Rick, Author at Just Enough Focus

June 5, 2016

The Last Pass

Yesterday I went to Sarasota to look for some scenery around dusk. The place in mind was closed so I drove on and pulled over here. From the time I got out of my car I probably had only four minutes before the sun went down but it just worked out anyway. I parked, noticed the skimmers plying their trade, grabbed my camera and sat down on the seawall to take some pictures. I kept watching out of the corner of my eye to see when they were coming and quickly tried to snap a shot as they were directly in front. I have a lot that didn’t work so well but this little bird just nailed his mark. Awesome-possum.

The other place I was planning on going to was closed because they were filming. They had actors, lights and cameras. That little detour costs me about ten precious minutes as the sun was falling. But in the end it all turned out good. I may be naive but I like to think that I ended up where I was supposed to be regardless of my plans.

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I don’t know what it is about these skimmer birds, but as soon as the sun went down they stopped skimming. In a way, they were just as rushed as I was, trying to get in every last pass as they scooped up little fish for dinner. As soon as the sun went down they were back to the nest or wherever it is that they go. So maybe the sun going down creates a kind of last minute panic to those who depend on it. Whatever the case, we each made our last catch.

June 3, 2016June 3, 2016

A Place to Daydream

I just had a conversation with a fellow photographer and while we have differences in how we approach our craft, we’re both working to bring more simplicity to our images. That’s easier said that done. Any direction we turn there are dozens of things to fill up our field of vision. How often would we describe our surroundings as an aesthetic of simplicity; for most of us, rarely if ever.

So I look for vignettes of simplicity within a frame of my surrounding. A vignette is a subset of my field of view, the whole scene broke into little rectangles. That’s how I find simplicity. Another way to put it is we just need to keep reducing our scope until simplicity emerges from the clutter.

other fine art images from the gallery

So when we simplify something, it becomes more accessible as an idea. It becomes an archetype of sorts and then our imaginations can begin to fill in. For me this is the essence of art, to hold attention and evoke imagination. When we look at a scene and we are drawn in, we are daydreaming inside that scene. And what better way to appreciate something than to daydream inside of it.

June 2, 2016June 3, 2016

Dead Pool

My guess is that this standing body of water is covered in some type algae which has robbed it of oxygen. If I’m right about that then there really is no life here, just a still quiet dead pool.

I first noticed this while hiking through here and recently came back with my mountain bike and camera. Its inside a state park and there are several of these standing pools of water, but this one grabs your attention because there are no birds or life of any form and has this smooth velvet-like green carpet on the surface.

However in the hurricane season when we get torrential rains and a high tide at the same time these pools get reconnected to the bayou and probably come back to life for a short spell as the water becomes oxygenated again.

Some of my favorite images from the gallery

Anyway, there is a path around it and plenty of angles to look at this spectacle. With the bayou, mangroves and wetlands so full of life this presents an unexpected sight. It reminds me of the Tolkien Dead Marshes. In one sense it appears quite beautiful but I fear that if I get too close I might never be seen again. I can’t help but let my imagination runs a little wild when I see sights like this. This is a real-life dead pool. Your oxymoron for the day.

June 1, 2016June 2, 2016

Punta Piedrita

This is from a few years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I took this from a hotel room we stayed at before boarding a cruise ship. It was early in the morning before leaving the hotel and as I opened up the glass door to the veranda my lens immediately fogged. I had to be patient and wait for fifteen minutes or so while the temperature of the glass equalized with the outside air. That happens when you go between air conditioning and a hot humid climate. Coming from Florida I should have been used to it.

When we got on the ship and headed into the Caribbean the same thing happened all the time. The cabin was climate controlled and as soon as the camera hit the outside air it fogged. The same happened with eye glasses. The best thing is to let the camera warm for about thirty minutes before shooting. As I said, I should have known because I go through the same routine every summer here in Florida.

More from the beach gallery

Anyway, we were only here in San Juan for a couple of days. The sights, food and people were all amazing and I’d go back in a minute. The people that I know and have met from here all have a combination of purpose and friendliness that is unique to this island. I believe this island and its people are a treasure of the caribbean.

May 31, 2016

Very First Thing

I find that morning is the best time to exercise. In fact very first thing in the morning, that way nothing can come between me and my desire for a workout. By the time its over its still early and I can go through the day guilt free knowing I did something. Guilt free days are good.

This is a place I take a lot of photos, it’s called Bradenton Riverwalk. If I come here first thing in the morning I’ll find a lot of people that think the way I do. Walking, running, doing pushups and basically all manner of exercise. It’s the perfect place, there’s plenty of open space by the water and miles of walkways.

See the Florida gallery here

However when I come here it’s just to take pictures or walk my dog. I workout in a gym in a bootcamp class. I tend to need some type of structured activity inside lest I get distracted by the sunrise and want to start snapping pictures. Maybe I could combine exercise with taking pictures to have my cake and eat it too. That would be like going for a hike with a camera. What a bright idea, I should try that sometime.

May 27, 2016

Stuck on a Bridge

A shot of the main bridge near my home between Bradenton and Palmetto. Apparently this is now due for replacement. Bridges have a life span and this one is at its end. I imagine that to replace it will be a couple years of chaos, but that’s the price to pay for progress I suppose. In the old days the bridges were flat, not arched like this. When it came time to replace them they simply turned them into fishing piers. I don’t suppose that will work with these arched versions, they’ll probably just demolish the whole thing.

The traffic over this bridge can be horrendous. But I don’t stress it, besides, what can be better than to be stuck on a bridge in Florida; you can look out and see sailboats or dolphins, the scenery is pretty good. I look forward to getting stuck on bridges here, especially drawbridges, they’re my favorite. Everyone stops and turns off the engine and some folks like me get out of our cars. Its fun to watch the bridge rise and the sailboats pass. I’ve spent a lot of time in traffic over the years, but getting stuck on a bridge in Florida changes your perspective on the experience.

More bridges from the gallery

They’re building another one about five miles upriver. I can hardly wait for that to be built so that I can get pictures from and around it. Anyway, for someone who loves photographing bridges I suppose I live in the right place.

May 26, 2016

Morning Train

The morning train crosses the bridge to Bradenton on it’s way to the orange juice plant. I stood here as it blew its horn which can be heard for miles away. When I’m home I hear the horn at night and for me it’s just part of the daily sounds that make up the fabric of life in this small town. Each time I hear it I know the train is crossing the river.

When I travel to another part of the country or up to Canada and see Tropicana orange juice in a carton, I know it crossed this bridge as it left the plant. It’s a subtle feeling of familiarity when I’m far from home.

Anyway, I love traveling by train, there couldn’t be a more relaxing way to travel. Unlike a plane you can easily get up and walk around. There’s none of the nonsense about landing and takeoff and you can pretty much do as you please.

More images of urban exploration from the gallery

Anyway, I don’t see many passenger trains in my part of Florida. Even so they were largely responsible for the population growth in the last century. Now the trains here mostly serve industry. For instance the Ringling circus train leaves from just the other side of the river. That has a long history, and I know someone who works on that train, but I digress; another story for another day perhaps.

May 25, 2016

Close to Home

Due to some other priorities I’ve been staying close to home lately. That’s been nice because I get to visit all my favorite photo locations within a short drive. But I just realized I haven’t been back to this park in about two years. It just got put at the top of the list. I like it here because of the ponds and the reflections, so I just need to wait for some nice clouds and head over in the next few days.

They were going to put a water park here, that was over a year ago but I’ve not seen any construction when I drive past. Hopefully the natural beauty is preserved. I need to remember is to bring mosquito repellant, this is close to a swamp and bayou so there are plenty of biting things. Normally I get so engrossed in what I’m doing that I just ignore them.

Check out some of my favorite images at the gallery here

Now that we’re getting into summer weather again we’ll start getting afternoon thunderstorms. Those can be loud and dramatic, but the best part is after they pass the clouds can be spectacular. You can see some of those clouds way off in the distance here, but this image doesn’t really feature them. Clyde Butcher, a famous photographer from Florida says that the clouds are our mountains. That’s a reference to how they can play an important role in Florida landscape in the same way mountains do in other parts of the country. To me that makes perfect sense, and the bonus is that our mountains change every day. How cool is that?

May 24, 2016

Old Stumps

This is a shot of an old stump along the Beach in British Columbia. I took this while walking along the Foreshore trail from Wreck Beach. The logs and stumps litter the beach, remnants of storms long passed. There are lumber mills not far from here so it’s not unusual to see stray logs that never made it to the mill. I stopped several times to take pictures of the smooth stones on the beach which is not exactly landscape photography, but images I like to collect nonetheless for use later as textures for other images.

I noticed another photographer stopping to take photos of the stumps and debris along the beach as well. I think because it’s deserted here and there are so many natural elements you could easily spend hours photographing all kinds of interesting things. That’s basically what I did.

See more images in the Canadian gallery

I’ll be heading up to Alaska in about a month. I hope to get some time walking along a beach up there as well. I know the landscape is beautiful, I’ve seen it on TV. Naturally I’m curious to see it in person because as we all know pictures can never do justice to majestic landscapes. Just the thought of walking in a setting that I’ve never seen before should provide all kinds of opportunities for photography. Even if they are just a bunch of old stumps.

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016

It Just Seems That Way

This is another image from Bean Point at the tip of Anna Maria Island. There is no parking and so the only people that show up here are those living or staying within walking distance. That’s why it’s one of my favorite places for photography at sunset.

A continuing theme for me is to use clouds in an image to represent proportion and scale. So typically people or manmade subjects become small in relation to the clouds and surrounding environment. The purpose is to draw attention to the scale of nature around us. For me the message is one of reintegration into our otherwise ignored surroundings.

More images of Anna Maria Island from the gallery

Only after I became a photographer did I even begin to notice things around me, such as the formation of clouds. Now I look at the world different from before, I see our existence in relation to our environment. That provides a sense of perspective, something to glimpse a grander scale of things. Without that we tend to focus on small things in front of our faces without ever looking up. It’s like zooming out on a map; we begin to seem insignificant. But of course we are not, it just seems that way.