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Learning to Fly

It never really occurred to me, but birds learn to fly. They aren’t born flying and after they hatch much of their development is learning to fly. They learn by watching their parents and practicing all of the little steps until they master each one. It takes a lot of practice.

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Learning to Fly
A gull in Tampa Bay on a windy day.

What got me thinking about this is an eagle-cam on YouTube. I’ve watched as the egg hatched and grew to an almost full grown eaglet in just under three months. E9, as he is known, will soon leave the nest and strike out on his own. I’ve watched with fascination as he’s practiced daily all of the little skills required to fly. Sometimes he’ll flap for minutes while balancing on a branch.

In any case, observing the behavior of E9 and his parents has provided a window into their world. Now when I see a bird I have a new appreciation for its early development.

animal images

A few days back I went out on a windy day to take some pictures and noticed a flock of gulls by the water. As they flew against the wind they were nearly stationary in their forward motion. That allowed me to capture some gulls in flight with the bridge in the background. They were quite skilled at flying in blustery conditions. And of course they’ve had plenty of practice.

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Canal to the Intercostal Waterway

To took this picture as I stood over a canal to the intercostal waterway. I was in the village of Cortez where there are many little outdoor restaurants by the water. Its one of my favorite places to come for an authentic Florida experience.

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Canal to the Intercostal Waterway
Canal to the Intercostal Waterway in Cortez Florida

This bridge is one of two that cross over to Anna Maria Island. Both are draw bridges and each time I cross I secretly hope to get stuck. The draw bridge takes five or ten minutes to operate and during that time you turn off the engine and watch the sailboats, dolphins and fishermen.

As I write this we are in peak tourist season. Its spring break and people are here to enjoy the weather and beaches. Because I’m a resident I don’t always keep track of these things. But as soon as I walk into a restaurant or try to drive somewhere it becomes apparent.

more night scenes

As well it is also spring training season for baseball. We have a perfect storm of sun seekers and sports fans. It’s fun to see and good for the local economy. Merchants look forward to this all year. I’m pretty relaxed about it all and as I said, even look forward to getting stuck on one of the many bridges.

Not that I should need an excuse, but traffic over a bridge is one way to slow down, enjoy the sights and imagine what its like to be a visitor on spring break.

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City Across the Bay

Here is an image of the city across the bay in California. If I recall I took this from a spot just below the Golden Gate Bridge. But I could be mistaken, it could have been from Sausalito, I’m not sure. Normally I use an app on my iPhone to geotag images so that I won’t forget when writing about it later. In this case I forgot to do that or was just lazy. It doesn’t matter that much, it’s a picture, not a survey.

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City Across the Bay
City Across the Bay in California

Speaking of surveys, I met a retired surveyor a few years back who now lives on a sailboat in Florida. He used to do arial surveying with a medium format camera. That’s because back in the day’s of film, the highest resolution images came from medium format cameras. Today that’s still the case except everything is digital and hundreds of times more resolution. Anyway, the guy was selling his old Hasselblad cameras and lenses. The only problem was, nobody wanted to buy them. I think he ended up donating them to a film school.

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So while I was here in San Francisco I was walking near Union Square and a photographer was setup in a mini street fair selling his prints. He still took all his pictures with a film Hasselblad camera. I told him the story of the surveyor in Florida and he understood exactly. Film photography is a dying art and the equipment, if you can find it, is dirt cheap. Of course, you still need to develop the film and process it in a dark room. And that, is something of a lost art these days.

Having said that it seems there is a small renaissance in film photography. I’m curious to see where that goes.

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More Alike than Unalike

This reminds me of the saying that we are more alike than unalike. While in Amsterdam I took a ride on a boat through the city canals. It’s a perspective that had me looking up at the houses, streets and people above the water level. It was a covered boat but sat outside the whole time taking photos. Being a foreigner I find it particularly interesting to watch people. I think that’s a natural reaction to a new place, maybe because we relate to people more than surroundings.

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More Alike than Unalike
People are More Alike than Unalike

I think people in most places around the world have a lot in common. Where we live is part of the equation, but not the most important part, at least that’s my theory.

People here seem to be happy. There is a sensibility that’s rarely found in North America, we have it but in isolated cases. What is it? It’s hard to put my finger on it. Folks are content to ride bikes instead of cars. People spend quality time together rather than work all the time. It’s a sense of identity of a small country that is sometimes lost in a large country. And then of course there are the laws, they are very different.

All that aside, at our core we are more alike than unalike. We think about many of the same things, we feel the same, we react to the same things. By experiencing and learning from each other we become wiser. When we look closely at people we realize we are not so different.

monochrome from the gallery

Photography is sometimes an opportunity to meditate on these ideas, to cut through the exterior and make a connection. That may sound counter-intuitive, but I think there’s something to it, at least for me. But then, if we’re not all that different maybe it is for you too.

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Saturday Night Fireworks

These are the Saturday night fireworks we had here in my hometown for the annual regatta. It’s the third year and each year it gets bigger and bigger. They shut down one of the main bridge so people can stand on it to watch the Formula One races. Those boats are pushing the limits of the laws of physics, it really is crazy to watch. The day is filled with food, acrobatic displays and concerts and ends with a firework display.

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Saturday Night Fireworks
Saturday Night Fireworks at the Bradenton Area Regatta.

I took this from across the river near my home in Palmetto. Palmetto is a small town compared to Bradenton, but they share the river and during the regatta each city joins together to put on the show.

When I arrived at the little beachhead along the river to watch the fireworks there was a couple already sitting in their lawn chairs waiting for the fireworks. I asked how it was going and the guy replied it was a little cold. We laughed but basically called him on it. He was from upstate New York and his son just sent him a picture of the snow up there. Here we all were in shorts and sandals watching fireworks. Maybe he was just being facetious so I told him to send back a picture and see if he gets any sympathy from the folks up north.

Bradenton Images

I’m fortunate to live here in Florida especially at this time of year. I just returned from a couple of weeks in Canada and I can say with certainty that it is not cold here. The only cold thing is the ice in the fridge that we use to keep our drinks cold.

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Sarasota Skyline from Afar

The Sarasota skyline from afar is something I never get tired of. This is about a mile away. I took this while standing near a boat launch on City Island.

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Sarasota Skyline from Afar
Sarasota Skyline from Afar

This happened to be one of the few times of the year it was cold and windy. That’s great for this type of photography because the air is crisp and the clouds blur against the sky when the exposure is long. The only difficulty is getting the camera to remain steady against the winds. I have a good tripod but sometimes that’s not enough. In this case I shielded the camera on one side of my SUV so that the car acted as a windbreak.

I take a lot of pictures of Sarasota. Its close and has views across the water, something I favor. A long time ago I made up a rule, let’s call it the rule of fourths. The idea is to get as many of the four elements in the picture as possible. Using fire, air, water and earth, I compose an image, the more the merrier. The rule doesn’t always work, its more of an idea than a rule. However I’ll find myself working with it in an image almost subconsciously.

sarasota gallery

Each time I come here to take a photo the conditions are different. The last time I came it was in the morning, it’s a good sunrise spot because it faces east. Once I captured a big thunder cloud over the city on a summer afternoon. Each time I show up at the same location there will be something different, the trick is to notice; that’s the idea, not a rule.

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Midnight Along the Canals

I took this while walking after midnight along the canals of Amsterdam. There aren’t many places in the world I feel safe walking late at night, but this city is one. Maybe I am naive, but it’s a good sign when you see all manner of people out walking at the same late hour, as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. As I write this I am returning from a major American city where I spent a few days. To be honest I would not walk alone at night in that city. But Amsterdam is different in many ways.

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Midnight on the Canals
Midnight Along the Canals of Amsterdam

I was discussing this with a friend recently and we were trying to put our finger on the essence of European cities like this. His take was, and this is a generalization, that Europeans tend to be more mature about things. I’m not sure about that but I’m willing to consider it.

Generalization break down as soon as you look at individuals, but at a macro level you notice differences. Maybe it also has to do with countries that are smaller and have a greater sense of altruism on a national level.

urban exploration

Smarter people than me will have a better explanation, but it’s something I think about. And more than that it’s something I’m grateful for as I visit and am able to walk around at night and take pictures.

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Dawn on the North Pier

I took at dawn on the north pier which is where all the local fishermen hang out. The pier is the remnants of the old bridge that was replaced by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. To get out here you need to pay a fee to the parks department. Everyone that pays that fee comes here to fish, I’m the only one that comes here to take pictures. When I show up before dawn without a fishing poll I get a few sideways glances.

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Dawn on the North Pier
Dawn on the North Pier of the Sunshine Skyway

I’ve taken pictures of this bridge from a lot of angles but this is my first time from this one. In reality it was darker but this is a thirty-second exposure and it appears lighter. The eastern horizon began to shift in color in advance of the sun which created a silhouette of the bridge. At it’s highest point between the two towers the bridge is four hundred feet above the water. Even that is not high enough for the biggest cruise ships.

If you sit here all day you’ll see a constant stream of ships passing under the bridge. You might see military aircraft as they make their approach to McDill AFB. You will surely see any number of animals, from sea birds to ocean mammals. People fish off this pier all day and all night and in that time there is quite the array of things flying, swimming and floating by.

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In my case I’m only here for an hour before heading off to somewhere else. Perhaps if I were to stay a little longer I might see more things to take pictures of. However, to do that I would probably need to bring a fishing poll. At least then I wouldn’t get those sideways glances.

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Doing the Same Thing

When I show up here in the morning there is usually someone else doing the same thing. I cannot imagine how many photos of this bridge exists. I am one in a long line of bridge photographers. When I got my first DSLR this is the first place I came to. I’ve been here since and I’ll be back again.

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Doing the Same Thing
Doing the Same Thing – Photography of Familiar Places

Sometimes I’ll do an outing with my camera and not get any good photos. That’s subjective and long after I may change my mind. Photography is a state of mind and what you perceive as good changes over time. It also has to do with mood. We watch movies based on our mood; drama, comedy, thriller and romance, they all appeal to different moods. So it is with photography. One day I may like one photo, the next day another.

Sometimes I’ll go back and look at a shot I did years ago and have a completely different appreciation of it. I might no longer like it. Or I might see something I like but missed.

abstract images

On this morning I met a man from Newfoundland who was also taking pictures of the bridge. It was perhaps his first and only time he would be here. In that case I hope he got some images he likes.

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The Other Morning

The other morning I came here to a little park by the bridge. There are nice views all around despite the urban setting. I had the new wide angle Laowa 12mm f/2.8 lens. I used it to pull a lot of the scene into the frame. Wide angle lenses are good for that but we have an even wider angle of view with our eyes. I was wondering why don’t we see things this way all the time.

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The Other Morning
The Other Morning on Siesta Key

It was early and I had the place to myself. I took a lot of photos in various directions. The lens gives the water and clouds equal prominence. The texture of the clouds this morning was balanced by the texture of the water and creates an interesting effect.

This is the bridge to Siesta Key in Sarasota. Its sunrise and were facing east so I crossed the bridge to get to this spot. As soon as I finished I crossed back. Bridges like this are the lifeblood of Florida communities. They make living on small islands possible for people without boats.

bridge images from the gallery

Anyway, I’m still learning about the new lens and so far so good. I’m reshooting old locations for a new perspective. That’s probably something I’ll be doing for a while.