans of this bridge for only 2 days. The problem is, we never know which 2 days it is. In 2006, it rose between the spans on Dec. 2nd and in 2007, it was on Nov. 15th.

So, every year I start going to my favorite spot to check it out and try to guess when it's going to rise perfectly in the center of the spans.

I went out this morning and it's not even close, so I'll check it in about a month. However, we had some really nice clouds at daybreak when I captured this image.

It's too bad the bridge is being painted because the spans aren't lit up. It's so beautiful lit up. It'll be a while before it gets done, so it looks like it won't be lit this year when I finally catch it in the right place once again.

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