Sunset in Bolton

Sunset Over a Sheep Farm

This shot was taken in Bolton, CT. Until I looked at it at 100% to check for noise or over-sharpening, I thought this was a pig farm; so, that's what I named the file. Once I saw it at 100%, I realized there were no pigs on that farm; they were sheep. I think I need to change the name of this shot or my eye glasses.

This beautiful sunset was a wonderful way to end our ride.

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.

Safety Harbor Marina Sunset

This shot is for my friend, Margo. I know she misses her second home, so I'm posting this one for her.

Every Monday night, my friends and I go to the Safety Harbor Marina for our regular Meetup. With it being so hot in Florida this time of year, we've changed our regular times so we meet at the Marina, then leave for the Safety Harbor Grille a few blocks away, then go back to the Marina or walk around downtown for our regular shoot.

This photo was made 2 weeks ago tonight when we decided to change our regular times. We're rarely at the Marina for photographs around sunset except in the Winter (if you can call it a Winter in Florida) months.

I'm really enjoying the new times. Tonight, everyone chose to walk around Safety Harbor downtown for some street shots. I begged off because I'm just 2 weeks out of my Cam Boot and cast on my foot and since I have a wedding to shoot on Saturday, I don't want to chance walking around unnecessarily. A new foot injury is not what I need right now. Although, when I injured my foot, I shot a wedding on a Golf Course. It hurt like the dickens, but I made a commitment and I had to show up; broken foot or not.

Incoming Storm

I'm figuring you're all sick of my Maine photos, so I'll stick this one in to show that I'm still out there photographing at home.

On Monday evening, while out with my friends in Safety Harbor, a storm started to roll in over the pier at the Safety Harbor Marina. We were all hoping for some lightning photos, but no luck.

The storm never really hit. All we got were a few sprinkles. It sure looked a lot meaner than that when it was coming.

Florida weather in the summertime is unpredictable. One never knows when a storm will come up. It hits fast, hard and most times the rain is horizontal. It usually only lasts for a about 1/2 hour, then the sun comes out and dries everything up within another 1/2 hour. Most of the time there is heavy lightning and lots of thunder. This storm had no lightning and no thunder, which is unusual this time of year. Tampa Bay is known as the lightning capital of the world.

Safety Harbor Pier

Yes, this is yet another photo of the Safety Harbor Pier taken from the Safety Harbor Marina on our regular Monday Meetup. When I saw this image import from my media card, I couldn't believe my eyes.

I remembered making these photos, but thought they were lost on the card. However, the other night my roommate asked me to take a couple pictures for him, and I used my Canon 20-D, instead of my usual 40-D. Now I know where the photos went! It really stinks getting old. :)

Most of the time at the Monday night meetups I don't shoot any photos. But this particular evening, I just had to capture these amazing clouds and reflections on the still water. This is one of the compositions I made.

Settings used for this shot were ISO 200, 1/80 at F9.0 to get a decent depth of field. If I had bumped up my ISO to 400, I would've been able to use F11, but that would've meant I'd have to deal with some digital noise in my shot. I'd rather not have to deal with it if it can be avoided. The camera was set in Aperture Priority mode and I used partial metering on the sky to be sure it wouldn't wash out. I used my Canon 18-55mm IS lens at 18mm, also to get a good depth of field and a nice wide angle of this scene.

Cloudscape

This one's for my friend, Jim. I know how much he loves cloudscapes. I saw this one last night on my Newbie Meetup. We were walking through the park and the clouds just started to come in.

I spotted this one and for once didn't play the walk-up shooter. I actually walked around looking for the best vantage point to shoot it. Most of the time, I see something, shoot it and walk away, satisfied. I've been trying to slow down and actually look for the shot. I think I got it this time.

I had to shoot this one just right because there were a lot of trees in the way. I first thought about shooting it between the trees, but they just didn't look right. Maybe since I'm teaching this group, it's making me slow down as well. I need to practice what I preach.

This was a straight shot in the camera. It was taken just before sunset in aperture priority mode at F5, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, -1/3 Ev at 55mm with partial metering directly off the sky.

In post-processing I darkened the blue a little bit and added saturation. I also darkened the tree on the right side. Nature did the rest.

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

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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