Brief Survey of Weedon Island State Preserve

All I saw on my 90-minute trek through Weedon Island State Reserve was typical Florida forest.

I woke up early (for me) this morning to go to Weedon Island State Preserve because I had been feeling like it has been a long time since I went out and did nature photography by myself.  Now I first visited this preserve a few months ago, but only walked along its winding boardwalk.  I thought this time if I go on one of its trails early in the morning, surely there would be birds to photograph, not to mention the stray armadillo or other critter or insect.  I did not see a single bird nor a single creature of any kind.

This tiny fluff of color was all that I found in Weedon Island State Park.

I had my macro lens on and ready to discover something tiny and interesting.  The only photograph I made with it all morning was the above tiny pink flower puff, which was the only bit of color (other than green) to be found anywhere in the preserve.  

The quintessential Florida nature woods trail view.

For a peaceful stroll in pristine Florida woods and wetlands, Weedon Island State Preserve is a great spot.  The paths and trails are fairly well marked and are long enough to spend hours on.  However, they are definitely for the meditative mind rather than a photographic one.  If I return to this preserve it will be to go cycling on the long roads that run through the preserve, or to just take a nice, undisturbed walk.  I'll save my back some work and leave my DSLR at home.

If you have visited this preserve and photographed any fauna or interesting flora, please let me know in the comments below.

MAP OF WEEDON ISLAND STATE PARK:

 
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Flora & Fauna of J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park

J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park has its own corral for visiting horses.

After a recent and very personal epic fail, I sought the comfort of Nature and the countryside.  Though not so exciting or scenic, Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park still provided the needed escape I sought.  The park is equipped with a staffed visitor's center that has good maps.  You can camp, bring your horse, bring your dog, and amble all within the park's 8,000 acres.  

This gopher tortoise was quite the speedster.

The first fellow we met out on the hiking trail was the above gopher tortoise.  It saw us, yet still motored toward us nonplussed.  I met it half-way for a friendly portrait.  I could not help lightly touching its shell.  Its home was just a few steps away actually.  A fine hole it was.

A long-tailed skipper butterfly staying hydrated, as we all should.

I have never photographed a butterfly to my liking, and I still have not.  However, the long-tailed skipper I saw semi-fluttering about was my best attempt to date.  The image was made with a Nikon D300 and Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro F2.8G lens, and hot shoe mounted Nikon SB-600 Speedlight.  I used the SB-600 for all shots featured in this post save for the top, HDR image.

A messy air plant clutching to a twig.

I have long been very interested in and fascinated by the concept and being of air plants.  A plant that can exist clinging to something in mid-air.  Does it wish it could set down roots in the Earth?

The appropriately named golden-silk spider seen in J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park.

Just like my desire to make a good butterfly photograph, the same goes for spiders.  I still cannot produce an image I want to, but this is perhaps my best spider image to date, which, obviously, is not saying much.  This golden-silk spider was having a late lunch, so I only made two photographs of him not wanting to be that much of a bother.

I will one day write a poem based on the bokeh color and DoF in this photograph.

There is nothing purer in photography for me than Nature and wildlife photography.  It fills me with a sense of the old explorers.  If I am able to capture something of fancy, to me it is like bringing home a treasure of pixels.

J.B. Starkey Wilderness Park:

• 10500 Wilderness Park Boulevard
  New Port Richey, FL 34655
  
• hours sunrise to sunset
• dogs ok!
• camping - car, primitive & backcountry

Free iPhone Wallpaper Monday: Big Grasshopper

free iPhone wallpaper -- a big grasshopper at Morris Bridge in Tampa, Florida.

Start your work week off with a free new wallpaper for your iPhone or iPod touch!

This week's free iPhone wallpaper may not be for everyone.  I know my wife cannot even look at it.  However, I feel this big grasshopper is very friendly looking and perhaps even smiling for the camera?  Let me know if you use this wallpaper in the comments below!

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My full (and growing) collection of iPhone wallpapers can be viewed HERE and are available for just $1 each.

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 To Install the wallpaper onto your iPhone:

1. Right-click or control-click on the image.

2. Select “Save as…”

* Mac users:  save the image to a folder or add it to your iPhoto library.

* PC users:   save the image in your “My Pictures” folder.

Connect the iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer and do the following:

1. Launch iTunes, click your iPhone icon on iTunes, choose the Photos tab, and select “Sync photos from:”

2. From the pop-up menu, do one of the following:

* If your using a Mac, choose iPhoto or your Pictures folder.
* If you’re using a PC, choose My Pictures folder.

3. Choose Folder, then choose any folder on your computer that has images.

4. Choose “All photos,” or choose “Selected folders” or “Selected albums” and choose the folders or albums you want to sync.

On your iPhone:

5. Launch the Photos app. Browse through the albums or Camera Roll until you find the picture you wish to use.

6. Select the picture so it is displayed full screen.

7. Tap the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. If you don’t see the icon, single tap the picture to display the menus.

8. A menu pops up with three options: Email Photo, Use as Wallpaper, or Assign to Contact.

9. Choose “Use as Wallpaper"

Thanks to Photo Focus and Scott Bourne for the directions above.

All iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpapers are provided without any technical support. Each image is a 320×480 jpg file. All images are Copyright Jason Collin Photography, All Rights Reserved. You are granted a single use, non-exclusive, perpetual license to install this wallpaper on any iPhone or iPod Touch personally owned by you. This license grants you the right to use the wallpaper for non-commercial/personal use only. You may not re-sell, distribute, print or otherwise publish the image without the express written consent of the Copyright owner: Jason Collin Photography 

Free iPhone Wallpaper Monday: Cosmos with Bokeh

free iPhone wallpaper -- cosmos in Japan with bokeh

Start your work week off with a free new wallpaper for your iPhone or iPod touch!

In the fall of 2008 I was still living in Tokyo, Japan.  The cosmos bloom on a large hill in a park in Tachikawa.  It's quite a site to behold.  I cannot say I was the only photographer out there.  Indeed, there were dozens!  

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My full (and growing) collection of iPhone wallpapers can be viewed HERE and are available for just $1 each.

*********

 To Install the wallpaper onto your iPhone:

1. Right-click or control-click on the image.

2. Select “Save as…”

* Mac users:  save the image to a folder or add it to your iPhoto library.

* PC users:   save the image in your “My Pictures” folder.

Connect the iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer and do the following:

1. Launch iTunes, click your iPhone icon on iTunes, choose the Photos tab, and select “Sync photos from:”

2. From the pop-up menu, do one of the following:

* If your using a Mac, choose iPhoto or your Pictures folder.
* If you’re using a PC, choose My Pictures folder.

3. Choose Folder, then choose any folder on your computer that has images.

4. Choose “All photos,” or choose “Selected folders” or “Selected albums” and choose the folders or albums you want to sync.

On your iPhone:

5. Launch the Photos app. Browse through the albums or Camera Roll until you find the picture you wish to use.

6. Select the picture so it is displayed full screen.

7. Tap the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. If you don’t see the icon, single tap the picture to display the menus.

8. A menu pops up with three options: Email Photo, Use as Wallpaper, or Assign to Contact.

9. Choose “Use as Wallpaper"

Thanks to Photo Focus and Scott Bourne for the directions above.

All iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpapers are provided without any technical support. Each image is a 320×480 jpg file. All images are Copyright Jason Collin Photography, All Rights Reserved. You are granted a single use, non-exclusive, perpetual license to install this wallpaper on any iPhone or iPod Touch personally owned by you. This license grants you the right to use the wallpaper for non-commercial/personal use only. You may not re-sell, distribute, print or otherwise publish the image without the express written consent of the Copyright owner: Jason Collin Photography 

Photo Story: Weeki Wachee River HDR Sunset

Weeki Wachee River HDR Sunset in Hernando County, Florida

We visited old friend Margo at her home in Weeki Wachee yesterday.  Despite heavy rain on the Howard Franklin bridge through to the Veterans Expressway interchange, then heavy traffic into Pasco County, we arrived in plenty of time to capture what sunset there was.  

I was standing on a floating dock to make this image, and was unsure if I could get any kind of sharpness at all in the 5-bracket HDR image I wanted to make.  

This is an extremely peaceful place with many very affordable properties right on the Weeki Wachee River.  The day after the above image was made we rented a flat bottom boat and went up river passing no manatees, unfortunately, but we did get a brief visit from an otter.  I will return to this area soon to photograph a great bayou.  

PURCHASE this image.

Morris Bridge Wilderness Park -- a brief survey

Fingers of the Hillsborough River winding through Morris Bridge Wilderness ParkI had an old memory of seeing otters playing in a river I visited long ago.  It took me a good few minutes to recall exactly where this was.  It was after all 10 years ago.  I traced the road in my mind and eventually I remembered it was just down, down Fletcher Avenue.  Using trusty Google Maps I confirmed it visually and only upon seeing the sign on the road driving up did I think, "of course, it's Morris Bridge Wilderness Park."

These large grasshoppers move very mechanically.Unfortunately, I saw no otters this time, but a number of other forest river creatures.  The above big grasshopper was not opposed to a lens being relatively close to its face, so I made this photograph using my Nikkor 105mm VR micro f/2.8 G lens and thanked it for its patience afterwards.

This frog was only half the size of my thumb.

The above small frog was king of this puddle.  It's driving me crazy wondering if that's a bottle cap in the lower part of the shot or not?  Maybe it's an acorn cap actually, I hope.  Walking along the Hillsborough River on the Bald Cypress Trail was only in spots muddy.  Otherwise there was all firm ground on a trail as close to the river as you could get, and at the same level of the water as well.  It makes this park pretty unique to me.

cypress knees look like organic futuristic cities to me

 There was the occasional kayak and canoe passing by.  Otherwise, it was an entirely peaceful hike along the river.  The only potential hazard was when Aya and Kiki nearly stepped right onto a snake!  I saw it at the last minute and grabbed Aya's shoulder letting the snake wake up and quickly and safely slither off.  It was a harmless garter-type snake though.  I wish I would have noticed it sooner so I could have gotten a photo of it!

a lazy baby alligator

It wouldn't be a trip into Florida wetlands without seeing an alligator.  The only one of the day was the above little fella that couldn't even bother to put his legs forward after crawling out of the river.  Aya said that he stared at her with a tough look.  To me he looked friendly.  

While the first part of the trail loop was along the main fingers of the Hillsborough River and narrow and at times muddy, the return portion of the loop was high and dry with views of the surrounding wetlands.  A nice contrast actually that made for a good hour and a half of forest time with a river running through it.

The high & dry return loop of the Bald Cypress Trail

Free iPhone Wallpaper Monday: Tricolored Heron of Myakka River

free iPhone wallpaper -- tricolored heron

Start your work week off with a free new wallpaper for your iPhone or iPod touch!

From the same kayak I photographed the Myakka Alligator, I also made this image of a tricolored heron wading and hunting in the surprisingly shallow Myakka River.  It was a much less nerve racking task photographing this tricolored heron than it was the aforementioned alligator.  Still, I was very pleased to get this opportunity because it was my first time to photograph a tricolored heron.

*********

My full (and growing) collection of iPhone wallpapers can be viewed HERE and are available for just $1 each.

*********

 To Install the wallpaper onto your iPhone:

1. Right-click or control-click on the image.

2. Select “Save as…”

* Mac users:  save the image to a folder or add it to your iPhoto library.

* PC users:   save the image in your “My Pictures” folder.

Connect the iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer and do the following:

1. Launch iTunes, click your iPhone icon on iTunes, choose the Photos tab, and select “Sync photos from:”

2. From the pop-up menu, do one of the following:

* If your using a Mac, choose iPhoto or your Pictures folder.
* If you’re using a PC, choose My Pictures folder.

3. Choose Folder, then choose any folder on your computer that has images.

4. Choose “All photos,” or choose “Selected folders” or “Selected albums” and choose the folders or albums you want to sync.

On your iPhone:

5. Launch the Photos app. Browse through the albums or Camera Roll until you find the picture you wish to use.

6. Select the picture so it is displayed full screen.

7. Tap the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. If you don’t see the icon, single tap the picture to display the menus.

8. A menu pops up with three options: Email Photo, Use as Wallpaper, or Assign to Contact.

9. Choose “Use as Wallpaper"

Thanks to Photo Focus and Scott Bourne for the directions above.

All iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpapers are provided without any technical support. Each image is a 320×480 jpg file. All images are Copyright Jason Collin Photography, All Rights Reserved. You are granted a single use, non-exclusive, perpetual license to install this wallpaper on any iPhone or iPod Touch personally owned by you. This license grants you the right to use the wallpaper for non-commercial/personal use only. You may not re-sell, distribute, print or otherwise publish the image without the express written consent of the Copyright owner: Jason Collin Photography