Category: boats

a second look, adventure, birds, boats, dolphins, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, making memories, nature, perseverance, photography, pigs, road trip

Seafood on the menu…

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When our visitor visits Florida she likes having a drink while over- looking the water, and if there are boats in the scene that’s a plus too. Which explains how we wound up having lunch on the boardwalk at John’s Pass on Sunday. We stopped to see the scenery when we first arrived and found lots of birds near the pier where people were gutting newly caught fish and tossing the trimmings to the milling pelicans below. Among a few other scavengers.

Here we have a snowy egret surveying the scene.
She got a bit up close and personal for a minute or two.
I thought these two pelicans had found a worm of some kind, but I was told this is entrails. I had quite a few pictures of the battle, but the victor finally flew away with the entrails still wrapped around his beak.
This fella caught his own lunch.
The atmosphere is old fishing village, I find it charming.
Lots of boats, large and small, pass by.
Some require a bit of adjustments as they pass.
'scene' along the way, a second look, boats, food, friends, fun, perseverance, photography

Bar hopping…

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We thought we’d bar hop in Dunedin while my friend attended a meeting in Clearwater. It’s a charming town, with a lot of attractive looking places to stop. Choosing one wasn’t easy, and once we did we chatted and time passed, so when we walked out the door we were greeted with a glorious sunset happening down at the marina. We hurried down, and I was expecting that we were going to miss it completely. But it just got prettier.

Happily for us there was a nice bar right on the water so we could continue the bar hop while we enjoyed the last of the show. I haven’t seen a sunset that pretty in a while. And a chauffeur driven ride home.

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, birds, boats, connections, dolphins, Florida landmarks, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, making memories, nature, perseverance, photography, sunrise, unintended images

The Mar Vista…

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It was the last day of my visit to Longboat Key, and the weather was overcast and quite chilly. We walked on the beach but had no desire to sit in the sun. What we wanted to do was eat, so my friend suggested the Mar Vista, and what a good choice it turned out to be.

Of course there was a sunrise that morning, and I took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo while still in pajamas.
My chowder was delicious, and I dug in before I even thought of taking a picture. But when the people at the table just in front of us got up and left I knew I wanted to remember how nice it was to sit in the open air, though we didn’t choose to be totally under the trees.
Once we ordered our lunch we walked up onto the dock to enjoy the view. It amazes me to think that you might arrive at a restaurant on your boat and have a nice lunch.
We got a kick out of this gentleman who was busy at the fish-cleaning table. He attracted a fair share of birds who wanted to help.
The dolphins arrived just as we finished our lunch.
By that time our gentleman was taking a break, still surrounded by his feathered friends.

They say that the best camera is the one you have with you, but sometimes I feel like I’m cheating when I use the iPhone instead of the Canon camera. But on a day that gave me no clue that I might want to be taking pictures it was a great camera to use, and it fits in my pocket. Then it was time for the drive home. I think this place will be calling me to return.

a second look, boats, fantasy images, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, learning, nothing's easy, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, sunset, technology

Deja Vu…

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Four years ago to the day, last Saturday to be precise, I went to my second photo walk with my ‘new’ (at the time) photo group. I saw the announcement of a photo walk to see the Dunedin Christmas Boat Parade and had to summon up all my courage to go join in with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Especially true since I was such a novice with my camera, which to me was a big deal investment, but I was barely functional with it. Lucky for me one of the group administrators set my camera up for me that day, thanks Kate. Our leader Jeff had snagged prime territory for great views of the boats as they made their way into the marina, and even provided chairs for us to sit on. A luxury I’m afraid I didn’t appreciate until 4 years later when we were faced with finding a place to shoot the scene on our own. Weighed down by equipment, and with two (really three) hours to kill before the boats would arrive, we decided to take advantage of the empty bleachers which would give us a great view of the boats arriving at the marina. Great view yes, but a challenge for photography with boats arriving and leaving and their lights overlapping, etc. The feature photo is from my iPhone as the sun was setting, and it was about 6 PM, time for the parade to begin. It took almost an hour before the boats began to arrive at the marina. A dramatic sunset filled the gap.

If we had brought chairs we may have been able to sit at the railing. On the other hand, the top row of the bleachers was a pretty good perspective over all.
The sunrise itself got a lot more dramatic than it first appeared that it would be.
The reflections were amazing…
There was a dolphin sighting…
I didn’t see a bear in the Smokies, but I saw a bear on a boat.
Boats were coming and going…
And going and coming…
Frosty was there…
A simple display created quite the reflection.
The boats came into the marina to make their turn…
Rudolph lit the way…
Some boats carried lots of people, some not so many…
Do I know what this boat was all about? No. But I included this picture because of the little girl…
And finally Santa arrived, escorted by the Pinellas sheriff department.

Even though I had advice about what settings to use for this shoot I will need more practice before I’ll be really happy with shots like these. But I was happy with the day itself. Winter in Florida can’t be beat.

'scene' along the way, boats, coping, exploring new places, facing facts, friends, fun, Just do it, learning, live and learn, perseverance, photography, sunset, technology

This is a test…

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With the change to daylight savings time comes an extra added bonus to me. Our Tuesday night photography meet-up, which is more social than anything, convenes for dinner at 6 PM. At this moment sunset here is at 5:37PM, making it possible to stop for a quick photo op on the way to Clearwater. Weaver Park seemed like the perfect spot to stop. Nice scenery and a hop, skip, and a jump to our destination. So the stop and the sunset were perfect, so far so good. And let me assure you that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the predicament of the boat in the feature photo. In case you wondered. How it got hung up on the rocks remains a mystery at the moment.

It seems this egret wondered about the boat also.
Signage at the pier says no fishing, but not everyone got the message. I loved seeing that moon overhead.
It was quite chilly and windy, so by the time I took this photo I was anxious to get to the car and be on our way to visiting with friends and having dinner.
Not that I rushed away.
One last image before we left.

As far as the test goes it was an abject failure. I was able to edit the photos on the iPad in Lightroom mobile, and save them to a thumb drive. That was fine. But once I was in WordPress and trying to add the pictures from the thumb drive was when the iPad couldn’t seem to ‘see’ the thumb drive. It seems that the smarter all these devices get the dumber I seem to get. It’s pretty darned annoying…

I resorted to using the computer this time, but I’m still in hopes of using the iPad as my computer while I travel. Or I could just stay home, but what’s the fun in that?

a second look, adventure, boats, facing facts, Florida landmarks, food, friends, fun, Just do it, making memories, perseverance, photography, road trip, sky, sunset, weather

Sunset in Dunedin…

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We finally got to head to Dunedin for the sunset last night. As we walked to the marina we saw sailboats returning from a sailing lesson, so of course I ran ahead so as to not miss the shot. As it turned out it’s a good thing the sailboats created a diversion for us because we had longer to wait for the sunset than we thought. And then the clouds took over.

Things were looking promising at this point.
There are a few variations on the view as you sit in the park next to the boat house.
We were treated to a grackle serenade as we enjoyed the view. No osprey nests were visible this time. Perhaps they were evicted.
I caught a photo of this fisherman just before he called it a day.
This little girl was busy swinging her net, but at no creature that we could see.
The sun was getting lower.
I told myself that the color was coming up.
Then I looked behind me in hopes of seeing pretty reflected color, and found this.
We headed to the car, really we were heading to The Lucky Dill for a beer, but I stopped and took one last iPhone photo of the sunset.

I think that the iPhone enhanced the color a bit in that last photo. I’m glad that the sunset itself, or lack of it, isn’t the make or break moment of the day’s fun. One way or another it’s always good to get out and go shooting…