Beach Houses on Anna Maria Island

Beach Houses in Anna Maria
Beach Houses on Anna Maria Island                                      Obtain a fine art print

Walking around the beaches of Anna Maria Island you’ll find houses along the water with a view of the gulf. Some are located on relatively isolated stretches so that even if there are a lot of people at the beach these sections are quiet. Walking past this area the beach was was quiet and undisturbed as evidenced from a colony of skimmers that nest and feed here. As I walked past they paid me little heed as they rested on one leg. I live only twenty minutes away but I keep telling myself that one day I’ll just rent a beach house and do a staycation. I think this remote strip suits me just fine.

Fishing on Anna Maria Island

Fishing on Anna Maia Island
Fishing on Anna Maria Island                                       Obtain fine art print

On Anna Maria Island I have some favorite spots to hang out that are a little bit hidden and frequented more by the locals. This is opposite Coquina Beach and it’s a little dock where fishermen come to launch their boats around dawn. I was here walking around and noticed this guy casting his net and so stood a ways back trying to capture him in mid-throw. I think he noticed me and stopped throwing the net, maybe he was self conscious. I wandered off to leave the poor soul in peace. Hopefully he caught something because there were a couple of egrets waiting for anything he might pull up.

Another Sarasota Sunrise

Sarasota Sunrise
Another Sarasota Sunrise                                                       Obtain a fine art print

This is a spot in Sarasota Florida that has a view of the city at sunrise. Sometimes I end up here for whatever reason. It’s also a spot that joggers come by all hours of day and night, so no matter how early I get here I’m never quite alone. I think having joggers at all hours is a good thing. I’ve seen that in other cities in North America as well as Europe. But I think the main reason they’re out early is due to the Florida heat, it’s almost a necessity to run very early or very late.

The Harbor at Carnon

The Harbor at Carnon
Taken from west side of the Harbor at Carnon                                          Obtain a fine art print

This is the harbor at Carnon in southern France. I stayed about a mile from the east of this harbor and thought I’d walk around to the west side. Only I didn’t realize that once I arrived on the east side there was no bridge close by and so I had to walk another two miles to get to the west side. By the time I got back home I estimated I walked about five miles and took five photos. So in reality I took one photo for every mile. That’s a very low miles to photos ratio.

Saturday at the Beach on Anna Maria Island

Bean Point on Anna Maria Island
The beach at Bean Point on Anna Maria Island Florida                                      Click to purchase a fine art print

Saturday I went for a walk around the tip of Anna Maria Island. Most of the walk is along the beach at Bean Point as it wraps around the tip of the island. There was a breeze and sound of the waves the whole way and that was a good thing. This is the time of year when the extreme heat abates and an extended walk or exercise outside is refreshing because the humidity is lower. In any case I plan on doing more of these walks because, well, …no bad thing comes from time on the beach.

Lake Beauvert Jasper

 

Lake Beauvert Jasper
Lake Beauvert in Jasper Alberta                                                         Purchase fine art print

A couple of years ago I was in Jasper Alberta to visit the Canadian Rockies. I arrived by train from Vancouver and then drove and hiked around. Along the way I stayed at the Jasper Park Lodge situated just east of town on Bueuvert Lake. I used a water texture from the mediterranean on the sky and water to add a mystical feel to the image. I would say there is quite a bit of good energy up here in the Rockies, mystical or otherwise. This is another one of those places I need to get back to and in some respects reminds me a little bit of New Zealand.

Queenstown Sunrise

Queenstown Sunrise
Sunrise in Queenstown New Zealand                                  Purchase fine art print

On my first day in Queenstown I crossed so many timezones I didn’t really know what time it was. Nonetheless I woke up wide awake sometime well before sunrise and so started walking around the hotel. At around dawn I was greeted with this scene near the bridge at the end of Lake Wakatipu. New Zealand has a kind of magic in its landscapes that have to be seen to be believed, and this is one of those cases where it hit me head on just after arriving. The week would have many more amazing landscapes to witness such that I will be powerless to resist another trip.

Saturday Sunrise

Palmetto Saturday Sunrise
Saturday Sunrise in Palmetto Florid                                 Fine art prints

This morning I managed to get out to capture these clouds over the Manatee River at sunrise. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere closer to nature, but mornings like this can help make up for that. There really is quite a lot of beauty all around, I just have to put myself in the right spot at the right time. Nothing good comes without a little effort and so it was today. But I still need to get out of the city, maybe a walk on the beach is in order.

This is my first image using AuroraHDR from Trey Ratcliff and Macphun. I found it really easy to use. I don’t recall all that I did but I started with Trey’s “Soul Asunder” preset and then just started playing around. Finally I pulled it back into Lightroom for a few minor tweaks. I’m really happy with the way it fits into my workflow, and since I use all the other Macphun products it has a nice familiar feel to it. I’m pretty excited to have a new, intelligently designed product to help amp up my creativity.

Emerson Point Vultures

Emerson Point Vultures
Vultures at Emerson Point in Palmetto                                              obtain print

I was driving along the road into a nature preserve when I came upon these vultures perched upon a dead oak. It struck me as such an odd sight, almost scary, and I had to stop and take a photo. While there another gentlemen came along and stopped next to me to take a look. Apparently he watches these carrions closely and said that something wasn’t right because normally they are further up the road inside the preserve. He thought perhaps someone was lighting fireworks and caused the flock to move here. Anyway, the only thing scary about this photo is that presumably these poor birds were a bit unsettled and scared themselves. Seems things are always what they seem.

Palavas Harbor

Palavas Harbor
Palavas harbor along the French Mediterranean                                          Purchase framed print

The harbors along the French Mediterranean are full of sailboats. This is in Palavas but in another town further south we watched children learning to sail on rough seas which I though was pretty amazing. But that probably explains why so many people along the coast love to sail. This is just a small section of the harbor, there were many hundreds of boats moored here, many more than I’m used to seeing in our small Florida harbors. This was the scene as the sun set last week and I walked along the docks taking it all in.