Florida

This trip ended up being more pleasure than work - although I must admit that working is nearly always pleasure for me. Outdoor photography is always challenging, always changing, and always my favorite things to be doing. So you won't hear me complaining about my job. That said - the weather wasn't right for good photography most of the time, so we had more time to just sit back and enjoy the beauty of Southern Florida. We went snorkeling on Saturday. It was a fantastic experience. I've only been once before, and the water was so murky that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. This time, the water was clear and clean and the sun was lighting up the beautiful reef. It makes me wish I had an underwater housing for my camera! :)

On the boat, we met a very nice couple from Canada - Lara and Kurtis. We had a great time talking to them, so we asked if they'd like to go to dinner. Lara's parents joined us at an Asian restaurant - delicious - and we had a great evening. Thanks for joining us, guys! I'm so glad we had a chance to get to know you!

We did rise early every morning to shoot early light or wildlife - but the skies were unimpressive most of the time. The weather was quite warm for this time of year, though, so it was very nice to be out - especially when you compare the weather there to the same here in Cleveland. Yikes. We got a very nice shot early one morning. You can see it there at the top of the post. There was just one beautiful cloud in the sky - and the light was pouring from behind it like nothing else. So we pulled to the side of the road, put on our long lenses and took the shot. Those little white smudges in the foreground are spider webs. There were millions of them - all catching the fantastic morning light. Wow.

Shooting directly into the sun like this means you are dealing with extreme dynamic range. This image is a manual HDR combination of three bracketed shots. This was a very difficult shot to process, but I think the result is worth the effort. What do you think? This image has not yet been posted on any other forums - not even my website. I like to wait a few days to post images online because I sometimes find that it takes a few days to really feel that the image is right.