Photo Story

Melissa Anelli speaking on Harry Potter at USF

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Melissa Anelli speaking at USF on Harry Potter, November 2010After I finished reading the Deathly Hallows in 3-days of absolute seclusion (no people, no Internet, no outside), I immediately thought that Harry Potter was now the greatest genre franchise in existence.  For me from 2001 to 2007 the Harry Potter experience was so rich, so compelling, so intimate, that it became the genre franchise I held in most esteem.  It was nearly flawless with no missteps.  

Besides reading and rereading the books, in 2005 I started to listen to the Pottercast podcast, which opened up a whole other level of understanding and appreciation for Harry Potter.  After years of listening the hosts of Pottercast felt like friends due to their not only talking on Harry Potter, but their own lives, experiences, etc.  I had seen pictures of Melissa Anelli, so when I listened to her on the podcast I had some mental image of the person speaking.  However, it is really an unusual feeling to finally see someone in person after so many years of just listening to their voice.  Double that with my Pottercast experience being a one-way street, meaning I learned so much about Melissa and the other hosts from the podcast that you feel you kind of know them like a regular friend, except just one you never actually talk back to.  So when I went to hear Melissa speak at USF Tampa campus last night, I felt like I finally got a chance to see an old friend . . . who had no idea in the world who I was!

Anyway, Melissa is a great speaker.  The same personality she displays on Pottercast was exactly what I saw on stage.  Her voice sounded exactly the same, so I guess they have really good audio production on the podcast!  She must have given the same talk last night dozens if not hundreds of times, but she showed no hint of it giving the appearance of it being the first time she ever told those stories, which to me is the sign of a great speaker.  

Melissa records the cheers of Harry Potter fans using her Mac!For a Harry Potter fan, her talk was extremely interesting and fun.  I really did not know specifically how JK Rowling came to write the first Harry Potter book and especially not how lucky she was for it to get published.  It was great storytelling by Melissa.  

I did not bring my 80-200mm lens with me because that would mean bringing my backpack camera case and I wanted to travel light and try to be inconspicuous for a change.  I also did not get a seat very close up due to the horrid traffic driving from St. Petersburg to Tampa, so I kind of regret I was not able to get better photographs of the event.  Plus the stage itself was not lit much at all, darker than where the crowd was sitting, which is the opposite of how lighting usually is.  

This was the perfect way to get ready to see the Deathly Hallows movie on Friday.  Thanks very much Melissa for coming to Tampa and sharing your great Harry Potter stories and knowledge! 

War Veterans Memorial Park Pinellas County Florida

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At low tide War Veterans' Memorial Park has some shoreline to explore or wade in.Closing in on nearly two years of living in Pinellas County, Florida, I can still easily find great new county parks to visit.  One recent Saturday afternoon Kiki and I visited War Veteran's Memorial Park located right at the tip of Boca Ciega Bay.  The park is not overly large, but there are enough waterfront paths and shoreline areas for a leisurely hour-long walk.  The inland trails did not look that appealing, so a longer trek is available in the park, but the big attraction are the panoramic views of the water.  One pavilion in particular was out on its own small peninsula making it the single best outdoor family party spot I've seen in any area park.  

It took several attempts to get this tank shot in focus as Kiki was pulling hard wanting to get walking!

One does not expect to wander through the woods and see a tank, even in a war memorial park, but it was an interesting surprise to find.  Kiki had no such interest so I could not get that close of a look at it without feeling like I was pulling a 60-pound tank of my own.  

A huge equatorial sundial made of solid granite is the park's main attraction.The bay views and the tank, neither are intended to be the focal point of the park.  A huge granite sundial is.  I was really impressed by it for some reason.  It looked really solid, and strong, like it had a very important purpose.  Perhaps even resembling something from ancient times when answers were distinctly more analog and tangible than the digital ones of today.

This is a Pinellas County park I will definitely visit again due to its combination of the usual Florida nature offerings with a strong sense of history. 


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Steam shovel Digging on a Twilight Florida Beach

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Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 200 4s tripod mounted with cable releaseAs a child I had huge Tonka trucks made of metal that I played with in a large sandbox.  As I looked at the photo above, it reminded me that the first time I ever thought about having a job, I thought I wanted to operate a steam shovel.  It seemed like a really cool job, and still does!  During a recent DSLR photography lesson on what should have been a dead peaceful Sunset Beach, there was instead an incredible noise coming from the steam shovel and dump truck working into the early night repairing the erosion damage caused by a large storm a few days earlier.  

At first I thought what rotten luck to have that racket going on during a lesson.  However, it did give us a chance for a pretty unique photo opportunity.  Photographing the twilight sky from a beach in Florida is nothing rare, but having an active construction site in the foreground of that twilight sky is.  

Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 200 2s tripod mounted with cable releaseI wonder if the steam shovel operator felt uneasy having so much of the Gulf of Mexico to his/her back?  Did they have any irrational fear that they would slip back and sink into deep water?  Into the brine?  I did.  I guess I prefer to be a daylight, solid ground steam shovel operator.

Is the Sky the most beautiful thing about Earth?

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7:34pm - Sunset Beach, Florida - 5-bracket HDR image

I once heard someone say, "everything changes except the Sea."  It instantly entered my long term memory and comes to mind quite often.  On the other hand, does anything change more frequently than the sky?  Is this constant change one of the reasons why people (well, at least myself) love to behold the sky?  Is this the reason why the sky is so often photographed?  Or is the sky just the most beautiful thing about Earth?

Just 16 minutes earlier, the sky looked like this that evening . . .

7:18pm - Sunset Beach, Florida - 5-bracket HDR image

De Soto National Memorial Florida Park

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View from De Soto National Memorial hill - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 400 1/320th

I am always searching the west-central Florida Google map for new parks, preserves and forests to visit and explore.  De Soto National Memorial, on the map, is a very humble tip of land jutting out into Tampa Bay.  DogFriendly.com gave its beaches a dog friendly rating.  The park exceeded all my expectations and is a true hidden gem in the Anna Maria Island and Bradenton area.  

Water not over Kiki's head - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/125th f/8After a bit of disappointment at the underwhelming and dog unfriendly Lake Manatee State Park, we still had a thirst for adventure in Manatee County that day, but an approaching rain storm caused us to hesitate.  I decided to press on anyways and as you can see above the storm was already well past once we arrived.  My philosophy:  It is better to regret doing something than to regret not doing something.  The beach was very natural, really just small coves among a coastline of mangrove trees.  The water was shallow and calm, allowing Kiki for the first time to be able to stand and walk around in any body of water.  She really loved being able to do that and I imagine any other water loving dog would as well.  These calm conditions also allowed me to without fear take my Nikon D300 out in the water!  I was knee deep for this shot.  One warning though, there are some random sharp shells around even in the water.  I cut my left big toe!  

 settler ruins/haikyo -- Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 400 1/125thBesides a beautiful, natural, dog-friendly waterfront, the memorial had a lot of great history that we did not have time to study much this visit.  There were some scary photo realistic placards of Native Americans and Spanish Conquistadors hidden along the trail that startled me (and Kiki too).  It is always nice to find a haikyo/ruins site, like the one above, as well.

Beware the Devil Dog! -- Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5 ISO 400 1/800thDe Soto National Memorial is a highly recommended park for an afternoon trip that offers history, trail walking, hilltop views and dog-friendly private beaches.  We will definitely be back soon.  If you visit, just keep you eyes open for the Devil Dog!


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Epic Aerial Portraits in Downtown Tampa Part 1 -- yours truly

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Photo by Vadim - Nikon D700 Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 - yours truly pulling a trademark Liu Kang aerialWhen a trio of friends gets together who have not all seen each other in awhile, and they happen to be photographers, hardcore portraits can, and in this case, did, ensue.  I met my boys Vadim and Pedro in front of the Tampa Theater.  We started out semi-tame, just a 2-strobe setup in front of some huge spiral modern art with each of us straddling a small fountain waterfall.  However, at Vadim's urging we soon packed away the lights and we all decided to take to the air!  This is nothing new for me.  I pulled a Liu Kang air (photo) (update see below!) over a huge gap in a cliffside in Mesa Verde National Park back in 2000, something I called the "Leap of Faith."  So doing an epic drop (unverified) from a skyscraper as seen above was only my latest epic aerial.  

Photo by Vadim - Nikon D700 Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 - yours truly pulling a Jackie Chan parkour move for a shotGood photographers can get shots anywhere.  Luckily Vadim was with us and spotted this alley behind a restaurant and said we should try it out.  I immediately suggested I could do parkour off the wall for some shots.  Vadim got who knows how dirty to get this creative angle.  Pedro was getting dirty too on the ground between the trash can and the dumpster.  Me?  Well, you know my disdain for getting myself into a state of disrepair.  

Photo by Pedro - Nikon D300 Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 - yours truly using The MatrixOne may point out that all these jumps were done while holding my not so inexpensive camera (not to mention lens) in my hand.  That's what makes things real.  Everyone jumped with his gear.  We wanted to get some different (and in my case hardcore) photographer's headshots.  I think we succeeded in that.  

Next up will be the shots I took of Vadim and Pedro! 

UPDATE:

Mese Verder National Park -- Digital Photograph by unknown circa 2000 model, possibly a Sony, owned by traveling friend Steve. - yours truly making the "Leap of Faith"This is my original Liu Kang style jump from March of 2000.  I met two guys in Mesa Verde Park and we explored the place and jumped off of everything we could find.  The photo taken by Steve was with perhaps one of the very first consumer digital cameras.  It might have been a Sony.  I think it was just a 1 megapixel camera.  The original file was only 640x480 as memory cards had very small capacities back then and were super expensive.  Digital photography really has advanced in just 10 years.  Read more about this awesome day and see more epic feats:  Mesa Verde 2000 Adventure 

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.