Nature & Wildlife

Double Headed Date Palm Tree of St. Petersburg Florida

in ,

Hiding in plain sight is this double headed date palm tree in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR handheldI must have walked right past this double headed date palm tree dozens of times, but not until I was out teaching a DSLR Photography Lesson last month did I notice this most unusual tree hiding in plain sight.  Believe it or not, this is not the first time I have seen a double headed palm tree before.  Two years ago I found a cabbage palm in Cape Coral with two heads (see here).  Perhaps they are actually not that rare of an occurrence in nature?

This double headed date palm is near the corner of 1st Ave N and 1st Street N in downtown St. Petersburg.  Go and check it out for yourself!


View Larger Map

Brown Pelican White Background Florida Fine Art Nature Photography

in ,

Brown Pelican photographed in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/800th white background enhanced in Photoshop

Living in St. Petersburg there is ample opportunity to photograph brown pelicans about as close up as you dare.  For the most part, the pelicans themselves are not that bothered about a long lens being pointed at them and seem to tolerate it, though I would not go so far as to say they like it.  I wanted to make some fine art pelican images with white backgrounds by purposefully over exposing the shots when I made them in the field, or in this case the St. Petersburg Pier.  I cleaned up the white backgrounds digitally in Photoshop as needed.

Brown Pelican awash in daylight - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/400thShooting in bright light makes it easy to overexpose the images on purpose by using a large aperture along with a relatively slow shutter speed and shooting into the sun.  

Closeup of a brown pelican - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/1250thSince I was shooting at a focal length of 200mm with a brown pelican standing right next to me, I saw it as an opportunity to photograph details of a pelican, rather than the entire bird, as seen in the above shot focused on the pelican's eye and upper beak texture.  

Rain water droplet macro photography Florida

in

rain water droplet macro photograph - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 1/60th ISO 1000 & pop-up flash on TTLDue to another of circumstances coming together, I found myself late this evening with the opportunity to finaly make a raindrop water droplet macro photograph.  I did not have all the gear I would have liked with me (i.e. tripod & speedlight), but at least I had my trusty Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens on my Nikon.  Since I was in very low light and had to handhold the shot, I had to crank the ISO up to 1000 to get a decent exposure and also brace myself against an adjacent column to get even close to a steady enough shot, despite having VR on as well.  The result was merely a passable shot, but at least I finally got a chance to attempt the raindrop subject matter I had been long wanting to.

pastel filter on raindrop macro photo - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/4 1/60th ISO 1000 & pop-up flash on TTLI applied the Pastel filter in Color Efex Pro 3 to make the pure black less stark in the above shot.  After the next Florida rain shower, I will try to purposefully go out and make a proper rain droplet macro shot.  

Autumn Leaves Red & Yellow in Japan 50mm bokeh fine art photography

in ,

Autumn leaves from my Japan archives made in 2008 - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 400 1/250th

Since it is now October 8th and the temperature is still 86F and rising here in Florida, I had to go into my Japan photography archives to find an autumn colors image.  Not that we ever get such color changing in leaves here, but still.  This autumn leaves image is also early in my photography learning, as if you read the exif data and have ever taken one of my photography lessons, I would never use those settings now, especially not ISO 400 when there was still so much shutter speed to play with!

Heat Lightning in the Cloud Heavens over Florida

in

Space Stars Earth Cloud Lightning Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 20.4 sec bulb mode tripod mounted with cable release

As Kiki and I were returning from our customary after dinner walk, before us in the deep twilight sky was a large cloud flashing from within.  I went out onto my back patio with Nikkor 80-200mm mounted to my Nikon D300 mounted to my Induro CT214 tripod having set the shutter speed to bulb mode.  I put the focus on infinity, the focal length to 80mm, locked the ballhead, connected the cable release and began making long exposures noting the flashes of light.

Heat lightning is a common sight in the Florida night sky, but rarely do you see distinct bolts of lightning creep horizontally across an isolated cloud.  Usually the sky just flashes in general, and unfocused giant flash bulb.  Tonight this cloud formation appeared as a witch's cauldron brewing a silent power.

Clouds illuminated from within before the night sky - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 14.7 sec bulb mode tripod mounted with cable releaseStill, the lightning was very elusive and most of my shots turned out like the one above, revealing only the flash, not the bolt.  

Brown Pelican One Wing Out St. Petersburg Florida wildlife photography

in

Brown Pelican (male) at The Pier in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/800th shutter priorityBrown Pelicans are very curious birds to me.  Here in St. Petersburg Florida you can get up very close to them, basically stand right next to them at some places.  As they are a large bird it feels pretty cool to be able to get so close to a large wild animal.  Plus, they always look like they are looking back at you thinking something (probably do you have any snacks?).  

The male brown pelican above caught my eye because I had never seen a pelican hold out just one wing to dry before like he was doing.  It seemed an odd thing to do when presumably trying to balance on top of a tall piling as he was.  

Vivid brown pelican with purple pelican bokeh St. Petersburg

in

Brown pelican with friends at The Pier - Nikon D300 Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1250thIf you do not have any pelican photographs in your portfolio, you can head to The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg at almost anytime of day and have the opportunity to make one of a number of types of brown pelican images.  The male brown pelican was resting on the deck along with a few friends waiting for a tourist to mount the feeding platform and toss out a few free snacks.

Photographing pelicans at The Pier is also a chance to get very close to a very large bird.  They are used to having people around so you can find yourself being able to get close enough to them for it to start to kind of feel weird.  The pelicans will look you in the eye kind of saying, "what?!"