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The photo of this earth mover's wheel was taken six years ago in Lakeland, Florida. An old favorite of mine.

No, you’re not visiting “Country Captures”, my Dad’s photo blog. You’re looking at an image that I took at Lakeland, Florida's Lake Parker in 2006. Although, my Dad was with me photographing the wildlife there as well during that time.

On another note, I want to say “Thank You” to all of you who take time to faithfully view this photo blog every time I post something new. It’s much appreciated.

Night at the Opera

This past Saturday evening, Sandy and I went to the Polk Theatre in downtown Lakeland for a live performance of Mozart’s comedic opera, “Cosi Fan Tutte” (translated, "Women are like that"). The opera was performed by Southeastern University’s “Southeastern Lyric Theatre” and featured Sandy’s cousin, Justin, as Don Alfonso, one of the lead parts. Neither of us had ever been to an opera or the historic Polk Theatre for that matter, so this gave us an opportunity to experience something new together.

Upon entering the beautifully restored, 1928 theatre, you could feel yourself go back in time a little. My thoughts went to some of the scenes from the films, “The Illusionist”, or “The Prestige”, where similar settings were portrayed.

The opera opened with a musical introduction by a live orchestra. We were sitting just a few rows from the front and the amazing sounds that were coming from the instruments of these well trained musicians impressed my ears. It was hard to believe that the sound I was hearing was being played live. The next two and a half hours would be accompanied by this pleasant sound.

Once the performers entered the stage for the beginning of the first act, I quickly discovered more of what the evening was going to be all about. One…much to my liking, the words were in English and two…the scene was being played out as a play, but with every word sung! See, going into this, I had no idea what to expect. So, these revelations were positive ones for both Sandy and I.

As the night progressed, I was amazed at how each performer would sing every single word of conversation. I was equally amazed at how they were able to remember every single word of conversation. It was certainly a concert and play combined, but almost could be looked at as a two and a half hour song. Much skill, talent, and training was exercised by each cast member.

Looking back, it was definitely a unique experience to take in and share with Sandy. As we were about to leave the parking lot at the end of the night, I reminded her of how we were just talking about wanting to be more creative with our dates…I said, “We definitely were this weekend”. She agreed.


I captured this image almost a year ago...I finally found a reason to use it in a post.

Love Letter In The Sand

When my Dad and Mom were down here in Florida to visit me a month ago, I went out on some nature shoots at Lake Parker with Dad as you have seen in previous posts. The first morning that I joined him at the lake, I found myself walking near the boat ramp and treading near the edge of the sandy bank.

It wasn’t a far venture for my mind to quickly figure up something special to do for my girl. When I saw the “sandy” area beside the boat ramp, I immediately got the idea to write a “Love Letter In The Sand” to my lady, “Sandy“. Once completed, I photographed my message. After I returned home that morning, I downloaded the image and emailed it to Sandy at her job. Needless to say, it was a nice surprise for her.

This message of Love may be written in the sand, but I know that the foundation of our relationship is built on a solid rock, which is Christ Jesus. I see my relationship with Sandy as a house that is being built by God…with His materials. This is something that I have prayed and I believe God is doing it.

A Chance Encounter

As the evening photo shoot at Lake Parker began to near to a close, my Dad was photographing an egret on the banks of the lake. About 60 yards away from where he was shooting, was a concrete dock that I had ventured out on to take in the peaceful view of the massive body of water. The air was cool and crisp and there were only a few small waterfowl in sight. There weren’t many humans in sight either, except for Dad and I.

As I stood there, looking out on all the glorious nature in front of me, I began to pray under my breath to God. I was thinking of all that He has been doing in my life and all that He has given me. I began to tell Him of how He was the “Master Creator and Artist”. “The Master Writer of True Stories”, for He has been writing my story and I asked Him to continue to do that. Little did I know that God was about to write something very surprising into the script of this particular evening for Dad and I.

It wasn’t long until my Dad finished photographing the egret and we started the journey back across the park to our vehicle. Not far into our walk, we began to hear a man shouting something. At first, I didn’t think that he could be shouting at us, but then I noticed his hand motions to get our attention. We soon realized that he was saying, “Hey, there’s an eagle over here!” He kept on repeating this and waving his hands like a mad man at us while hiding behind a tree. As we approached (with caution), the man kept on saying, “Do you see it? It’s right over there!” I was beginning to really wonder if this guy, who was around my age, was crazy. We soon noticed a bird on the ground though, behind some trees in front of the lake, about 20 feet from where the man was standing behind his tree. His “eagle”, was actually an “osprey”, as my Dad quickly realized and pointed out.

As we came up on the scene, we readied our camera’s and began shooting this rare sight. The osprey was just sitting on the ground on top of some nesting material. After a couple shots, I moved in about five more feet. Then, I decided to get a different angle and went around the trees to the opposite side of the osprey. At first, I was 15 feet away…then 12...then I laid down on the ground about 7 feet away to get an even better angle of this raptor. My Dad was still firing with his camera on the opposite side of the bird, about 20 feet away. Soon, I carefully got back up from the ground and began to make my way in front of the bird, placing me about 6 feet away from him. Before I could get a shot off though, I saw his massive wings begin to spread open. Upon seeing this…I ran, for fear that I was about to be attacked by an osprey at Lake Parker. As I passed by my Dad, I heard him say, “it’s ok, he’s flying the other way”. With this action, the male osprey was saying, “enough is enough” and took to the skies, leaving his nesting material behind.

My Dad then said, “at least we now know he wasn’t injured”. We thanked the man who had gotten our attention after seeing us with our cameras. He knew that he was probably going to look crazy, but he took that chance anyway. We were glad he did. As we headed back to the car, we knew that we had shared a very special moment that night. Why the osprey sat there so long while we photographed him is beyond us, but it wasn’t long until I remembered what I had said to God moments before that event; He is “The Master Writer of True Stories”.

He wrote a good one for us that night.


…you can see my Dad’s side of this story by visiting his photo blog, “Country Captures“.

Reflecting Ibis

As my Dad and I continued our photographic journey along the banks of Lake Parker, we came upon this white ibis. When I saw it’s head turn to the right, I knew I had a chance to make an interesting photograph. “Click”. I was pleased with what I had captured…another one of my favorite images from that evening.

Watchers of the Lake

Readers of my Dad’s photo blog will know that him and my Mom were down to Florida recently to visit me. I had taken three days off work to spend with them and we all had a wonderful time.

Dad ventured to Lake Parker a couple of times to photograph birds and I accompanied him on two of those outings. It was on our last visit to the lake that I captured my personal favorite images from those adventures. Above is one of them.

It wasn’t long after Dad and I left the parking lot and started over a foot bridge that we came upon this scene. We quickly and quietly set up our positions and began to fire away at these three friends.

They are wood storks, and to me, they look like something out of pre-history. What drew me to this shot was the formation that they were standing in and the reflections that they were casting on the water beneath.

I loved what I was seeing…I hope you enjoy it now too.

Lakeland Power

As I came home from a friend’s wedding on Saturday night, I passed by a part of Lake Parker that I don’t normally pass at night. From this particular vantage point, the power plant that sits on the other side can be plainly seen from the road without obstruction. The one thing that stuck out to me that night as I drove by, was the stream of colors reflected on the surface of the lake from the power plant. I kept on glancing over to take in this unexpected beauty. I couldn’t believe how cool it looked. This otherwise unassuming structure created something beautiful to behold.

The problem though, was that I did not have my camera that night. The most I could do was just envision myself stopping to capture the light show.

That was until Tuesday night. Through some circumstances, I found myself on that side of town again, this time doing a photo shoot favor for one of my friends. I was going to be photographing some people indoors, so I had brought my tri-pod along. As I went to the shoot, the thought of the beautiful, power plant light show that I had viewed a few nights before had totally slipped my mind.

On my way home, I once again was drawn to the spectacle of lights on Lake Parker. This time though, I conveniently had my camera and tri-pod with me. As I began to pass the spot, I quickly decided to stop and capture this scene. There were no cars behind me, so I abruptly came to a stop on the side of the road. I was just past a boat dock area where I could safely park and photograph. So, once some cars passed by, I put my black Mustang in reverse and drove safely backwards to the parking lot which was just about 50 feet back.

Before too long, I had captured the image you see above. A shot or two later, the currents changed a little and the long stream of color was cut in half.

I had captured this just in time.

Vandal Bats

I captured this image last year at Lake Mirror in Downtown Lakeland. These bats were stenciled on the back of a stone bench beside the urban lake. I really dislike vandalism, but at least these stenciled bats provided me with an image to share with you in this last week of October. They were later removed from the stonework, probably by the city.

I left the cigarette in the image because I thought it added to the photo in some way.

Blogs of Note

Here’s an image that I took during one of my photo excursions in downtown Lakeland over a year ago. It wasn’t long after I captured this image that I began sharing my work on this Photo Blog. Looking at this image now, I can’t help but think about the style of my Photo Blogging friend, Anna. She recently made the comment that we “shoot alike” and I totally agreed with her.

On another note, my Dad, “Salty” (Formerly known as "Salty Dawg" in Blog land), as moved his Photo Blog to a new address, countrycaptures.blogspot.com. He made the change to keep consistent with his new Blog title and theme. He’s doing a lot of great stuff over there, so be sure to check him out.

Another Blog of note, is one of my cousins up north, Amy. She also captures a lot of great country and nature themed images. Her "Frosty Mountains" image will cool you off on this hot summer day. So go check out her photos and let her know what you think!

Rise of the Silver Surfer

This is an image that I captured a few months ago at the best theater in town, the “Cobb”. You’re looking at a life size model of the “Silver Surfer” from this Summer's hit “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”. This is one of 400 made for promoting the movie at a theater near you.

So far this Summer, I’ve taken in most of the really big blockbusters; Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Fantastic Four 2, and Transformers. All four films were visually stunning and great stories, but I think I was the most impressed with Spidy and Transformers out of this list. I’m getting ready to see the third installment of the “Bourne” series, The Bourne Ultimatum, next weekend.

What about you, have you seen any of the “Blockbusters” this summer? What was your favorite? Have you seen this silver guy at any of your theaters?

Mirrors and Jewels

Here’s another image from my shoot with Punam and Dal. I was photographing Punam around this butterfly statue that was decorated with fake jewels and mirrors. As Punam checked her make-up, I captured a few images of her reflection, ending with one that pays a slight tribute to her Indian heritage.

Lake Mirror Classic part 3

Last Friday was the opening night of this year's Classic. I didn’t get over there until around 7:00pm when most of my shooting light was almost gone for the day. I thought I would at least check out what cars were already on display, but I didn’t expect to capture much.

It wasn’t long until I came upon this yellow Ford GT. In between people surrounding it for photos and such, and as the light was bidding farewell, I grabbed this image. I set my camera on “shutter priority” mode and adjusted it to the lowest setting I knew that I could still handhold it on for a steady image. The built in “Vibration Reduction” of my Nikon allowed me to handhold the camera with a ¼ of a second shutter speed and still capture a relatively sharp image.

My viewing monitor flips out and pivots up or down which allows me to capture the creative angles many of you have been wondering about.

Lake Mirror Classic

This weekend was the Lake Mirror Classic here in Lakeland. Me and my friend Ebenezer attended on Saturday, to drool over all the amazing autos that would be on display in the closed off streets and around the lake.

We first met up for breakfast at Denny’s around 9:00am to seize the day with a good meal. We then ventured down town to the show of dream machines. Since a lot of streets were closed and so many people were in attendance for this, it was a challenge to find a place to park. No matter what, we knew we’d be doing a lot of walking. After driving around for a few minutes with Ebenezer following behind me, we finally found an empty parking lot a few blocks from the event.

It was now time to begin our quest to behold the beauties of transportation. Soon we we’re gazing upon a Saleen S7 and talking to a few owners of Dodge Vipers. They bragged of how the car would handle at 170. We later gawked at a yellow Ford GT racing car and admired a new Bentley Continental GT. It was very hot outside that day, so we were soon looking for some ice cold aqua! We found some and downed them in no time! Later, we looked at some Ferrari’s. Eb referred to the rear engine on one that you could view through glass as a “sleeping beast”.

By this time, the sun was directly over head. Not only did it feel like it was melting me, but even worse, it did not lend to good photographs. One of the redeeming qualities though, is that with this much sun, you can set the aperture to it’s smallest setting and obtain long depths of field (lots of things in focus). In cases like this, getting a sharp image, is not going to be one of your problems. Some of the challenges I did have though, was getting too much glare or catching people’s reflections in the paint finishes. That’s one of the reasons I like shooting “personality” shots of vehicles at shows, because of how difficult it is to get a complete view of the car without showing other people in the shot.

As we were getting ready to leave the lake area, I spotted this vintage Porsche racing car. It’s almost paint less body with the number 32 on the hood stuck out to me. For some reason, it’s one of my favorite images I captured that day. My younger cousin Bradley saw this image and said it looked like a type of shark.

Ms. Nash

Classic car hood ornaments intrigue me. They were such works of art that celebrated the automobile and the driving experience. While at the 2005 Lake Mirror Classic, I stumbled upon this lovely lady on the hood of a 1955 Nash. I don’t think I had ever seen a Nash before or at least one of this year. I actually didn’t even get the name of the car that day. I wanted to find out what make it was for this post, so I googled classic car hood ornaments. One of the sites that came up had one of these ladies within their front page graphics, “Bingo”.

I thought it was cool how this young maiden of chrome is posed in a very relaxed way as though lounging in a pool or just effortlessly gliding through the air. I also like how her pony tail is blowing in the wind. I’m sure she could tell a lot of stories... that is if chrome hood ornaments could talk!

I know I’ve been posting a lot of car photography lately, but that’s where my inspiration seems to be right now. I have to go with where my inspiration is.

Lake Mirror

One of the many lakes in the city I live in is Lake Mirror. It is accompanied by Hollis Garden which is home to many beautiful flowers and is a venue for many weddings. As I went down there tonight in hopes of finding some good subjects to photograph I noticed a lot of people gathering at Hollis. It wasn’t long until I saw a sign right in front of me that read “Wedding in Progress, Please be Courteous”.

Since I couldn’t explore Hollis because of the ceremony, I decided to walk around Lake Mirror to see what I would find. As I walked, nothing really seemed to present itself. I spotted a cool turtle in the water, but he was a little too far out, the lighting was a little too dim and he vanished beneath the surface before I could get any type of shot. As I headed back from whence I came, feeling a little disappointed and ready to give up for the evening, the sky began to look amazing. It was then my shot presented itself! I took advantage of the moment and began to shoot different compositions, making sure I captured this beautiful scene.

Swamp Thing

They say that if there is a body of fresh water here in Florida, there is a good chance that it is inhabited by the giant carnivorous reptiles known as alligators. There’s a park with a lake near where I live that is home to many “water birds” and of course alligators. At this park, you commonly see Great Egrets and Blue Herons stalking the shore line ever so stealthily to catch some dinner, but you won’t always see an alligator. The gators are more active in the evening and thus the park closes at sun down.

On one particular evening, as I was walking up to a foot bridge that crosses a small inlet of water, something caught my eye. A young alligator, probably around a foot in length, was peeking through the water near the bank on the “swamp side” of the bridge. I could not resist this moment. So, I “cautiously” moved down to the bank, trying to make sure there wasn’t any “BIG” gators around and trying not to scare the little guy away. I got within about five feet of him and zoomed in as close as I could with my camera. I just had time to take two shots when “plop”, he submerged beneath the murky water and was gone!