Reindeer Corral

In keeping with my Christmas theme about how Floridians celebrate Christmas, this is another section in Straub Park in downtown St Petersburg.

I call this the Reindeer Corral. As you can see, there is an archway of lights for viewing the "Reindeer" lined on the outside with candy cane lights. It's too bad this isn't video because the long streaked lights on the trees looked as if they were dripping off the trees. I've never seen these before and would love to have some for my tree.

Straub Park spans about 6 blocks along the waterfront, with a North and South part. Both parts are decorated with different sections representing a Christmas wonderland. At any time of the day or night one can see people walking around the park. The stores and hotels on the other side of Beach Drive are also decorated for the holidays.

St Pete Christmas Tree

In Florida we have no snow, so we have to make it seem like Christmas with lots of lights.

Straub Park is on the waterfront in downtown St Petersburg. The entire park is decorated with lights and lighted scenes. This is the city Christmas Tree. If you look closely near the bottom, you'll see where we still have flowers in bloom.

Part of the celebration includes trucked in snow and ice. The kids will be able to play in the snow and skate on the ice. It's kind of strange to see them playing in the snow wearing shorts, T-shirts and flip flops. But at the same time, it's good to see the kids enjoying the snow--something they've never seen except in photos and on calendars. This all takes place December 10th.

In the evening, it'll all be topped off with the decorated boat parade. It's a fun time for all to enjoy.

Bald Eagle

My friends have been going to Honeymoon Island and Anclote Key, here in Florida, where there are known active Eagle nests. Although I don't have a lens nearly long enough to successfully shoot these beautiful birds, I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

I've never seen a Bald Eagle in the wild before and I must say that finding a pair nesting was quite the thrill. This is either the male or the female. For a long time, probably an hour and a half I watched the nest and only saw the Eaglets (there are two of them at this nest) popping their heads out every now and then. Mom and Dad were somewhere else and I assumed they were out hunting. Well you all know what assumed stands for. Mom and Dad were both there, very close to the nest keeping a watchful eye on their cute little Eaglets. It took a while for me to spot them. Each parent was hidden in different, but nearby trees.

An Osprey on the hunt flew over the nest and Mom and Dad came to the rescue, each of them perching in the open on two separate branches just above the nest. I know they had nothing to fear from the Osprey, since Osprey only eat fish, but they let him know that they were there to protect their babies in case he got any funny ideas. It was amazing to watch them squawking at the Osprey until he left the air above the nest. I also know that the Eagles knew they had nothing to fear from the Osprey. It was as if they were telling him that this was their territory and that they were mightier than the Osprey. Besides, there was two of them.

I waited for another hour, but they never went into the nest to feed their young. I guess it was the wrong time of day. It was quite an amazing experience. One that has convinced me that more than ever I need a longer lens.

Settings for this image in very tricky, contrasty light were: ISO 200 because the light was very bright, Aperture Priority Mode at F5.6 to ensure a fast enough shutter speed to contain any movement and + 1 2/3 exposure compensation to keep from burning out the shadows since the Eagle was backlit from the sky. I used two cameras with 2 lens combinations: on the tripod, I had my Canon EOS 40D with a 75-300mm lens and a 2X tele-extender, and I hand held my 20D with the 55-250mm lens attached. This was shot with the 55-250mm at 250mm. The 75-300 lens isn't that great a lens and I knew it was pretty useless to try it with a 2x tele-extender on it. I'm glad I kept the 55-250mm handy because the other lens, while it gave me a lot more distance, there was so much chromatic aberrations (purple fringing in high contrast areas) that the photos I took with it were pretty much useless. I had a feeling that would happen. I was hoping the better camera might make up for the loss in quality with the lens/tele-extender combination. It's always good to be prepared.

4th of July

These little kids said it all for me, between the little girl's dress and everyone carrying flags. This is Patriotism! I like the young girl's expression on her face as she talks to the boys. It's so typical at that age. These girls were part of the huge crowd at the Safety Harbor 4th of July Celebration. It seems that everyone in Pinellas County was there for the big event.

Of course, the 4th wouldn't be complete without fireworks and there were plenty of them! I've just posted one of my favorite shots of the evening, but there were many. It was hard to find a place to set up away from the crowds, but my friends, Lyman and Tony managed to find a good spot where no one could get in front of us. They even spoke with one of the people responsible for the fireworks show, so we'd know which direction they were going off. It made it easier to set up our cameras in advance.

I started the show with my 55-250mm lens, but soon found out it would be too long. I quickly switched to my 18-55mm lens to shoot the remaining fireworks. They were shot into the sky fast and furious and it was a magnificent display. There were 14 of us from my photography group all together and we had a great time.

I set my camera on ISO 200, F16 and the Bulb setting for the shutter speed. I manually counted off the seconds, with predominately white colors for less than a second, red about 2 seconds and blue 3 seconds. It worked pretty well.

Christmas in Straub Park, St Petersburg, FL

Every year I look forward to the Christmas lights in Straub Park, in downtown St Petersburg. Last year, due to budget cut-backs the lights were scaled down a bit. This year, they were scaled down so much that they were no longer such a big deal.

It's so sad to see everything around us just falling apart. These times certainly are tough! Hopefully, for us all, my Christmas wish is that things will
turn around quickly.

John's Pass

John's Pass on Madeira Beach in Florida is a tough shoot, but with a little patience and a whole lot of walking and looking around, one can find some pretty terrific shots.

This is not an actual lighthouse, I don't think; but it's atop the Friendly Fisherman restaurant. In order to get this view from above, I went to a competing restaurant higher up on the boardwalk and went up to the roof of the parking garage.

It's a unique view, and one I didn't know about until a waitress in one of the many eateries on the boardwalk saw my camera and told me about it. That was an excellent tip!

It was pretty hazy out that day, and we all went up there to capture the sunset on Madeira Beach, but it was so hot, no one wanted to wait the extra hour. We all took what we got for images and left fairly quickly. I think it was something like 92 deg. F, if I can remember correctly. This was shot in mid August which is hot anywhere in the states at that time of year.

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Sharefest Event

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in the Largo Sharefest Event at the Northeast Paw Playground.

I photographed dogs with Santa. I had a lot of fun after I realized that these dogs were all obedience trained. It was a first time for me. I worried that the dogs would be unruly and possibly bite Santa. The worry was all for nothing. The shoot went well, and all the dogs behaved.

This is my favorite photo from the shoot. The pooches name is Auggie Doggie, and he didn't seem to mind being on Santa's lap at all.

Let me know what you think!

If you'd like to see more of my photos, visit my site at http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.