Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 5: St. Petersburg.
Sun Rising from under the Sunshine Skyway bridge viewed from Fort De Soto Park. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of art from around the world
Sun Rising from under the Sunshine Skyway bridge viewed from Fort De Soto Park. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Four years ago I attended a photography workshop on the Big Island of Hawaii led by Thom Hogan . We spent Thanksgiving day in and around Volcanoes National Park. Later in the afternoon we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the Volcano House Hotel with other guests at the Lodge and some local residents.
The day started shooting sunrise over the Kilauea crater. In order to record the wide range of light, I took seven images with different exposure times. These were then processed using Photomatix (a HDR program). While traveling to the next photography location, Thom and Tony spotted a Nene (the Hawaiian state bird, also known as the Hawaiian Goose). The Nene is probably distantly related to Canada geese, however the Nene do not migrate. I guess that once they found Hawaii, they decided to stay 🙂 . The Nene almost went extinct and is now protected by the state. It can also be found on some of the other Hawaiian islands. Finally, Thom helped with a composition including a fern.
Our annual departmental meeting was held this year at the former corporate headquarters of Schering-Plough. While wandering around in the nearly deserted building during a break, I came upon this bronze statue by Fredric Remington in the executive suite.
The Park Service recovered all of our belongings from the tent-cabins in Curry Village. We then checked into various Yosemite hotels and lodges (gratis). Much higher end lodging than the sparse tent-cabins. Before dinner, Michael Mariant as a special treat after all the weeks commotion took us for a walk along a quiet and peaceful section of the Merced river. The diffuse and sublime lighting made for some great images.
Indoor Crane Fly. A macro image of a Crane Fly. It looks like an over sized mosquito, but does not bite. It has a hard time flying, and its legs seem to be double jointed. This Crane Fly is missing its right front leg. The green compound eyes are interesting. I guess that this one got in while I was trying to do some night sky photography. The sky has actually been clear for two days straight. For this Crane Fly image, I used my Nikon D300 camera since the other camera bodies were outside for the night sky project.
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