Nature & Wildlife

Snell Isle Series - 03 - Bird of Paradise Flowers of Snell Isle Florida

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Nikon D300 Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G @ f/4 ISO 200 1/160th Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/16th power with diffuser cap on tripod backlighting flower triggered by Yongnuo radio remotes

I had been wanting to photograph these Bird of Paradise (strelitzia) flowers in my neighborhood for at least six weeks.  Day after day I would be walking Kiki past the flowers thinking, "maybe this evening I will come photograph them."  Then there would be no good ones in bloom.  By that I mean already dying petals on the flower or they were too low to the ground and therefore I could not photograph the flower with a clean (no distractions) background.  Finally, after a heavy rainstorm, everything came together two evenings ago and I was able to accomplish a photography goal and continue the Snell Isle Series.  

Nikon D300 Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G @ f/22 ISO 200 1s Strobist: Nikon SB-800 Speedlight @ 1/16th power with diffuser cap on tripod backlighting flower triggered by Yongnuo radio remotesBird of Paradise flowers secrete a nectar that ants love to eat.  Even just a short time after a very heavy rain, the ants were already back out to the nectar trough.  I did not even think to sample the nectar myself until just now!  Maybe next time I pass by.

I cannot help but think if one of these is really angry that the other totally invaded its space . . .The type of Bird of Paradise flower that grows in my neighborhood are part of medium-sized long-leafed plants that make for very attractive landscaping even without any blooms.  I will still keep my eye out for a particularly good bloom for future photographs, especially one with a lot of ants feeding on the nectar.

Lake Manatee State Park

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Kayaking opportunity on Lake Manatee - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR tripod mounted with Nikon MC-30 cable releaseI was excited to spot Lake Manatee State Park on Google Maps.  It seemed like it was an exciting find as I especially like to visit state parks with lakes or rivers.  In fact, it is a very modest state park with one small, but nice access point to the lake, which is itself somewhat nondescript.  In other words, the place was basically a desert.  The campground was booked solid with it being Labor Day, but the park still felt rather empty.  This is normally ok with me, but it seems there was a reason for it being so.  Kiki was with us so we could not swim in the lake (against its alligator attracting rules), a prudent precaution by the park, but with a number of people swimming, including children, it would seem quite safe enough and any alligator would be avoiding the human contact of the area.  Still, we could have rented a canoe and brought Kiki on the lake that way, and since you can only rent a canoe at the entrance, we thought we should have just rented one then and saved the return trip.  However, we ended up being glad we did not fork out the $10 for a 2-hour rental ahead of time as the lake offered no cover and we would have only boiled on its surface with minimal sightseeing opportunities.

Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR tripod mounted with Nikon MC-30 cable releaseDespite all that we enjoyed window shopping as we walked through the campground wondering what all the trailers and RVs looked like inside and had a nice picnic lunch on one of the numerous covered table areas.  We even made use of the playground for a bit.  

Visit this park in cooler weather and I do not recommend bringing a pet/dog since the park's best feature, the lake, is basically off limits to them. 

A pelican hiding inside of a pelican

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brown pelican (female) - Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens @ f/4 ISO 800 1/400thPelicans are very malleable birds.  Though they may not be very beautiful or majestic, I think if I had to live life as a bird I might choose to be a pelican just for how many different ways they can fly, swim and rest in.  One of my long term photography goals is to photograph a pelican at near eye level as it just skims over the surface of the water.  In the meantime, I still find pelicans in new positions I have not seen before.  

The above female brown pelican had her neck turned 180 degrees with her beak resting between her wings in a homemade feather pillow.  Using my Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens @ 200mm I did not disturb her at all to make this photograph, but I cannot tell for sure if she was sleeping with one eye open or not.  

I wondered what she was dreaming about.

Florida Bird Collection Series - 001 Great Blue Heron, Brown Pelican, Pigeon & Seagull

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Great Blue Heron - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1600 -0.67 ev

There are birds all over Florida.  Great Blue Herons like the one above are often seen on beaches, and even on back patios!  This series is meant to be a modest and/or amusing collection of random bird photographs.  When I first looked at that great blue heron, I thought it looked like it was in prison.  So since I could not get a clean shot of the bird, I chose to make use of the obstruction.  I just made sure to use a single focus point and put it right on the GBR's eye.

Seagull (with bokeh) - Nikkon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/8 ISO 200 1/800thThere is no more common bird than a seagull (assuming one lives by the sea).  Why I chose this photograph was for its ultra creamy bokeh produced by the fantastic Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens, a great bargain alternative to the much more expensive Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm VR f/2.8G lens (not even to mention the crazy expensive VR II version).  I first bought my 80-200mm lens (a used one) just under two years ago, and was amazed by its bokeh the first time I shot with it, and remain so to this very day.  

(rainbow?) pigeon - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D @ f/4 ISO 200 1/1250thMaybe the pigeon is more common than the seagull in Florida?  Still, I chose to include this photo because of the repeat of color on the pigeon's neck matching the color of the bokeh.  With bird photography, bokeh can really enhance a shot from just being a snapshot of a common bird to a photograph of a common scene shown in a way that cannot be seen by just standing there.  The quality of bokeh actually varies greatly between lenses.  Before the 80-200mm lens, I had the Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G lens.  At first I thought the latter's bokeh was good.  However, upon first seeing the bokeh produced by the 80-200mm, I was stunned at how much creamier it was.  Selling the 18-200mm lens was the first thing I did out of learned photographic knowledge.

diving brown pelican - Nikon D300 Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens ISO 400 f/4 1/5000thThis female brown pelican was a millimeter away from breaking the water's surface in search of her dinner.  I made sure to use a very fast shutter speed in order to be able to freeze her plunging dive.  Thankfully, she made dive after dive so had several chances to capture her.  However, like all of these shots, I was not out to purposefully photograph birds at the time.  Three of the shots I made while teaching a DSLR photography lesson and the other was made during a portrait session.  Nowadays I do not have much chance to to photograph Florida's many birds, hence the start of this collection series!

Dragonhunter Dragonfly & Garden Spider macro

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Dragonhunter Dragonfly on green leaf - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mountedPicking organic blueberries was only really a facade for actually doing macro photography.  Just before I moved back to Florida after living in Asia for nine years, I thought that insects would be crawling and flying all around just outside my door in Florida, wouldn't it be great to have a macro lens?  As I tend to do with such things I became obsessed with finding an affordable priced used Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens, Nikon's flagship macro lens.  Just a few days before I left Tokyo, I did.

black & yellow garden spider Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mountedHowever, there was no parade of fascinating insects marching past my front door in Florida.  Then I remembered it is much easier to hear an insect, than to see it.  I would soon learn that macro insect photography requires much, much more than just having a great macro lens.  

Anyway, the blueberry bushes were quite popular with black and yellow garden spiders, who make a web much interesting looking than their common name would make you think.  It reminded me of either a polygraph test readout or the graphical representation of speech.  

Dragonhunter Dragonfly Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/80th SB-600 hotshoe mountedThe dragonhunter dragonflies mostly hung out on wires strung between the rows of blueberry bushes.  They have faces that are very easy to anthropomorphize.  It really looks like they are smiling at you.  I would have to say that dragonflies are perhaps my favorite insect.  They leave humans alone and they eat mosquitoes.  Cannot ask for more than that from an insect!  Plus, one day looong ago, I had no car at that time.  I got every where on my trusty Trek mountain bike.  This meant rain or shine I rode.  Florida in the summer produces torrential rain storms of various lengths.  That day one of those storms was raging while I had to go to work.  I put everything into a plastic bag inside my backpack and rode shirtless to MOSI (museum of science & industry).  Riding in that kind of rain obviously is pretty hardcore.  I looked down at my handlebars and clenched to the brake cable was a dragonfly.  We looked at each other, neither showed aggression, and I rode on.  The whole 20 minute ride he was locked onto my bike and I felt a camaraderie with him.  He was gone when I returned to my Trek to ride home.  These are things that have meaning to me, even some 15 years later.  

black & yellow garden spider Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mounted

I have struggled with macro insect photography in the past year, but I feel I am refining and improving my technique.  All these shots were at f/22, the first time to shoot with such a small aperture using the 105mm VR micro lens.  I look forward to my next macro chance . . .

Well wishes for all oil coated brown pelicans

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BP did what?? For 50+ days??

I did not know that brown pelicans were just recently an endangered species.  Having grown up in Florida and seen these large birds all over the place in plentiful numbers, I just never imagined they could disappear forever.  Not until I read Scott Bourne's recent post about brown pelicans, the BP oil spill and the importance of photography did I know that.  

Being a person who is committed to not causing harm to any animal for any reason, it causes me great pain to see the oil covered birds, turtles, hermit crabs and all other creatures in the effected Gulf of Mexico coastal areas.  The oil spill is truly a crime against Nature.  

If only I could scratch my own back so well as this brown pelican canSo whenever I see a brown pelican now I will look upon it with a new respect and think, as Scott wrote, this could be the last photograph ever taken of this species.  Take care my friends.

Rainbow Springs Florida Landscapes

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Rainbow Springs swimming hole - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/125thI often think how in the hell did people live in Florida before air conditioning was invented?  I have settled on the answer that never having known air conditioning, people did not know what they were missing and therefore intense heat and humidity was just the way Florida life was.  No doubt though a dip in a watering hole such as Rainbow Springs in Dunnellon, Florida would be refreshing in any century.  

Rainbow Springs green waters - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160

The spring is always gushing out fresh water at 72F degrees.  I cannot state how refreshing it is to take the plunge (have to jump in as water is deep everywhere) and escape the intense heat of the day.  We went on Memorial Day, which has to be one of the busiest days of the year for Rainbow Springs, but it never felt too crowded with enough space to swim and to picnic on the grass.  The area is very little developed, preserving the feel of swimming at the source of a river deep in a forest.  

Canoe the Rainbow River - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200th -0.67 +/-Kayak and canoe rental services are available right next to the swimming hole.  We rented kayaks, which was no simple affair!  It is quite relaxing to lazily paddle downstream in the clear water hoping to spot a manatee or two.  Warning though, there are some beautiful homes along the river and you will find yourself really wishing you had one of them as at least your vacation home, if not wanting to give up city life altogether for the extreme peace of country riverfront life.

view from the top - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/30th There is much adventure on land as well too.  There are waterfalls, hills, gardens and even haikyo zoos!  The latter discovery was an exciting cap on what had already been a great day.  

Rainbow Springs State Park Information: 

  • 19158 SW 81st Place Road, Dunnellon, Florida 34432
  • Phone:  352-465-8555
  • $2 entrance fee per person
  • about 2 hours from Tampa
  • dogs on leashes ok! but not in the springs, on kayaks ok
  • official site