Home Town Photos.

Safety Harbor Gazebo

I have found that some of the best photo opportunities are right here in my own backyard.  I try to pass through the historic Main Street in Safety Harbor near my home at least once a day to get ideas for photo projects.  I have been photographing the Safety Harbor Gazebo in John Wilson Park for many years. The city does a beautiful job of  rotating the flowers in front of the Gazebo seasonally.

Yesterday, during my visit to town I spotted this beautiful new planting and just felt the necessity to photograph this scene with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1, my tiny go-everywhere camera.  This camera also is my constant companion on my daily walks.  It is amazing the different things that I have photographed right in my own backyard...wildlife, landscapes, architecture, people and flowers.

 Butterfly on Red Flowers

The photo above was taken at a new park in town, Mullet Creek Nature Park. The local garden club is doing a great job in keeping the flowering plants blooming.

Neighborhood Sunrise

This sunrise photo was taken literally outside of my front door.  I was out just before sunrise to pick up the newspaper when I spotted this incredible sunrise.  I knew that I only had seconds before this scene would be gone.  I ran in the house and grabbed the Panasonic DMC-LF1 and took this picture just an instant before this beautiful scene disappeared. 

Learn your neighborhood...Walk around...Get some great photographs.

Africa in Monochrome

Recently I began a project that involved creating many of my nature images that I took while on several Africa safaris into monochrome images.

It is fun and sometimes it is rewarding to go back to your earlier photos and try to do something unique with them.  I think that the monochrome treatment offers that opportunity.

I use both Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 as well as One On Software's Perfect Black & White program in conjunction with Lightroom and Photoshop to get the best creative images from the color rendition.

Vervet Monkey 

Bat Eared Fox

All of these images were taken in Kenya, but these are just a few of my conversions.  I have many thousands of wildlife images from all over southern Africa.  I know that this endeavor should keep me busy for quite a while.

It's a great time for bird photography!

Tri-color Heron with egg.

This is the best time in Florida to take photos of birds on the nest, eggs and chicks.

Great Blue Heron with Tilapia.

This is my favorite image in a series of many bird photos. My interest was in getting the eye of the Heron and the the eye of the Tilapia in focus.  I was thrilled when I previewed this photo and noticed  that I got the bonus of the water dripping off of the nose of the fish.

Great Blue Heron chick.

It was tough getting a good photo of the chicks since they were nearly hidden in the nest and in deep shadows.  I like this photo with just the profile of the mother bird hovering over the baby.

Cormorant chicks.

It is hard to believe that one day these Cormorant chicks will be coal black one day. All of these shots were taken at Gatorland, near Orlando, Florida.