Last weekend

 Last weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot the USA Sport Karate Strike Fest in Bradenton, Florida. And what better way to capture the essence of this event than through this photograph?

 

During last weekend

  Something is going on, and I do not know what it is. There are no birds in my favorite park. So I'm walking around the trails, taking pictures of whatever I see that catches my imagination. Like this black racer. 

Or this beautiful landscape. 

Even here in Florida, colors are shifting to fall hues. You do not need a camera to capture all this beauty. Look at this picture that I took with my iPhone.

With a little bit of post-editing, this picture ends looking as good as the one above that I took using my Canon R6. 

If you want to know my recommended gear, head to this page where I tell you what you can buy without any doubts. All that gear will just work. 

The Best Pictures of Last Weekend

Here I am again, faced with the daunting task of choosing the best photographs I captured during the past weekend. Unfortunately, the bird population was quite low, so I spent some time experimenting with landscape photography, using the technique of stitching multiple images together to create a large mosaic that covers the entire area I wanted to capture. 

Click on the image to open the high resolution version to appreciate the details. 

I managed to capture few frames of a humming bird with a dark background that I like a lot. 

The rest of the pictures mostly featured flowers. While it’s commonly believed that flowers bloom during spring, that’s not entirely accurate. In fact, many flowers can be found blooming during fall. 

All pictures were taken using a Canon R6 Mark I and a Canon EF100-400 L with a 1.4x Extender. 

Last weekend

Over the weekend, I went shooting at my local park. I’m not sure what’s going on, but there seem to be far fewer birds than usual for this time of year.

I did spot a pair of great egrets perched on the pier and had the chance to capture a few shots of them, beautifully backlit by the low sun on the horizon.

I also got some good pictures, at least I like them, of gators. I love taking pictures of them. They are like Dinosaurs. 

The skin of an alligator is like living armor, built of rugged, textured scales that shine with a prehistoric beauty. It tells the story of survival through millions of years. No two alligators share the exact same skin pattern. The dark ridges, speckled spots, and subtle hues of green, gray, and black make their skin as unique as a fingerprint. When sunlight hits their backs, the rough texture almost glimmers, giving a strange elegance to an otherwise fierce predator. Their skin symbolizes resilience — both tough and beautiful, a perfect harmony of nature’s artistry and functionality. Beyond aesthetics, the skin is perfectly adapted to camouflage in Florida’s swamps and marshes, a reminder of how beauty in nature often serves a purpose.

Why Photography Never Died with the Invention of Video

When video arrived, some thought photography might fade away. After all, video adds motion, sound, and a fuller sense of reality. But photography never died — because it offers something unique.

A photo freezes a single moment in time. It allows us to pause, reflect, and feel the power of one frame without distraction. Unlike video, photography invites imagination — what happened before and after that moment? What story is hidden between the pixels?

Photography isn’t just about recording life, it’s about framing meaning. And that timeless ability will always keep it alive. 

Above are two of the best pictures I took this past weekend. 

During the last busy weekend

Oh yes, last weekend was a busy one, and I’m still post-editing pictures. We traveled to Saint Augustine to cover our grandson’s karate competition and also took the opportunity to explore the city—and of course, take thousands of pictures. I’ll be sharing some of them here. Peacocks are something you don’t commonly see in the U.S., but there are a few places in Florida where they can be spotted.

 Peafowl—the correct term encompassing both the flamboyant male peacock and the more modest peahen—are originally native to the Indian subcontinent, including parts of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka 
Everglades Holiday Park. Their vibrant presence in Florida, however, is purely thanks to human introduction.

At St. Augustine’s famous Fountain of Youth Park, the first breeding pair was introduced in the late 1960s. Today, dozens of peafowl—some of them striking white leucitic variants—roam and roost among the oak trees and historic ruins of the park. 

Today, peacocks in Florida have stepped off exotic bird posters and into everyday life. From roadside sightings to community mascots, they represent both nature's unpredictability and the whimsical side of human–wildlife interactions.

Whether you see them as beautiful relics of the past or charming neighbors in feathers, these birds have made Florida their home—and given us quite the story to tell.

 

 

 

 

Another one...

 Another of my favorite pictures from last weekend is this one.

This photo is a panorama composed of pictures taken along the vertical axis. By doing so, I was able to capture the beautiful cloud and its reflection in the lake. 

What was the best photo of the last weekend

 This last weekend started with a rainy Saturday with little photos taken, but Sunday was a nice day at least in the morning hours when I was shooting. 

I took a few pictures of hummingbirds, and of course, one of them won the prize for the best weekend pictures.

Another highlight

 Another highlight coming from last weekend was some of the landscape pictures that I took at Bayport Historic Park. 

 I love the first picture for its simplicity and colors, but the second one is a view I can’t resist photographing every time I’m there. It’s just beautiful.

During last weekend: Heat affects birding

 It has been hot here in Florida and that affects birding. 

• Reduced Activity and Foraging: Birds become less active during the hottest parts of the day, limiting their foraging and breeding activities. 
• They may seek shade and cooler spots to rest and conserve energy.

As a result, I didn’t have many opportunities to capture good pictures.

One bird that didn’t seem to be bothered by the heat were the Laughing Gulls.

 I managed to take a few pictures of these birds in flight.

 The Herring Gull is large and pale gray with a white head, pink legs, and a strong yellow bill marked with a red spot. They are winter visitors to Florida, often seen along beaches, piers, and harbors, scavenging for fish or scraps.

The Laughing Gull, on the other hand, is a year-round resident and one of Florida’s most recognizable gulls. In breeding season, it has a black head, red bill, and a raucous, laughing call that gives the species its name. They thrive in coastal habitats, from sandy beaches to busy boardwalks, and are quick to swoop in on snacks left unattended.

Together, these two gulls capture both the seasonal rhythm and the lively spirit of Florida’s shorelines.

Another bird that I photographed was the boat-tailed grackle.  

Female Boat-tailed Grackle.

The Boat-tailed Grackle is a striking blackbird found along Florida’s coasts and wetlands. Males are glossy black with long, keel-shaped tails (like a boat’s hull), while females are smaller and brown with a slimmer build. They’re noisy, bold, and often gather in large flocks around marshes, parking lots, and boardwalks. Their loud, varied calls and confident presence make them one of the most noticeable birds in Florida’s coastal areas.

During the last weekend

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take more pictures of hummingbirds—this time with better lighting, which made a big difference in the quality of the images.

 Another thing I did was test a Fujifilm FinePix S8200. This 16-megapixel camera is perfect for young people looking to start in wildlife photography. The autofocus, however, is slow—so it’s not ideal for action shots like birds in flight or sports photography. Shooting indoors can be challenging, but you can still get nice results using the built-in flash. Image sharpness isn’t on par with what you’d get from a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but the zoom is impressive and will satisfy beginners. Best of all, you can find it on eBay for around $60. Here is one of the pictures I took using this camera after editing it in LrC.

 

For sure, instead of paying $60 for a kid’s camera on Amazon or elsewhere, I’d rather spend that money on this camera from the second-hand market.

Last weekend was a Karate Weekend!

Last weekend I shot a Karate Event. I took more than 2000 pictures! I was using shooting bursts of 12 fps trying to capture all the most important moves of the athletes and as a result I ended with a huge amount of pictures that I'm still processing. I hate deleting pictures other than those that are not in focus, and when you shoot burst you have to delete pictures even if they are sharp, otherwise you are going to fill your backup drive really quick. 

 

I'm having a hard time choosing which ones are my favorites — I like all of them. What started as taking pictures of our grandsons quickly turned into photographing the whole team, as usual. I may have missed some of them, as many were competing at the same time — and I haven’t yet figured out how to be in two places at once!

Big thanks to Kaufmann's Karate (#kaufmannskarate) for allowing me inside the arena to capture these moments.

Note: All pictures of the event are located in these two pages:

1st: https://tinyurl.com/r3u9kdwu

2nd: https://tinyurl.com/bhe7ssxs 

 

From last weekend

I’ve been a bit busy this week and haven’t had time to post my favorite photo from last weekend—sorry about that! So here it is.

I like this one because of the hummingbird’s pose; it looks as if it was observing me.

Last weekend

 I believe the main protagonists from last weekend were the alligators. 

There were people stealing fish from people fishing on the pier. In the image provided, you can observe the incredible speed at which this individual was leaping out of the water in an attempt to capture one of those fish. 

From the last long weekend

 Last weekend was a long one, full of great photo opportunities. It started with a bit of rain, and for a moment, I thought it might ruin our plans. But that didn’t happen — and here are some of the pictures to prove it.

 

These pictures were taken at Homosassa Springs Park — a beautiful place. The rattlesnake photo was edited using the new Lightroom Classic feature that removes reflections from glass. As you can see, it worked very well.

Later in the weekend, I visited the local park near home, where I took a few more pictures worth mentioning — like this one of an alligator stealing a huge catfish from a fisherman.

Or this shot of a spoonbill in flight. Flying spoonbills are as striking as flamingos in the air.

I shot three short videos (1, 2, and 3), and if you haven’t hit the 'Subscribe' button on my YouTube channel yet, I’d love to see you do it — you won’t regret it!

 

 

 

It's in his DNA!

This weekend, our grandson surprised me by bringing his camera during a visit to a local zoo. 

I looked at some of his pictures, and they were quite good. 

During last weekend

Last weekend, I took some nice pictures—like this one of an alligator swimming like a torpedo, breaking through the surface of the water.

 

Alligators have become one of my favorite animals to photograph. It's captivating to think that they’ve been around longer than us. Their skin—especially in the younger ones—is full of rich colors and texture.

Florida is at its greenest right now. The vegetation in some places reminds me of what you’d find in the rainforests of Costa Rica or the Amazon.

 

The photo above is composed of about 10 images stitched together using LrC. Taking it on a cloudy day helped bring out the different shades of green. 

Just a reminder: if you haven’t done so yet, please hit the 'Follow' button on Instagram.   

From last weekend

Last Saturday, I went to my favorite park and came back home with a few good pictures.

I saw a hummingbird flying around, but I couldn't capture a shot of him in flight. Luckily, he perched for a few short minutes—just long enough for me to get a picture.

With hummingbirds—especially when they’re perched in the shade—the post-editing process is incredibly important. In those conditions, you can’t really see the bird’s beautiful colors. It’s only after editing that those vibrant colors truly come to life.

This Carolina Wren love to sing. It's not the first time he poses for me and even aloud me to get very close. 

 

On Sunday, I had a special assignment: I took some pictures of our grandsons on the streets of Brooksville—a beautiful place for photoshoots. You can enjoy the pictures here. I really love how they turned out. 

 

 

From Last Weekend

 A short Video from last weekend hiking. 

This weekend

Here are my picks for this weekend.

This red-shouldered hawk made me walk a lot just to get a few pictures. It seems to be a juvenile—very shy and constantly calling for its mother. Or at least, that was my impression.

I took the opportunity to shot few pictures to create a huge panorama. Here is the result.

This is a 10271x7009 resolution picture. That's a 72 megapixels picture coming from a 24 megapixel camera!

My special mention for this weekend: