St. Petersburg fine art photographer

Just at Sunrise in St. Petersburg Florida Snell Isle Florida Panorama

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A view of Smacks Bayou in Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida at sunrise - 4 image panoramaKiki wakes up around 6:30am each morning wanting to go out and depending on the time of year it is totally dark or already full daylight.  At this time of year, January, it usually times out so that I get a glimpse of the sunrise.  Instead of just going right back into bed as I usually do, this morning I came back inside and got my camera to go and make a few photos.  I ended up hand holding four consecutive shots that I later stitched together into a panorama in Photoshop.  

Florida Fine Art Photography - Pelican Texture Composite

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This is a composite of two images, with a texture abstract photo blended over a pelican photo.I have a folder of abstract and texture photographs I keep for when I want to make composite images like the one above.  It is fun sometimes to spice up an image by combining two (or more) photographs in a complementary way.  

A blurry photo of a bookshelf was overlayed onto the photo of the pelican in Photoshop.  I just adjusted the opacity of the book case photo down a little and set the blending mode to Overlay.  Then I layer masked a little of the bookshelf image off of the pelican to make the pelican look cleaner.  Digital Photography School has a good tutorial on how to do this if you would like to try it yourself!

Great Egret Fine Art Composite Canvas Prints St. Petersburg Florida Photography

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Now available for purchase is this unique great egret composite print.  Featuring three views of a great egret, including one in flight, all photographed in St. Petersburg, Florida.  

For a limited time only buy this print at 36"x9" on 1.5" thick canvas gallery wrap for $250 including shipping.  Larger sizes are also available.

This print will look great on any wall in your home, office or place of business.  Prints can be ordered as gifts too!

Photography Tip - fill the frame corner to corner - Florida Pelican Fine Art Photography

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Fill the frame corner to corner to make an impact with composition - brown pelican St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th

At any given moment, you can find a brown pelican to photograph in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.  Chances are you already have numerous pelican photos in your archives.  This can be said for any number of common subject matters.  So how to make such a common subject stand out?  One way is to use a more creative composition, like having the subject fill the frame corner to corner.  Use the shape of the subject to fill the frame in the most complementary way.  For the pelican, with it's long narrow head, going diagonal corner to corner allows for filling the frame with the subject.  Also, going through the edges of the frame creates a very different impression than fitting everything inside (with any subject it also helps to have a good, clean, complementary background; in the above photo the dark water of Tampa Bay combined with the large aperture I chose creates a smooth, gray bokeh).

When you go out shooting next time look for a subject that you can frame corner to corner.  

Lightning Fine Art Photography St. Petersburg Florida Snell Isle Composite

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Lightning over Smacks Bayou, Snell Isle, St. Petersburg Florida fine art photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 17.1 secMy after dinner twilight walk with Kiki was thwarted this evening by rain and lightning.  So after going back inside I mounted my Nikon to my tripod to see if I could get lucky and capture a few bolts.  Of course the lightning was striking much more frequently when I was out with Kiki than when I was actually out with my camera, but with some patience I finally got enough lightning in a shot to fill the frame.  The image above is a slight composite of two images to add just a bit more lightning.  

Black & White Silhouettes in North Straub Park St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography

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North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg Florida - inquire about purchasing a fine art print of this imagePhotographs I like to look at make me feel something.  They can also make me think of something, either something I see in the photo itself or that gets triggered in my mind from looking at the photo.  One does not need to travel far nor wide to make images that can provoke thought and feeling.  It does not even need to be a new place.  I have been in North Straub Park with my camera hundreds of times over the course of teaching 300+ photography lessons in downtown St. Petersburg, yet I could still make an image of the park that I liked and wanted to share.  I recommend going out this weekend and looking more carefully at a place you commonly go and see if you cannot make an image for yourself that makes you think and feel.

Brown Pelican on a Post in St. Petersburg Florida Bird Photography

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Is this comfortable? Must be to this brown pelican - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250thAt the edge of Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg Florida perched seemingly not so precariously on a narrow post I found this brown pelican relaxing.  To human eyes, this does not look like perhaps the greatest and/or safest of resting spots, but pelicans obvioiusly think otherwise.