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Palm Tree Horizon Twilight Pink to Blue Fine Art Photograph St Petersburg Florida

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A low angle view of The Pier with a palm tree horizon & pink to blue twilight sky - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 1/60th mounted on Induro CT214 tripod with Nikon MC-30 cable release

The most interesting period of the 24 hours we call a day, for me, is the transition from day to night.  Surprisingly, this is something that can be captured in a photograph.  The blue sky of day first turns pink (as seen above) in twlight before sinking to complete black at night.  What if the Earth always faced the sun as the Moon always faces the Earth?  What type of creatures would have evolved on a world with constant sunlight?  Everything on Earth is so cyclical.  I wonder about a world where everything is constant. 

Cessna Sailboat Helicopter St. Petersburg Tampa Bay

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Cessna taking off from Albert Whitted Airport St. Petersburg Florida - f/8 ISO 200 1/800th using shutter priorityEven though it is not entirely correct or perhaps in anyway connected, the inspiration for this post was, "One if by sea, two if by land."  The only real connection between all four of these photographs is that they were taken from The Pier while I was otherwise engaged teaching a DSLR photography lesson.  The photo of the Cessna plane above was taken with a student in practice for photographing eagles in Alaska.  Tracking a small moving object can be tricky and is definitely a skill that needs to be repeatedly practiced and refined.  This plane had just taken off from Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg.

Setting sail for Tampa Bay - f/7.1 ISO 200 1/800th using shutter priorityThis sailboat represents the whales the above student will photograph in Alaska.  It is kind of funny how The Pier with a little imagination can be a single practice point for photographing the wide ranging wildlife of Alaska!  For me, my goal with the sailboat shot was to get everything framed tightly and neatly regarding the boat's position in the frame, the location of the horizon and the predominantly cloud background.

Helicopter frozen in midair over Tampa Bay - f/4 ISO 200 1/4000th using aperture priorityA few months earlier, again with the same photo student, we were also on the roof of The Pier photographing anything that flew by.  What does it take to freeze a helicopter's blades in motion?  It would seem 1/4000th of a second does the job nicely.  Helicopters always make me think of Magnum P.I.  

Police ride jet skis in Florida - f/4 ISO 200 1/2500th using aperture priorityA few minutes later we were back to looking for waterborne subjects to photograph again and I saw for the first time a police jet ski!  Personally, I am against jet skis and other similar watercraft they just seem to be "too much."  They are incredibly noisy and it just seems so uncivilized for one person to be able to disrupt the Sea so much.  To me it just looks disrespectful.  

If not "one if by sea, two if by land" that what other connecting theme may you suggest for these four photos?  

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Blue St. Petersburg Florida Car Photography

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Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in blue carbon fiber at St. Petersburg Florida car showThe current fastest car in the world is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.  There are no challengers.  It is so dominant that just saying the word Veyron ends any discussion.  Seeing the Veyron at speed makes me feel like I am looking at something supernatural.  The sound it makes, the unblinking performance, the methodical cornering, it all happens in absolute dominant fashion . . . yet with no hard edge.  It is like a benign apex predator.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in blue carbon fiber - view from above with crowd in St. PetersburgThe crowd at the car show in downtown St. Petersburg either were all very aware of the mystique of this car, or the crowd itself around it kept drawing an ever new crowd.  I believe it was mostly the latter.  Therefore, it was impossible to get any clean shots of it without someone getting in to pose with it as if it were some celebrity.  Using the cloning techniques on this Ferrari photo to clean up the shots was not really possible even.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in blue carbon fiber rear view - St. Petersburg FloridaWhat struck me about seeing the Veyron in person for the first time was how small it was.  It has a 16-cyclinder engine in the back after all.  Yet it looks no bigger than a Porsche 911.  You could easily park it or drive it down any road (without speedbumps).  It is really compact.  There was a guard making sure this $2.8 million hypercar was too fawned over.  I spoke with him at length about this particular Veyron.  Since it was the Super Sport version and had special blue carbon fiber body work, it demanded that higher than the usual $1.5 million or so price tag.  The car was actually just purchased that morning.  I was told that a buyer had been interested in it for awhile and finally pulled the trigger on it.  

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport gas cap with blue carbon fiber detailIn blue, the carbon fiber body really stands out and looks striking.  Underneath the lightweight exoskeleton, the engineering behind the car is mind boggling.  It is extremely hard to create a car with air conditioning and blinkers that can also go over 260 mph.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport wheel and brake caliperAfter watching many videos of the Veryon, to see it in person gave me a new appreciation for it.  It is kind of like seeing the Eiffel Tower or any other engineering marvel.  The difference with the Veyron though, is you can take it home.