Archive for January, 2009
Back to Lake Woodruff
This weekend I went back to Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge for another weekend of photos and to enjoy the refuge. As usual Lake Woodruff offered up many great photo opportunities that I was more than happy to take advantage of. On Friday I headed out there with my good friend Kolla to show her a little bit of what I do with my photography. We had a good time walking the trails and ended up all the way down by the river, lots of walking but a good time. I am glad Kolla decided to go even though birds are not her thing. On Saturday my wife Katie went with me for her first trip to Lake Woodruff. She was hoping to see an Otter while we were out there and luckily we saw one before we left.
I always enjoy when she goes with me on photo trips because we always see some of the best things nature has to offer. As a matter of fact later this week I want to share the story of the first time she went with me to Black Point Drive.
Great Blue Heron
This photo of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was taken while I was driving through Black Point Drive in Titusville.
Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge
I spent Friday and Saturday at Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in De Leon Springs. I had been to Lake Woodruff before last summer on a photo trip when it was about 90 degrees outside, but Friday and Saturday could not have been more different than that day. On Friday it was about 38 degrees and very windy and on Saturday it was 31 degrees when I pulled into the parking lot. Being a native Floridian I am not to fond of the cold but I was willing to put up with it to get some great shots.
The thing that I really like about Lake Woodruff is that you get a chance to see so many diffrent types of wildlife in one area. I also enjoy the fact that you get out and walk and just enjoy what the refuge has to offer.
One of the main reasons that I wanted to go back to the refuge was that I wanted photos of the Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). Lucky for me not long into my hike I came across two of them that were feeding on the trail.
I thought it was funny how careful I was being to not scare them off so I would take of few photos and then move a little closer and then take a few more and move a little closer. After a few minutes of doing this I guess the cranes were curious of what the heck I was doing and they just walked right up to me. So here I am trying to be stealthy to get close to them and they end up walking up to me, so close in fact I had to keep backing up because they were to close.
I really enjoyed my time at Lake Woodruff this weekend and I plan on spending quite a bit more time there. I also hope to share more photos and stories from my trips there in the very near future.
Scott
Photo Weekend Part 2
On Friday night my buddy Justin and I were trying to make it to New Smyrna in time to check out the hot air balloon festival. We had hoped to get some great night photos of the balloons lit up but instead we were treated to traffic and deflating balloons. We decided to ditch that plan and head for dinner to decide where we would take photos for the rest of the night.
We decided to start in Ponce Inlet at the lighthouse and work our way back toward Daytona Beach. We took some photos of the Lighthouse and then moved on to check out a few of the other sites in the Ponce Inlet area. We decided to check out the Sunglow Pier and were surprised at how bright the moon was so we set up our cameras on the beach and shot some photos of the pier. We stayed at the pier till around 1:00 am then decide to call it a night or early morning.
On Saturday night Justin and I decided to head back out to the pier with a couple of our friends to take advantage of the full moon. We stayed at the pier for a while to let everybody get all of their shots that they wanted. The funny thing about night photography is you can spend what seems like hours at a spot and end up with 16 photos when you get done. When everybody was done at the pier we headed up to the Seabreeze bridge where we had not taken photos for a while.
We did not stay long at the bridge because it was getting late and I think everybody was starting to get tired. So half of our group left to go home and my group decided to check out one more spot but I think we were all a little tired so we headed home. In the end it turned out to be a great photo weekend and one that I hope to do again soon.
Scott
Photo Weekend Part 1
I wanted to try something new with this post so I have created a Google map and marked all of the locations that I took the photos at on Friday. Please let me know what you think of this idea.
This weekend turned out to be a very busy and productive photo weekend that included a bit of day and night photography. I started out Friday morning for Black Point Drive in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge along the way I stopped and took the above photo before the sun was even up. I wanted to get to Black Point before sunrise so I quickly packed up my camera and tripod and headed there.
I had only planned to make a quick run through the drive and ended up staying for 2 hours parked in just about the same spot and then moved to various other parts of the drive for another hour. The birds were very active and there were quite a few working together to catch their breakfast. After I left Black Point I went to scout some new spots for my next trip down to the refuge. I think I might have found some new places that could produce some great photos. Hopefully I will be able to share some of these new places with you in the future.
Check back tomorrow I will continue with the 2nd part of this post with the photos that I took on Friday and Saturday night.
Night Photos
My friend Justin and I are out taking night photos tonight. I hope to post some of them tomorrow. Sorry for the short post but I am writing this in between exposures so I have to be quick.
Scott
After Dark
Yesterday in my sunset photo post I mentioned that I had another photo from the same location that I wanted to share. This was taken 30 minutes after the sunset photo was taken and is a perfect example of why I love night photography. When it just starts to get dark you can expose your shots for longer to really pull some great colors out of your scene. I took advantage of this by exposing the shot for 20 seconds and changing my white balance to accent the colors more. I really enjoy getting out at night and experimenting with different exposures and settings to get different results. It gives you a chance to be creative with your photos and to me is what photography is all about.
Scott
Sunsets
Since I posted yesterday about the crazy times I get up on my days off to take sunrise photos. I thought today I would post a sunset photo to show I make sure to take photos of the end of the day too. I took this shot on a photo adventure in New Smyrna Beach with Justin. To get this shot it took a little area knowledge, climbing through a hole in a fence and walking through the mangroves. In the end I think that it was worth it. Check back tomorrow my next post will feature a photo that I took on this same trip after dark.
Scott
Sunrises
Some people say that I am crazy for getting up at 5:00am on my days off to go take photos. But to me getting up early is not that big of a deal so I really don’t need a lot of motivation to take photos like this. On my early morning adventures I am always looking to add to my collection of sunrise photos, so the night before I generally set up my camera first for wide angle shots for the sunrise.
So if you are not a morning person this photo is my gift you. If you are interested in waking up early on your next day off and getting a great sunrise photo you can check out this article. And if you don’t want to get up early they have sunset tips too.
Scott
Gallery Updates
I have added some great new photos to my Herons and Egrets and Water Birds galleries. Have a look and let me know what you think.
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