Viera Wetlands, Central Florida part 2

Captured this lurking alligator while shooting with my Dad at Viera Wetlands in central Florida. I was using a Canon DSLR with a Canon 100-400mm usually racked out at 400.

Viera Wetlands, Central Florida part 1

Captured this Great Blue Heron while shooting with my Dad at Viera Wetlands in central Florida. I was using a Canon DSLR with a Canon 100-400mm usually racked out at 400.

American Bald Eagle

My parents recently came down from Pennsylvania to visit Sandy and I for a few days. My Dad, who is an avid wildlife photographer, brought down some of his big glass to share with me on some photo excursions.

One morning, we went to a part of Lake Kissimmee known as Joe Overstreet Landing. Dad used his 600mm lens while his 400mm was enough for me to capture my first good images of a wild American bald eagle. What a beautiful, majestic animal.

This weekend, Sandy and I drove to Franklin, Tennessee for the wedding of some friends. We left Kissimmee, Florida on Thursday night and arrived in Franklin on Friday morning for the wedding that night. It was a 12 hour journey, but worth it.

On Saturday morning, Sandy and I stopped in downtown Franklin for breakfast. While there, I spotted this old church with a beautiful tree in all it’s Fall glory beside it. I shot a few frames of the scene and came up with this image. I have another one that shows all three windows in a landscape format, but I felt less was more for this one.

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.

Shades of Green

I took this image three years ago at Hollis Garden in Lakeland, Florida. I just like the color and pattern.

Right Place, Right Time

I captured this image the night before Thanksgiving last week. I looked out the window from Sandy’s house and saw that the sky was amazing. Thankfully, I had my camera (I had just photographed Sandy’s Christmas tree). So, I hurried across the street and went behind her Aunt and Uncle’s house to capture this scene from their dock.

Fortunately, I also had these subjects fishing, silhouetted against the warm hues of orange. I was in the right place at the right time.

Fruition

I believed you would come and now you’re here. What I proclaimed to God as I walked under the stars on many an evening, has come to fruition. My words of faith returned to me as a reality. Longings from my heart to God, not gone unnoticed or unheard, rather, He heard them all and remembered them all. It’s been said that I’m an “answer to prayer” for you and your family. Well, you are just as much an answer for me and my family.

God’s faithfulness in the form of a cute Dominican girl with dark hair, brown eyes and a heart full of love to give me and the world.

To view more beautiful skys, please visit "Skywatch".

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.

Valentine Rose

As I went to the store to buy this single rose on Wednesday night, I had already envisioned photographing it. So, once I got home, I set up my shoot and began firing away.

I will be presenting this flower to my lovely girlfriend on Thursday evening for Valentine's Day. She’s an amazing woman and I’m thankful to have her in my life.

The Mysterious Shadow on the Barn

I captured this tree’s mysterious shadow while photographing with my cousin, Amy, a few weeks ago in Pennsylvania. She spotted the barn first as a photographic subject, then I spotted the shadow of the tree on the barn. She has a few images similar to this that she may post as well.

...Amy's friend, Sandy, has also posted some images of the barn that she has taken as well. Go give her post a look!

Leaf Filter

As I photographed with my Dad and cousin, Amy, this past Saturday up in Pennsylvania, creativity was flowing all around. At one point, I observed Amy holding a leaf up to her camera lens. With the bright, early evening sun shining through the leaf and her camera set on macro, I knew she would be capturing something beautiful and unique. I quickly termed her technique as using a “Leaf Filter”. She laughed and agreed.

Of course, I had to do some shots of my own using this technique as well. So, I did, and the above image is one of the results. As I reviewed this image on screen at my parent's house that night, my Dad commented about how cool the patterns were in the leaf. Patterns that were usually too small to really notice or appreciate.

Go on over to my cousin Amy’s photo blog to check out more of her shots from that day as well. When I watched her taking the image of her boyfriend, Justin, through a hole in a leaf, I was impressed. When I saw the final product on her camera’s review screen, I knew it was one of the shots of the day. Go check it out!

Alien World

Here’s an image from my archives, it was taken at least two years ago. I had noticed these flowers while walking around "Lake Mirror" in downtown Lakeland. As I was shooting some macro images of them, this bee happened upon the scene, being busy about his business. It was a chance encounter with this life form from a tiny world that ended up giving me a great image.

His world is alien to mine and mine to his.

Flower 2.0

I was messing around with an image I took the other day of a beautiful flower, trying to do something selective color. I wasn’t crazy about the rest of the elements in the photo except for the flower itself, though. So, I just created a black background and composed the flower where I wanted it. Nothing fancy, just something quick and easy.

There’s a quote that I wanted to share with all of you. I think everyone will relate to it, especially all you photographers and artists out there. It was at the bottom of an email I received from a business associate the other week.

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

- George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

When I read that quote, I first thought of photography and how a creatively composed image grabs the attention of others. I also thought of my favorite athletes, like Michael Jordan. He’s someone who revolutionized the game of Basketball with the way he played it.

Of course, this quote can be applied to any area of life. I just thought you would enjoy reading it and thinking of it in terms of photography as I did.

The Lone Dandelion

While visiting my parents in the mountains of Pennsylvania last year, I took a few nature walks with my camera. During one of those walks, high up on a ridge, I spotted this lone Dandelion beside the road. It was in the midst of very Big scenery and space. I already had an idea in the back of my mind of the type of shot I wanted to try.

I gave attention to a small living thing that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. It would have passed through it’s short life without ever being seen. But, I saw it, and now you do too.


Over 100 Posts!
This is post number 102, by the way! I just wanted to thank everyone who has visited my Blog over the last 100 posts! I enjoy reading your comments and checking out your sites as well! It’s a really fun community we have going here and I hope to continue to be a part of it. This is such a great creative outlet for me to share my images and my heart through my stories with you. Thank you for always coming back for more, you know you're always welcome here!

I want to continue to grow as a photographer, here’s to growing together through our Photo Blogs!

The Deer Hunter

During a visit with my parents in Pennsylvania during 2005, me and my step Dad whom I call Dad, went for a walk one evening. He was taking a plastic chair to place in a tree stand that he uses for deer hunting. I had taken my camera hoping to capture something cool. As we walked through the woods up on a ridge, we stumbled upon a deer skull that was a remnant from one of the deer my Dad had harvested the year before. As the sun was beginning to set, I seized the opportunity to capture this unique image.

I never really had a person to call “Dad” growing up, because of my parents marriage dissipating before I was one year old. I never lacked anything though, because my Grandparents helped my Mom raise me. I had a very good childhood as a result. My Mom finally found my Dad when I was 15 years old and they have been married for 12 years now. As I’ve aged into adulthood, I’ve seen how my Dad has taken good care of my Mom and this makes me glad. They both have been through divorce and I’m very happy they have each other.

Recently I was listening to some people complain about marriage. As I listened to these jaded individuals, I had to think of how there are plusses and minuses to everything in life. There are many things in life that are wonderful, but also have their own challenges just the same. There are challenges to being single and as I’ve observed in others lives, there are challenges to being married.

Another thought that came to my mind as I listened to these individual’s discontentment, was that no matter what circumstances we live in, we need Christ to truly bring life to it. It is through Him that anything is truly good. We could have anything in this world, but if we don’t have Christ, we won’t have true life or joy. This is why I can be happy in my singleness and it’s also why I will have an amazing marriage some day! It’s through my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Check out my Dad’s Blog, he’s the one and only "Salty".

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.