Nichter Photography PLUS

Karl and I camped at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Spring, FL last week. For years we attended their annual Festival of Lights, then skipped a year or two due to changes they made. We decided to try again. It changed again, and we loved it.

The Festival of Lights goes on most of December, with Silent Nights some nights which mean just the lights are available and Holiday Nights, which include Santa, a snow machine, the Gingerbread Village with the store open, craft cabins open, free popcorn and free hot chocolate. And, of course, the lights. We attended Sunday for the first time, and saw cars streaming in and parking, and families walking everywhere. We made our way through the wonderfully lit pathways, with creative light displays everywhere we looked. We commented to a ranger on the number of people, and she smiled and said “You should have been here last night, we had even more then”.

We bought some food at the North Pole Cafe and sat at a picnic table to eat and people watch. Suddenly at 6:30 the snow machine came on, and children ran yelling from everywhere in the area, all focusing on the snow. For those in northern climates, Florida rarely sees snow so this is a magic sight to the kids.

We continued to walk around, visiting the model train exhibit which takes up an entire room and should not be missed. Santa visits with children in another room of the same building.

We celebrate several holidays during this short, festive season, including a very personal one, our wedding anniversary.

Happy holidays and best of the season to everyone!

I spent a lot of time trying the closer focus on the Canon 100 – 400mm lens. Most of the shots didn’t work at first, it took some time to get used to just what I could and couldn’t do, but experimenting is half the fun.

I shot this wasp several times. I really liked that I could effectively blur the background. It worked on this hooverfly too.

This one took a long time. The breeze seems to come along just as I focus. I did change my angle on this one several times not only to get the shot but the blurred background.

This Katydid is softer than I would like, but the colors are incredible. I had only seen katydids that were mostly solid green before. I had no idea there were so many different species until I tried to identify this one.

It is almost the end of 2019 already. Rather than setting goals for photography each year as I did before we semi-retired the business, I’ve tried to keep a little more casual this past year. I guess you could say I decide on some general directions. Time to think about that for 2020.

I spent some time in NYC during my business years, and spent some evenings reading and drinking coffee in the local Starbucks. We rarely ever did that at home. Our local natural foods store moved from a strip mall plaza to the downtown area of the nearby small town. Lately we shop there early once a week, and then have coffee either out on the sidewalk or just inside the window waiting for the farmer’s market to open.

Still inspired by the street photography lecture of weeks before, I decided to try some through the window shots. Oh, the temperatures were a bit low for Florida or we would have been sitting outside.

Then I remembered the maxim that street photography should have people. No one came into my frame during as we drank our coffee (regular for Karl, Cappuccino for me). so I took a couple with moving cars. Since self driving cars are still a California phenomena I can be sure this one had a driver. Does that count? I don’t know. Personally I like the other one!

I like to visit beaches on cold days, especially just before or after a storm. I encounter few if any other people, sometimes a person fishing, someone like me walking the beach, or the last time one intrepid soul watching the waves and reading. The shot above shows true solitude.

When the northern cold front dipped into the Florida park at which we camped this last time, even I found the beach too cold. I took short walks when that happened. Karl came once, and chose to remain in the warm car in the sun the second time.

I had not seen the Ghost Crabs much this trip, so when I spotted some smaller holes in the sand with marks around them I stood and waited. This small one finally came out to look around. These crabs get quite a bit larger, but I only saw one bigger one this time, scurrying across the road to avoid the car.

I looked especially at the water line to find what the waves and storm bring ashore. I found a lot of single shells, but only this one empty bivalve. It disappeared with the next wave.With mostly overcast skies, and the colors of the water, sand, and sky, most of my shots ended up an interesting monochromatic study. I changed settings frequently on the camera, playing with shutter speed more than usual.

 

Happy  Thanksgiving!

This particular turkey resides in a nature preserve, so will not end up on anyone’s dinner table as the traditional main course for the day.

We spent nearly a week on St. George Island, FL camping. We love falling asleep to the sound of the waves on the beach, and waking to walk to the beach and watch the sunrise. Since we drove the entire day before, we woke later than we planned the first day and really walked fast to get to the beach for the main event. As we crossed the road and walked the path, I stopped for this shot of the beginnings of sunrise behind the dune.

We spent time walking around and watching as the colors in the sky changed, and the top crescent made its way into view. Usually by that time on other trips several people join us. This time another couple came just as the sun rose, took a quick photo, and left. No one else made their way down to enjoy the daily spectacle. Karl took this shot as the sun came up.

We walked back slowly, anticipating another cup of coffee at the RV. As we walked down the entrance road to the campsite, I noticed that the still golden light of the sun illuminated this downed and dying tree making the colors look almost surreal.

We were glad we made the extra effort to see that first sunrise. We woke to very cold weather and rain the following morning, and clouds the next morning.

A few weeks ago we attended a talk given by a photographer from NYC on street photography. We knew him by reputation as he creates a variety of images, has photographs in a local museum, and published two books.

This photographer inspired me to try again. He started saying that people recognize two types of street photography, those images which contain people and those that don’t. He presented on street photography with people. I rarely photograph people directly. I prefer silhouettes, distance, faces turned, etc. The stems part from my preferred “could be anyone” vision of the photograph, and part because if in the future I wanted to use the photograph in an exhibition or publication I need a model release which I may not get at the time. He shoots those type of shots in addition to full face shots so I felt somewhat vindicated in my preference.

We visited a small city right after the talk, so I planned to try a few shots. At an outdoor cafe I managed to get Karl un-posed with an out-of-focus woman in the background. A person sat reading nearby, so I tried a discreet partial shot, using the potted plant next to me. OK, but not great. Maybe I’ll try cropping it to take out more of the table at the bottom. The bike had just been left by another patron.The last shot didn’t work at all. I tried a glass reflection with the image of a man working on a balcony across the street. I can see him because I know where to look. This kind of shot definitely needs some work.I used the Canon 7D Mark II with the Canon 24 – 70mm lens. I carry a big enough bag/handbag that it fits and the top zippered opening is wide enough to remove the camera and replace it quickly. The bag looks like and is a standard handbag with the straps over my shoulder but are not too long so I can hold it close and it is always available. Most of the shots were aperture set at 11, ISO at 100. I also played around with setting the shutter speed at 1/60th with the ISO at 100.

 

We visited Ravine Gardens state park during a trip to Palatka, FL. We found the Loop Drive, which we did on a prior visit many years ago this year closed due to hurricane damage and erosion. No problem, we took a nice hike to the ravine and spent a couple of hours taking photographs and enjoying the damp, cool air.

With the 100mm – 400mm lens on my camera I had to leave the scenic shots to Karl. He captured the Spanish moss through the trees, and the bridge over the ravine. I chased damselflies around and stalked but rarely saw the birds I heard in the surrounding dense vegetation.

Plenty of picnic benches dotted the area, making me wish we brought a picnic. Instead, we visited a local restaurant called Corky Bell’s. I highly recommend it. The excellent food, service, and prices explained the big crowds!

We discovered Sweetwater Wetlands park earlier this year, and I wrote a post on our birding there. We decided to return while camping not too far from Gainesville, and arrived late morning due to early rain. The park has wide, flat trails and plenty of boardwalks, which makes it the perfect park for even a casual nature walk or hike.

The birding, probably due to the late arrival, remained slow. I really came to practice with my lens, so I didn’t mind. This Eastern Phoebe was my first of this season. Plenty of wading birds and ducks crossed our path, plus the sudden arrival of an American Bittern. A Glossy Ibis flew overhead and landed just behind a rise in front of me. As I approached the area for a better look, I discovered him standing in the shallows of a pond, surrounded by Black bellied whistling ducks, just hanging out with them. I tried for a shot but the distance and lighting worked against me.

Trails and the boardwalks here encourage stopping and observing. I watched this heron fish for quite some time. Unsuccessfully, at least while I watched. Naturally, a lake or pond or any fairly still fresh water in Florida seems to require at least one alligator. I only saw this one during our time there, floating nearly unseen.

We did not bring any bird guides with us, and saw a soaring bird we could not identify. A helpful birder told us it was a Mississippi Kite, explained why, and I noted it to check and add to my list. When I compared the not very good photographs I took of the soaring bird with the field guide later that day, I just could not see it. Karl helped, we consulted another guide, but still felt the identification off. I don’t add a bird unless I can definitely identify it, even on a personal list. I spent over a decade on a twice monthly citizen science birding project, and that training stays with me. Some time later the mystery was solved, we confirmed it as a Snail Kite. I suspect the birder simply misspoke.

Our late morning arrival in sunshine turned to rain before we left. The clouds began to build but neither one of us paid it much attention at first. Naturally we were about as far from the car as we could be when Karl suggested we head back. We just started back when the rain started pouring down. We both tucked our cameras in our bags, and made our way toward the car. It poured the entire way, and stopped when we reached the car, naturally.

We spend several days camping at the Mike Roess Gold Branch State Park. Located north-east of Gainesville, somehow we missed this park all these years. As happens too often lately, the pleasant weather forecast turned out wrong and naturally in the direction of hotter and more humid weather. Still, mornings and evenings remained pleasant so we hiked and explored as planned.

We found our campsite situated perfectly in a pine flatwoods, with bursts of color from the fall wildflowers everywhere we looked. We walked the trail leading to the swimming area every evening. The flowers along the trail attracted a lot of pollinators, and gave me needed close-up practice with my camera-lens configuration.

We hiked the Ravine trail the first morning, taking advantage of slightly less heat and humidity. We saw deer, usually the back end as they fled from our approach, at several points during the hike. This doe started to run, then turned. We saw she had not run far, so stopped and then walked very slowly. Gradually she peeked around the bush, then came out a bit further, then decided caution ruled and ran into the brush. This shot caught my eye due to lighting. The light illuminates her reddish-pink ear, and whiskers, and provides a catch light in the one eye.

We heard rather than saw a wide variety of birds. This Tufted titmouse flew back and forth feeding. I stood for several minutes trying to follow with my lens for a good shot. As we finished our hike, I noticed a larger bird in the tree. Guidebooks show the Yellow-billed Cuckoo as a summer resident, but this one still hung around in mid-October. The light and the angle prevented a good shot, this I classify as an identification shot. Or, if I am called to task on the rare occasion I enter my lists in eBird, a shot proving I saw what I claim.

We found the park lovely, quiet, and out of the way. We definitely plan a return visit.