tagged 
Florida, HDR, Kapok Park, f/11 project, landscape, pond in Nature & Wildlife, Photo Story
Florida, HDR, Kapok Park, f/11 project, landscape, pond in Nature & Wildlife, Photo Story Sunny Florida at f/11 project #01 - Kapok Park Pond HDR
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 9:06PM Jason Collin 
I broke my own rule and made this HDR image without a tripod.
I bet when most people imagine Florida in their minds, the image is of a white sandy beach with palm trees. However, such places make up only a very small part of Florida's land mass. In fact, most of Florida looks like the above landscape -- flat countryside with a mix of trees scattered about. Spanish Moss hanging from live oak trees should be as iconic a Florida image as the coconut palm tree.
I assigned myself a personal photography project for 2010 -- "Sunny Florida at f/11" and the above photograph is my first official shot in that series. If you have no ongoing, personal photo project yet for yourself, I highly recommend it as both a means of having a photography goal for the year and to make a number of images in the same theme that could potentially be used for a gallery exhibition!
On this particular day my goal was first to photograph birds, but when I realized my Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens was not going to get me nearly close enough, I thought I would have to change the day's shooting goal to landscapes. Then a friend let me borrow a Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm VR f/2.8G lens and Nikon 2x Teleconverter for the day so I was able to photograph birds after all. Still, I could not resist breaking my own rules when I saw this landscape scene and photographed something outside of my theme for the day and even worse handheld an HDR shot!
If you have a personal photography project for 2010 describe and link to it in the comments below.
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Jason,
Great shot, Florida is so beautiful for all the reasons you stated! I think the 70 - 200 VR would be a nice addition as my 80-200.2.8 old guy is sooo heavy, but sure is a beautiful lens and worth the work hand holding on outings.
The park there looks a lot like the area near Safety Harbor off the bike trail. At Fort DeSoto, using my 80-200 we just sat down. The birds came right up to us!
Your page looks great as always, wonderful work!
PS Have you gotten down to Lowry Park Zoo for the Shoebill storks? We were actually invited to photograph the chick! What a privilege that was. Brenda Knoll
Thank you Brenda....
...actually I have the Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8 lens and really like it, but compared to the AF-S 70-200mm VR it sounds like a meat grinder! I was using the 2x teleconverter which made the 70-200mm really long, heavy and unbalanced on my D300 so I cannot say if it feels any lighter than the 80-200mm.
I made the above shot with the Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 lens.
It is always nice when the wildlife comes to you, isn't it?