fortdesotopark Archives - Page 2 of 3

February 16, 2017February 16, 2017

Interesting in Some Way

Sometimes I’ll take a photo and then look at it a year later only to find it interesting in some way. Case in point, I was looking through my viewfinder when this boy ran across the field of vision with a bird looking down at him. It’s easy to get these kinds of quick vignettes when you are prepared. By just being somewhere where things happen you will see unexpected scenes and events. This is not an unusual scene yet it reaches a certain threshold of interest. The setting, people, bird and pier all combine into a story somehow.

Daily Image

In truth there were a lot of people here, but by narrowing the view the lens the scene is simplified. Simplified scenes leave more room for imagination. That’s not so say that scenes filled with a lot of details are’t interesting as well, there is a place for everything. For instance big cities scenes often contain a wealth of detail.

A painter makes these choices and so do I as a photographer. Choices like simple, complex, action, atmosphere are all things to consider while composing. I’ve had this image in the back burner for almost a year before I decided to explore it in my digital darkroom.

more shots with piers

My creative decisions are as fickle as the wind, and what I decide today will be forgotten tomorrow. That’s the enjoyment of what I do. I can explore a new aspect every day and never repeat myself for the rest of my life.

December 3, 2016

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.

Daily Image

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.

August 1, 2016

Time to Chill

I never get tired of taking pictures of people fishing. I’m not sure why that is other than it’s a common pastime where I live. Maybe if I lived in a landlocked region it would be farmers. Nevertheless, my favorite time to catch someone fishing is when the light is softer in the sky. I think that time also generates a sort of tension with the people fishing because if they only have a few minutes left. But I am clueless when it comes to fishing so take that with a grain of salt.

I took this while standing next to the fishing pier at Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg Florida. I have several shots from here, each a different composition. Just like the fishermen, I know the light is about to end so I’m working feverishly looking for different compositions. I try get as many different shots from my outings because there is a lot of effort in just getting here.

Florida gallery

Maybe I was just projecting my own sense of urgency on the fishermen. Come to think about it, fishermen never seem rushed. If ever there were a group of people with time on their side its fishermen. Maybe that’s the draw of it, it takes you outside the daily grind and allows you time to slowdown and think. Again, I don’t really know but that’s what I imagine.

Maybe these are just all questions that don’t need to be answered and are just the product of too much coffee. I think its time to chill.

July 28, 2016

Skyway Rainbow

A couple of weeks ago after some afternoon rain I drove up to Fort DeSoto Park to take photos. As I looked back I noticed this rainbow over the bridge. From where I stood it appeared to span about 8 miles from one side of the Sunshine Skyway to the other. To get this photo I took four vertical images, from left to right and stitched them together to form a panorama.

I have mixed feelings about this image. On the one hand the placement of the rainbow over the bridge is nice and if you look close there’s even a double rainbow. If I didn’t know better I might think it was photoshopped. On the other hand the scene lacks drama. That aside I decided to keep it as is, an image of a rainbow over the bridge without much drama.

other skyway photos from the gallery

With some images I take a lot of pains to simplify them in post production. I feel it’s important to not have distractions in an image. This one however needed none of that, just water, sky, bridge and a rainbow. Sometimes images like this just demand to left alone because they have a voice all their own. In this case I suppose I have to agree with that.

July 21, 2016July 21, 2016

Summer Evening

I noticed someone sitting on a rock at dusk in the warm summer air. I took this last week when I went to Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg. I can never get enough of this place, no matter how many times I come back I always find something to take pictures of. That’s partly because I live in an urban area and I seek out places with open spaces; this is one along the water.

This time of year we get clouds every evening on account of the afternoon storms. It seems the more severe the thunderstorm the better the clouds afterwards. Even if I don’t have anything to take pictures of I could just focus on the clouds and the colors at dusk.

Images of solitude

When I took this I was standing next to the fishing pier about 50 yards away. It was dark enough that I couldn’t see the person sitting on the rock. That’s a testament to the Sony sensor in the A7RII camera that I use. I can take pictures of something I can’t actually see with my eyes and then bring it to light with post processing. That’s incredible and opens up all kinds of opportunities for photography. I’ve mentioned this before but I keep being amazed at the camera nonetheless.  All that aside, the weekend is coming and I’m looking forward to more thunderstorms, the bigger the better.

May 15, 2016May 16, 2016

East View

I’m standing on the pier at Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg looking east at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on a Sunday afternoon. That’s the bait shop on the right where you can get a few items while you fish on the pier or wait for the ferry. This is a nice place to check out if you come here to visit.

They also have a campground not too far from this spot as well. I’m born and raised in California so I’m not sure what its like to camp near the beach in Florida. When I think camping I think of mountains, lakes and streams. Wouldn’t it would be too warm for a sleeping bag? I think my three season bag would be uncomfortably hot. Maybe just a light blanket is all I’d need. The more I think about it the more I think I should try. Who knows, I might like it.

I just noticed that you can see the whole length of the main span of the Skyway from here. In total it’s about ten miles across the bay, here we see about five miles of it.

Two Worlds

I think the reason I gravitate to these types of images has to do with an idea. I imagine an ethereal world that coexists with the one we’re in. If more than one radio frequency can exist in the same place, perhaps it applies to other things as well. Images like this are like focusing an imaginary lens on a world nearly adjacent to our own. The image has parts of this world and parts in the next, a peek through the veil.

When I took this I was on approach to the ferry pier at Fort DeSoto Park. I sat at the front of the boat as we returned from Egmont Key. My idea was to capture the pier from the perspective of the water, yet I wasn’t quite satisfied with the result. That’s when my right brain took over and I imagined a world just out of vision yet overlapping with this.

some of my favorite images from the gallery

I suppose another reason I gravitate towards images like this is the theme of simplicity. I’ve been posting about that recently. Living in a complex world I long for simplicity, so when I let go of critical thinking for a moment I gravitate to a more relaxed place. In that world the water is smoother and the clouds flowing. It’s a world that surely exists my mind, and for all I know, beyond that.

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016

Deep Blue Sea

This was the scene as night descended on the Fort DeSoto fishing pier. I can never get enough of this place and will probably keep coming back here again and again. I took this as the sky turned from blue to black and the mood and scene changed by the minute. My perspective is towards the West which means it looks out into the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the direction the cargo and cruise ships take when leaving Tampa.

I like the idea of looking out to an infinity of space. I think it plays a bit of havoc with my mind since I can never fully appreciate the size and mass of things like oceans, but then maybe I’m not meant to. Suffice to say its food for thought, forever an enigma.

Piers or old bridges that have become piers are used by fishermen at all hours of the night here in Florida. Right now it seems we’re in a good fishing season because I’m seeing a lot of people with fish in their buckets or on their lines. Getting outside on a warm night with a fishing pole is probably the closest thing to heaven for many who live or visit here. Myself, I’m just happy to take pictures of the scenes, thats my form of heaven, that and the deep blue bottomless sea.

More images of piers from the gallery

April 17, 2016

Heron and the Bridge

It seems whenever I’m taking photos near the water here in Florida, herons are never too far away. They’re skittish to be sure so you can’t just walk up to them and expect to get a picture. Having a telephoto lens helps a lot, with this shot I was back a ways and still able bring the bird up close. I’m not a wildlife photographer, but once in a while if the opportunity presents itself I’ll go for it. Real wildlife photographers have a lot of patience, and work long and hard to get a good image. In this case I positioned myself so the heron was framed by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and fired away.

While I was here a couple of serious or “real” wildlife photographers walked up. They had big heavy long lenses and tripods that looked like something I’d expect to see on an African safari. They were here taking photos of the birds including this one. They had serious looks on their faces to go with the equipment they were carrying. Anyway, I got my shot, nodded to them and left the bird in their expert care.

Even today, a couple of weeks after I took this shot, I was by the water again and another Heron landed right in front of me. Again I tried to work him into the shot from a good distance so as not to spook him. Not always do the shots work, but it never hurts to try. When I take photos I try to keep my eyes open for any happy coincidence that might happen. Sometimes it helps to add another element to the story, sometimes it might even become the main subject. Anyway, in this case it just seemed to work, thanks to buddy bird here.

Some of my favorite images from the gallery

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016

The Number Three

I’ve heard it said that three is a magic number. Well, it’s certainly the name of a tune sung by Blind Melon, but I’m not sure how magic that is. If you’re a little lost don’t feel bad, I had to look that last part up on Wikipedia. Even without looking something up I can reasonably say that three represents a lot of things. The periods in a hockey game, dimensions of space, and of course, the number of legs on a stool. Deeper words have rarely been written.

More images from Fort Desoto State Park

This is the kind of scenery you can find at Fort Desoto State Park in St Petersburg Florida. Its also an example of how I’ve developed a tendency to see scenes in letterbox vignettes, one at a time, all around me. In fact there were things to the right and left, but I imagined this one little vignette in my mind and so framed the shot. Sometimes I might need more and use a wide angle, but for this 50mm was enough to capture the image I wanted. Having a zoom lens really helps in this department.

This is also another view of the seawall that I posted a few days ago. It’s a thirty minute drive north of me and one reason I like to come here is that I can bring my dog. Much of the shoreline in central Florida is off limits to dogs but this being a state park its pet friendly. There is a dog beach and places like this where you can walk with your best friend. So here I am; me, my bud and my camera, just the three of us. Magic.