Wind Back - Florida 2015
One of my favourites from the trip and whilst I would love to say this shot was intentional it was taken by chance as I was recording what we were doing for the blog I had to write for my coursework. I believe we were using small nets to see what small fish were in this stretch of river.
It is almost hard for me to believe that my trip to Florida (the only time I have been to the US) will have been six years ago this month. Definitely the best fieldtrip I ever want on at either school or university. What makes it all the more amusing, looking back on the photos from this trip, is that this was before I really took photography seriously and the only thing I had was my old Fuji bridge camera. They are nowhere near the quality of what I would take now, but they do serve as inspiration for when I am able to go back with my improved knowledge and equipment.
The control room from the Apollo 11 missions at the Kennedy Space Station (NASA). Impressive to look at and came accompanied by a video demonstration and, if I remember correctly, a model of the lunar landing module. This is well worth visiting as there is so much to look at here and it is very inspirational.
If I remember correctly, I think I was still shooting in auto at this point which, upon review, will be why a lot of shots have blown out highlights (including on shots I was amazed with at the time), but the bright Floridian sunshine was probably a saving grace, allowing me to extract as much detail as possible with such a weak camera in well lit conditions. However, the one advantage of a camera such as this is versatility – being an all-in-one option I was not constantly changing lenses to take pictures of things close and then far away and the macro capabilities were actually fairly good. If you wanted a simple and light option for holiday trips then they are ideal and it is not hard to see why expensive options like the Nikon P1000 are still produced today, though bridge cameras have rapidly lost market share to an even more convenient photographic tool – the mobile phone. The flip side of this though is that this lends itself to getting lots of mediocre shots, something I now try to avoid as I have spoken about before. But if you just want holiday snaps then look no further.
I remember how excited I was when I took this as it reminded me of the shots I saw in the old 90s wildlife books I had growing up. The pool of light hitting the snake was perfect but it is a shame the head was in shadow.
What was so remarkable about the wildlife in Florida was simply how close you could get to it. In the UK it is rare you can approach animals beyond the birds that come down to your garden feeder, but in Florida reptiles, birds and even mammals will happily sit close by without getting spooked, allowing you to get plenty of shots. Many times, I was taking photos of egrets and even hawks from ten to fifteen feet away and there was even a moment when cormorants would happily stand in the middle of a busy path where you could probably have patted them on the head. It was such a surreal experience and I honestly do not know why the animals here are so calm around people. It is not like Americans are strangers to hunting and using guns!
This red-shouldered hawk is a great example of animals that would swoop in close-by and happily sit in one position for you to snap away.
It is for this reason I am so keen to go back because the quality of photos I could get with my current gear, at such close quarters, makes me excited just to think about it. Unfortunately, even beyond COVID-19 I cannot see a trip to the US on the cards anytime soon, so I will have to be patient, but it will be worth the wait. I have not entirely decided what lenses I would take on such a trip but taking a 24-70mm, a 105mm macro and then a big telephoto is probably the best bet. I would then pick a lens for each day depending on what I was doing, the temptation as ever is to keep on swapping lens but then you end up back at taking lots of mediocre photos.
You could also get very close to alligators, this would have been not much more than a few feet away. They would happily sit on the edge of the water unmoving, but a low wooden barrier and a slope prevented the curious tourist from getting more than an eye-to-eye view.
I hope you all enjoy the rest of the photos on this blog and if you have had any good experiences on your travels to Florida (or in anywhere else in the US) then please let me know in the comments down below.
Alan Sheperd’s spacesuit from the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. One of the many interesting and impressive items on display at the Kennedy Space Station.
The shot that won me the trip photography competition (I still have the prize mug somewhere I promise!) I was thrilled at the time but my more experienced self is now too distracted by the blown out white on the heron’s forehead.
I remember this shot taking a lot of attempts and patience as this brown anole only shows its throat flap momentarily. Thankfully I composed this about right with the twigs not overlapping with the lizard in the foreground.
From a coastal boat trip. This osprey (of which there are many in Florida) has made it’s next on top of a platform warning boaters of Manatees. Despite the small size of these JPG files I was able to recover a large amount of detail from the shadows. The bird is completely dark in the original image.
Alligator gar are very impressive fish to look at for their patterning as much as their threateningly large size. Unfortunately unlike the previous image it was difficult to tone down the highlight in the bottom corner of the shot without making it too obvious that it had been edited.
An example of the macro capabilities of this Fuji bridge camera. The warm weather is idea for insect life even in February.
No you are not seeing double this is indeed a double-headed red-eared terrapin. The weirdest and most intriguing thing I saw on the trip, it was nicknamed Pete and Repeat by the Professor Emeritus who looked after it. He mentioned when it was young they would put a credit card between the two heads to allow both to eat without interfering with the other.
Brown anoles were everywhere in Flordia. Take a step in almost any direction and two or three would scatter away. Sadly these are an invasive species from Cuba and in comparison I saw very few of the native green anoles.
When one of the cormorants who happily stood in the middle of the footpath as visitors to the Everglades walked around them. You were literally standing right next to them as though they were a tamed domestic animal. They were not being fed but they did not mind people at all. If you look closely its throat it blurred, and this was it panting with its mouth open to cool itself down.
There are many species of heron & egret in Florida and the tri-colored herons are one of the more visually interesting ones. Now with more experience I would have paid more attention to framing to get the whole reflection of the bird in shot as well.
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