Fountain Planter

My daughter bought this pretty little flower cluster called Ageratum to plant in an old fountain she had. The pump was broken and it had cracked over the previous winter and it was too pretty to throw away, so she turned it into a planter. (See image below) I think she had a great idea.

She bought the plants with a color design in mind and had her husband, Gary, move the new planter in front of the house. All the flowers are annuals, so they'll have to be replanted next year, but it gives her the flexibility to be able to change the color scheme each year. She has such a creative mind. I admire her for it.

This is a great way to recycle or better yet, reuse and do her part by keeping things out of the landfill. What a way to go green.

Water Lily

I thought a pretty flower might chase the Winter Blahs's away. This Water Lily was in bloom in the fountain in front of Plant Hall at the University of Tampa in November.

It has lost a lot of saturation due to the compression and I'm very disappointed. I wish you all could see how it really looks. It's a beautiful flower. This blog really does a number on my photos. :( What a shame!

Settings used for this shot were: Aperture Priority and partial metering off the flower at F7.1 at 1/250 with 200 ISO, -2/3 exposure to keep the highlights in check. Focal Length was 200mm.

Fountain Detail in Safety Harbor, FL

I've posted several shots from this fountain while the water was running and nighttime shots a while back in this blog, but never any detailed shots.

This fountain is located at the entrance to the Safety Harbor Marina on Bayshore Boulevard in Safety Harbor and the sculpture is one of the best I've seen. This is only one of the avian sculptures in the fountain. It is most likely a Great Blue Heron. I'm judging that by the feathers at the back of his head.

The shape of the bird is similar to the Great Egret, but the Great Egret has no feathers at the back of their heads. The detail is phenomenal and it's one of my favorites of all the fountains I've seen.

Of all the various subject matter that I photograph for personal leisure, fountains and bridges are probably my favorite with birds running a close second. This combines both.

Settings used for this image are as follows: ISO 200, 1/400 at F4.0 on a sunny afternoon, just prior to sunset. I added 1 2/3 exposure compensation because it is backlit by the sky in the background and I wanted to preserve the detail. I used aperture priority and partial metering off the bird, and my focal length was 60mm with my 55mm-250mm zoom lens.

Fountain in Downtown St Petersburg

I spotted this fountain in downtown St Petersburg on my way home from our Saturday Photowalk Meetup while walking to my car. I'm not sure what the name of it is, or what it represents so I'll have to take another ride to it to find more information about it.

This parking garage was kind of scary since it is in South St Petersburg, which is not in a very desirable neighborhood, and it was late at night and my car was the only car on this level. I was pretty nervous since I was all alone.

I drove to the opening where I spotted this fountain, took out my camera and snapped a couple photos of it quickly and got right back into my running car.

To give you an idea how tall this wall of water is, that figure at the bottom of the fountain is a woman standing there with her hands on her hips. You can also see the parking garage behind it along with several levels.

If I had more time, or wasn't so scared, I'd have made this photograph properly using my tripod and a slower shutter speed. I must go back during the day when there's more people and cars around.

Settings used to make this shot: First of all, I didn't use my tripod, I braced my elbows on a ledge to steady the camera. This was shot at F5.6 for 1/2 second, using ISO 400. My exposure compensation was set to +1/3 eV with partial metering. I used my 18-55mm lens set at 49mm. Had I used a tripod, I would've set the shutter speed to 1 or 2 seconds to blur the water more. However, I was all alone at 10:00 at night in an empty parking garage on St Pete's south side. I stepped out of my car quickly to make this shot and got back in to my running car where I'd be safe.

Fountain at the Safety Harbor Marina

Safety Harbor, Florida has some of the most amazing fountains in so many areas of the city. This one is at the entrance to the Safety Harbor Marina and it's my attempt at HDR photography.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It is used mainly for contrasty scenes to be able to produce more range. A normally exposed photo would either blow out the highlights (turn them white with no detail) or burn the shadows (turn them black with no detail). In this case, detail is shown in both the highlights and in the shadows.

HDR is created by taking 3 or more photos of the same subject using different exposures. The first photo is exposed normally, the next photo is exposed to show detail in the highlights while letting the shadows burn out and another photo is exposed for the shadows allowing the highlights to loose all detail. The result is what you see here.

This particular photo was processed using Photomatix, a software used solely to create HDR images during post processing.

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Thanks for looking,
Loyce