Florida Botanical Garden Gazebo

I've never been a big fan of architecture photos, but since my 300 mm lens is no longer operational and I haven't got the funds to replace it right now it looks like I need to warm up to architecture. It's difficult, if not impossible, to take bird photos with anything much less than 300 mm with 400 - 500 mm more realistic for smaller birds.

On this trip to the gardens, we dodged rain showers and overcast skies.

Tampa Photo Blog

Finding Tampa is a photo documentary from a "new to town" perspective.

The recent photos of The Italian Club Cemetery are very introspective.  I've driven by the cemetery a few times during my travels, but somehow these photos convey it in a way that you don't see from behind a steering wheel.

Likewise, simple junkyard photos become interesting when photographed in certains ways and from certain perspectives. Here's an example from a recent posting titled Largo: Auto Salvage Yard Part 2.  I also enjoyed the sign from Part 1.

The Citrus Lens

The Citrus Lens photo blog has a lot of nice Florida themed pictures of places to go and see.  We've actually been to most of the major places featured on the site, which makes me feel like I haven't missed too much during my almost 8 years of living in the Sunshine State.

One of my favorite series of photos focuses on the Florida Botanical Garden in Largo.  Linda and I visited the gardens a couple of years ago.  There was a special event being held in the parking lot and after checking out all the booths we decided to tour the gardens.  It's a fantastic place.  The photos on The Citrus Lens kind of make me want to visit again sometime soon.

We spent our first 4 1/2 years as Florida residents in Casselberry, FL and visited Church Street Station numerous times - usually on Sundays.  The Citrus Lens has several nice photos of The Station. I especially like the train picture.  I don't remember the train being there when we visited. Maybe it's a more recent addition?

And finally, if you're thinking of purchasing some photo equipment to start capturing your own unique images of this tropical paradise there's a My Gear section on the site that can offer you some suggestions. 

Here's a few of my own suggestions at various price points:

Sony A900 - High end professional level "full frame" dslr 

Pentax K-7 - Medium end hobby level dslr offering more control versus "point and shoot". It also offers 720p HD video capability.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 - Inexpensive camera with some medium and high end features including movie recording.

I use a Sony A700, that is now a discontinued model.  It's a 12.2 megapixel camera with built-in anti-shake capability.  It can use just about any of the older Minolta lenses that were very, very popular in the 1980's.  And, if I can ever save up enough "extra" money there are some killer Sony G-Series lenses built specifically for Sony that can bring out the best in digital photos. 

If you'd like to see more Florida pictures, please visit my Florida Nature photo blog.

Step Right Up, Step Right Up Folks...Get Your Fancy Camera Right Here

So I'm surfing around tonight on a few new websites I read about in the newspaper today and I ran across Far Beyond the Stars. The author, Everett Bogue, writes and promotes minimalist living. (He used to work for New York Magazine.) 

As is typical with me I was trying to do several things at once, so I didn't make it past the front page of the website tonight, but a one-liner in a recent article caught my eye:

Nikon and Canon want you to believe that you’ll be a famous photographer if you just buy one more camera lens.

How true this statement is.

But if  you buy a $1,200 camera and $600 lens from one of those companies, will it help you take photographs like Clyde Butcher, the well known Florida landscape photographer? Will you be the second coming of Ansel Adams?

I think I read somewhere that Mr. Butcher uses a camera that hasn't been popular with mainstream professional photographers since sometime around the 1930's, but would anyone argue with me when I say that there hasn't been a landscape photographer since Ansel Adams that takes comparable pictures? O.k. maybe some would argue, but hopefully I've made my point.  It's not the camera, it's the craft, artistry, skill, dedication, and perserverance of the person behind the view finder.

And just for fun, can you pick out which of the following photos was taken with a Canon and which one was taken with a Nikon?

A.

B.

Give up yet? 

Let's try one more.

C.

Was A. the Canon? Or was it B.? Was C. the Nikon?

Give up?

D. Sony - With an inexpensive $180 lens.  All of the Above.

Florida Photography

If you do a Google search for Florida photography, you'll come up with a fairly predictable list of nature photography websites, wedding photography sites, and sites that chronicle family vacations, hiking trips, camping trips, kayaking trips, visits to Disneyland, etc. But, sometimes the golden nuggets are hiding just below the surface a bit and you need to do a little digging to find the types of results you are really hoping for. That's how I found Th!nk Photography from Miami by Paula P.

Th!nk features photos of ordinary subjects framed, massaged, and photographed in just a certain way that makes them all the more interesting. A drop of water, a cell phone keyboard, an earring, or even a simple pair of eye glasses. Pretty cool stuff.