Jupiter Stock Workshop: Day One

Last weekend, we drove over to the Atlantic coast to Jupiter, Florida for a 2-day Stock Photography Workshop with my good friend and well-renowned photographer, Bryan Peterson. This workshop was a specialized workshop, since our subjects and study was going to be on the world of stock photography, and how to create and innovate subjects, scenes and direction of photos that can generate sales.

For the first day of our workshop, we started out on Jupiter Beach for sunrise photos, including the power of the silhouette and it's shape and form. Later that morning we also studied how to prep a scene, both with a model, but with props as well, and how to direct a scene.

After lunch and a break, we did some more scenes, both with a solo model and with two models, both again with direction of the scene, including clothing, hair and props. We ended the day back at the beach for some great light and walks down the beach.

All in all it was a great day, and we had a great group of photographers and models that allowed everyone some great shots and ideas. Although I was assisting Bryan at the workshop, I was able to grab a few shots once in a while of the action.

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Wall Springs

Last Saturday, after hanging out at Anclote River, I struck up a conversation with a group of birders from Indiana who was telling me that they came from a park just down the road called Wall Springs. I have never been there, although I have passed by it numerous times on our way up to the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, so I decided to head down there to see what I can find.

I gotta say that Pinellas County has by far the best park systems we have ever been to, for they are very well kept, clean, and always have interesting animals and birds to watch and photograph. Wall Springs is a natural spring, and is the only one that can be found in Pinellas County. Wall Springs Park's 195 acres include a historic spring once used as a spa and bathing area from the turn of the 20th century until the mid-1960s. The spring was originally known as" Health Springs" but later became commonly referred to as Wall Springs.

This was the first time we have ever seen a natural spring, where the water temperature remains at a nearly constant 74 degrees all year round. It is an amazing sight, as there is a huge cave under water where water flow is 2,917 gallons per minute or about 4.2 million gallons per day. Fish are very abundant in the spring, and some of the largest ones we have seen.

The wildlife in the area is amazing, as the ecosystem has several areas that attract a huge variety of birds, and included my first encounter with several, including Hooded Mergansers, Blue-winged Teals, and a unexpected find, a juvenile Little Blue Heron that was peeking up from his nest in the middle of a lake. This is one park that not only has great photo opportunities, but a great place to just sit back and enjoy some great scenery.

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Back To Anclote

It's been little over a week since I have seen the baby Bald Eagles at Anclote River, so I headed out early to see how they are doing. When I arrived right at sunrise, I didn't see the two babies, or did I see the adults either. I waited around for a little bit, since most likely they were off fishing, but could be gone for sometime.

With no sign of the parents returning, I decided to take advantage of the early morning light and blue skies and headed into Anclote Gulf Park to get some shots of the Ospreys, since I could hear them all morning, so this would be a great photo opportunity. I fired off numerous frames and got some nice shots of them flying, landing and just hanging out around the boat launch area.

I also found some others hanging around the park, as well over at Anclote River Park, including a pair of frisky Squirrels that climbed up a tree and had some fun (wink, wink). After a while, I went back to check on the Eagles, since I saw them fly overhead heading in the direction of the nest.

Boy, are these two little ones getting big. They are now growing into their huge beaks, and are now very active and curious about their surroundings. They even were helping mommy Eagle fix some loose nest branches, or at least they think they are helping. Won't be long now that they will be fledging from the nest.

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Punchy

Once in a while I run across a funny video, and this is probably my favorite so far. I was surfing around YouTube, and saw a link to a video called "Punchy". It is one hell of a funny a video, and you just gotta see this one.

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Watch Punchy
(QuickTime Format - 2:07 - 12MB)

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View Even More Crazy Videos
(Web Site)

Go Leafs Go

For our fourth game of our hockey tickets package, we went to see another one of our favorite teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs. A few years ago when we went on our "Northeastern Hockey Tour", we made sure to include the Air Canada Centre on our list, for we love to watch Leaf Hockey.

	1	2	3	T
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS	0	2	2	4
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING	1	1	0	2

We were a little disappointed that our favorite player, Darcy Tucker was a scratch for the game, but the final outcome and a Leafs win made up for the absence.

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Needle In A Haystack

Trying to find a Great Horned Owl, or any Owl for that matter, is like trying to find a needle in a haystack sometimes. They blend into their surroundings so well, most times you can walk right by one and never see them. So, we took off for Honeymoon Island to see if we could find the Owls this afternoon.

While we were walking around, we spotted a Hawk we have never seen before. We still have to figure out what this Hawk is, but I have seen it several times in the past, but today was the closest I have been able to get a clear photo of it.

I finally spotted one of the Great Horned Owls later in the evening, and as usual, he blended right into his area, and was fast asleep. Not much action either with the Osprey's, but when it is partly-sunny and in the low 80's in January, it really doesn't matter.

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Anclote River

Last weekend, we made our way up to Pasco County to see the baby Bald Eagles, and boy, do they ever grow up fast. Although they can't fly just yet, they are getting bigger by the day. This is an exciting time to witness this series of events firsthand, and it makes for great learning and understanding of these majestic birds.

While we were there, we also wanted to explore some of the surrounding area, and we visited two outstanding parks, the Anclote River Park and the Anclote Gulf Park. Both have great features and are completely different in terms of what you can see and do there.

Anclote Gulf Park is more of a fishing park, where they have a river bank and complete access to the shores for shallow-water fishing, and also two long piers for some deeper water fishing. This is a great place to just set up and wait for the action, for numerous birds will fly by for some flight shots, including Ospreys, Pelicans, Herons, Eagles, Kingfishers, Cormorants, Anhingas and others. This park is also where we spotted our first White Pelican in the wild, which was a great find.

Anclote River Park is a larger park, and has boat ramps, a large park/playground, and beaches. This is a great park to get also all kinds of great shots, and I managed to get a heart-pounding series of a Bald Eagle fishing that flew right in front of us. He came in so fast, it was all I could do to keep my camera pointed on him and fire off as many frames as I could as he snagged a Trout right out of the river.

These two parks, and include the Bald Eagle nest that is in between both of them makes this are one great hot spot, if you are patient and willing to spend some time exploring for some very unique photo opportunities.

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Controlled Burning

Every once in a while, controlled burning is seen around the Tampa Bay area, and today, I spotted a huge burn taking place out on Caladesi Island. Huge clouds of white and sometimes black smoke would rise hundreds of feet into the air as the Forestry Division was igniting tracks of land on the island.

The burning helps reduce the chances for wildfire, eliminates non-native species, and restores natural habitats for wildlife. It was the perfect day for the burns, as we had low humidity, light winds and partly sunny skies, perfect conditions to perform the burns.

Bringing Back The Memories

For our third game of our five game pack, we went to see our old hometown hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. We used to travel to Pittsburgh several times a year from Cleveland to watch the Penguins at the Mellon Arena, and have great memories of each time we visited the city of Pittsburgh.

This was our first time to see Sidney Crosby in person, and wow, he is everything they say about him and then some. He has to be one of the most talented hockey players we have seen since the days of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Jaromir Jagr.

	1	2	3	T
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS	1	0	1	2
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING	1	1	1	3

Even though we were rooting for our old hometown Penguins to win, it was still great to see them even though they came up short. It would be a shame if the city of Pittsburgh lost this up and coming exciting hockey team.

National Champions

I'm not much of a football fan, but this year the College Football Championship was played by my former states football team, the Ohio State Buckeyes against my new states football team, the Florida Gators. Florida went into the game as huge underdogs, and everyone expected the Buckeyes to walk away with the National Championship.

Well, as it turns out, it was the Florida Gators winning, and win big with a 41-14 trouncing. It will be the same old saying I heard ever year growing up in Cleveland, and it will be mumbled from Lake Erie to the shores of the Ohio River, "Wait 'till next year". Makes me glad I don't live in that state anymore.

Sunshine Skyway

For the past week, I have had a terrible cold, so I haven't felt like going out and taking any pictures. However today, I felt a little better, and we had some of the best weather so far this winter, with crystal blue skies and temperatures in the low 80's. I wanted to just relax and enjoy the afternoon, so I headed down to St. Petersburg and made my way out to the North Fishing Pier on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to get some nice sunset photos of the bridge.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is the world's longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, with a length of 29,040 feet (exactly 5.5 miles). It connects St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, Florida and Palmetto in Manatee County, Florida. Construction of the current bridge began in 1982, and the completed bridge was dedicated on January 11, 1987. The new bridge cost $244 million to build, and was opened to traffic on April 20, 1987.

The Travel Channel rated the Sunshine Skyway number three in its special on the "Top 10 Bridges" in the world. The bridge is considered the "flag bridge" of Florida. It was so nice to sit on the pier and watch the Dolphins swim by, along with Sting Rays, Blue Crabs, Pelicans and all of the usual suspects that hang out on the bridge. It made for a peaceful ending to a beautiful day.

Announcement: Upcoming Events

2007 is shaping up to be an exciting year already, and I have several announcements to kick-off the year. First, I was just signed to an exclusive book deal with a publisher to photograph the Tampa-St. Petersburg area for the project "Tampa-St.Petersburg, Florida: A Photographic Portrait". The book is scheduled to be completed this summer, and will be released for sale in early 2008. All of the photographs to be included in the book will be taken over the next several months of the area, and will contain around 150 to 200 images. Look for more information on the project in the coming months.

Also, I will be teaching an online course at Bryan Peterson's Perfect Picture School of Photography that starts January 12, 2007. The course, "The Art of Composition" will cover the compelling arrangement, or what is commonly referred to as composition. If you would be interested in learning more about this course, then check out:

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The Art of Composition at the Perfect Picture School of Photography
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Want to see the world around you from a whole new and fresh perspective? Then join me as I offer personal photography workshops that focus on the creative aspects of composition and techniques:

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Tampa Bay Photo Workshops for the latest dates and information
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Oh, and one more thing... I have made available my self-published book, "Birds of Florida" for purchase that contains 250 pages of over 300 full-color photographs of some of our native species here in Florida. It makes for a great coffee table book that I know you will enjoy. Check out:

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Birds of Florida book and information
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I also will be announcing more exciting news in the weeks and months to come, and as soon as they become official, I'll post them up right here.

A New Year

What a year it has been, and now we are moving into a new one. How times flies when one is having fun. Looking back, a lot has changed, most for the good, and it certainly is looking up for the upcoming one. One thing is for sure, 2007 is shaping up to be a very busy year on many fronts, with some exciting details to come!

Just before the stroke of midnight, I finished off post-processing the backlog of images I had taken. Here are just a small sample of some of those images that I shot over the past couple of weeks. Happy New Year!

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