Nothing draws attention like a Ferrari. There were two prominently placed on Tropicana Field for the Abilities charity event.

Photographing this event brought two firsts for me.  The first, first was to volunteer my photography services to a charity event.  The second was to represent f8 Consortium in an official capacity as a staff photographer.  The Abilities Foundation held its 21st annual silent auction charity event right on the field at Tropicana Field.  f8 Consortium was a sponsor of this event with some members donating framed prints, others photography services, or both.  

A rather clever tray design for carrying food and beverage.

Many local restaurants had tables serving out tiny samples of presumably their best cuisine.  The only thing I ate all night was a brownie sample.  It was not bad, but not good enough to be called gourmet or whichever adjective their marketing people bestowed upon it.  The most impressive thing related to food was the very functional trays handed out that took away the challenge of trying to have to balance a glass upon it.  

I wonder how many of the people who saw this photograph thought to themselves, "PETERson."

There were a number of silent auction items that I would have liked to have myself, including the above autographed photo of one of my favorite football players, Adrian PETERson.  In the background is an autographed Mike Vick helmet that the announcer was really stressing she wanted to be bought before the end of the night since no one bid on it last year.  I checked, the minimum bid of $100 was met.

I like the idea of wearing cowboy boots, but I never would.

As the night went on and I saw that most items did not even have one bid on them, I commented to someone behind a table that it does not look like many of these items were going to move.  He said that a silent auction is just like e-Bay, no one bids until the end when there is a flurry.  

I found myself not being impressed at all with this Rolls Royce, would take a used Porsche 911 Turbo over it any day.

On the technical side of things, the photography, as usual, was in challenging settings.  They did not turn on the lights on the field, and once the sun set and no more natural light permeated through the dome, it was really dark.  Obviously no ceiling to bounce a flash off of and few backdrops of any kind.  In the beginning I was actually using off camera flash to photograph some of the items.  Once the guests starting filing in, I went with my usual event settings of f/5.6 and ISO 800, but still wasn't getting the results I wanted so I went up to f/4.  Maybe some day I will have a chance to photograph an outdoor daylight event!

This wood stork flew conveniently right over to my side of the pond! Thank you Mr. Stork!One bird I have been trying to photograph ever since moving back to Florida one year ago is the wood stork.  I have seen them many times, but have never been in a good position or circumstances to photograph one.  That was until I joined the NPPF meetup group on a Sunday morning photowalk to Kapok Park.  

New photo friend Marc was also there, and he happens to be a Nikon shooter as well.  He had let me borrow his Nikon 2x teleconverter, but it did not work with my somewhat older Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens.  So he very generously offered to let me use his Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f2.8G lens which works perfectly with the 2x teleconverter!  On my Nikon D300, this gave me an effective focal length of 600mm!  However, I can tell you I quickly found 600mm to not even be enough.  So if you do drop $10,000 on Nikon's 600mm lens, you still may not be satisfied.  

Marc's generosity did not end there though.  The wood stork was on the far side of the pond from me when I first spotted it.  It would have taken me a good 10 minutes to walk all the way around the pond over to the sandy bank it was on.  I saw Marc just a few dozen meters from the wood stork and waving at me.  He had spotted it first and was going to have the best chance to shoot it . . . until he startled it over to RIGHT in front of me on the far bank!  What a pal.  

I never had a totally clear shot, as reeds and tall grass were in the way from my position on the boardwalk, but nonetheless I was finally glad to be able to make a shot of a wood stork.  Thanks Marc!

The Mirror Lake Library HDR shot I submitted for the exhibition.Late last year I agreed to participate in a photography project for the St. Petersburg Museum of History.  I was intrigued by the idea for the project:  making HDR image replicas of historical photographs of various Saint Petersburg landmarks and buildings.  My HDR image of the Mirror Lake Library was selected as one of the thirty-two HDR images for the exhibition.  I was honored and thankful to be chosen, even though my own feelings about my image find it to be only a so-so shot.  

The turnout for the exhibition was huge, relatively.  Certainly much larger than for my own solo haikyo exhibition last year.  There was a free buffet table with really great punch and very good cookies as well, in ample quantities no less!  This made the night a win for me automatically!  Of course it was nice to talk with the other photographers and guests who came to see the exhibition.  I tried my best to explain how an HDR image is produced and how this process comes to make the final product they were seeing on the walls.  It found no up turned noses to HDR as a technique amongst the crowd, which I must say I was a little surprised at.  I know HDR does not appeal to everyone.

Thanks to Velva and everyone else who put a lot of time and effort into organizing this exhibition and to everyone who came out to see the images and make the night a very fun social event.  

The exhibition will be open for several weeks.  More information on the events page of the St. Petersburg History Museum.

My photograph is the one on the left, with the original historical image below it (sorry for the poor video camera snapshot, I took the night off from being an event photographer)

Jo was really excited as Dr. Robinson cut the ribbon on her new business!

 There was a very large turnout for the Robinson Family Medicine ribbon cutting event.  Much more than I expected.  This was the second ribbon cutting in as many weeks that I photographed for the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.  Each in a totally different setting and offering its own photography challenges.  However, I was allowed to choose the spot for the actual ribbon cutting and had ample time to dial in manual settings on my Nikon D300 and SB-600 Speedlight to get the above shot.  I could not have asked for a better reaction from Jo to make the shot have a little something extra.

There was a raffle after the ribbon cutting . . . 

 An unwatched raffle bowl is a vulnerable thing . . .

. . . someone may just sneak a hand and, but they were caught!

It was my first time inside Bank of America Tower, which is not that much to look at on the outside, but has an impressive lobby with great light beaming through during the golden hour.  I will return to photograph inside there some day.

One day I will photograph a pelican like this just skimming the water's surface.

I have stated before in another blog post my desire to photograph a pelican just skimming over the water, and how after a few attempts I am yet to be successful.  Well, I was not even close with this shot of course, but I could not pass up a chance to photograph such a friendly and accomodating bird.  Actually, I was not the only one to photograph her/him.  Kelley during our first DSLR Photography Lesson did too.

To me a pelican is a SUV of a bird.  It's a rather large bird, can hold a lot of stuff in its billowing bag of lower jaw skin, can dive and crash into water in a nose dive unscathed, and they are all over the place.  Since they are always around and not really afraid of people, you get the impression you could just go up to one and hug it, though I have never actually tried.  

If you want to find one when you visit Florida, just head to any fishing pier.