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.
It has been hot here in Florida and that affects birding.
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.
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| 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.
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 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:
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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:
As usual, let’s start the week by sharing some of the pictures taken over the weekend. One of my favorites is this one, where I managed to capture a composition with the alligator framed right in the center.
Pictures of a gallinule chick are something new for me. I’ve seen plenty of common gallinules, but this is the first time I’ve seen their babies. They’re black! It was funny to watch them moving around with their disproportionately large legs!
This landscape picture is my favorite. I managed to add some color to the sky in post processing and I think it came out well.
The last picture is of a turtle that was taking a walk, looking for a good place to lay its eggs.
This past weekend started with rain—a lot of it. But once the rain let up, I headed to a local botanical garden to take some photos of the flowers while they were still wet.
On Sunday I headed to the local park. Who says that you can't take landscape pictures using a zoom lens.
Ducks were very active and I managed to take some pictures of them flying around.
Two more pictures that I loved, the first one is from this wild flower.
The second one from this Osprey, they do not use to hunt in this like and for me it was a bid surprise.
Special mention to a familiar face.
A short video from this photo section.
I knew this would happen—after a long weekend and 300 photos later, picking a favorite feels impossible!
But hey, here’s another one I really like. Who says you can’t have more than one favorite, right?
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| Water lily (genus Nymphaea). It is characterized by its large, fragrant white petals and bright yellow center, floating on the surface of the water alongside round green lily pads. |
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| Spiderwort (genus Tradescantia). Spiderworts are commonly found in gardens and wild areas across North America. |
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Lantanas are known for their vibrant clusters of small flowers, often featuring multiple colors like orange, yellow, pink, and red.
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This is a long weekend, Memorial Day weekend, so we may have another post like this one to talk about pictures taken during these 3 days.
The first one is this anhinga in flight. I did not like the blue sky behind it, so I edited it to make it more interesting. I did not replace it; I just edited it, changing the light a little bit.
The second one is this close up of the alligator's eyes from the top. The skin texture looks amazing.
My last pick has to be this turtle that I found laying eggs in the middle of the trail. I do not know why, but turtles in that lake do not have a sense of where the best place to lay their eggs is. This is not the first time I have found one of them doing it in the middle of a busy hiking trail.
Tomorrow’s Memorial Day, and I’m still figuring out where I’ll be with my camera. But one thing’s for sure - I’ll be snapping tons of pics and sharing them here, no doubt!
In Florida, whenever you're near any body of water, you should always assume there may be alligators. This small lake near my home was completely dry for several months last year. Thanks to the last two hurricanes, it has water again. While in the past I had only seen one alligator swimming around, this past weekend I was lucky enough to photograph two of them cruising very close to each other.
They are impressive animals. They’ve been on this planet longer than we have, and at least in Florida, they’re here to stay.
Here is the video that I took last weekend showing wildlife around the lake.
Last weekend was a Karate Weekend! Almost 1000 pictures in burst that then I had to sort and clean deleting the ones that I did not like or were not too good to leave and process around 400 pictures all of them summarized in the above slideshow. Later during the week I'll post my favorite here.
This weekend, I took some good pictures on Saturday, but to me, the one below is the best. I took it after the rain on Sunday. I love the rain—especially when it stops.
From the ones that I took last Saturday I will pick one from a Pileated Woodpecker.
You can find the rest of the pictures here and here. I almost forgot to mention. I keep shot a video too!
