David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of the oceans and seas
I drove to Fort De Soto park early in the morning with a goal of photographing the sun rising through the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I then spent a few hours photographing birds at various locations at the park.
I stayed at the Historic Vinoy Hotel in St. Petersburg. This was my last day in Florida, and I took a series of images of the dawn colors over Tampa Bay from my balcony. The Vinoy Hotel is a great place to stay and I want to return.
Early morning sunrise and night-time photography at the Vinoy Hotel. Wildlife photography at the Weedon Island Nature Preserve. Lots of birds, a crab spider, and how often do you see, let alone catch a “flying fish” in midair. Then the extended Mathre family Christmas Day celebration.
I woke up early, and walked to the harbor where I saw a group rowing a Hawaiian outrigger canoe with a cruise ship in the background. I liked the juxtaposition of historical and modern. We then checked out of the hotel and traveled to Volcano National Park. After checking into the lodge, we went for a photo-walk down a tropical rain forest trail. The lessons here included using a flash, how to manually focus a macro lens, how to adjust the focus for camera viewfinder, and always thinking about the composition.
Waipi’o Valley is located along the Hamakua Coast on the northeastern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. We hiked down to the beach, and Thom spent time with each of us working on technique and composition. One lesson was that images with wide-angle lenses should have close, middle, and distant subject. Also, having a human figure in the image helps the viewer get an idea of scale.