In my last article, you saw flowers, with a few butterflies mixed in. Those were all taken in Florida during a workshop conducted by Jackie Kramer of Luvblooms.com, with assistance from Linda Torbert. If you did not see last week’s article, please take a look to see exactly why I want to photograph like Jackie!

Now, I give you birds…mostly.

Where Are We?

Today, we will be in Sarasota and St Augustine, Florida. Both have beautiful gardens, and access to beautiful birds…and more!

We’ll start off in Sarasota.

And as always, if you click on an image, you will get a full-screen view

Sarasota

Sarasota is located on the gulf coast of Florida. It’s just south of Tampa, about half-way down the state. Whilst there, we visited two gardens, as well as the beach.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

These lovely gardens are home to several exotic flower species. Non-captive birds are in attendance, but they are not the star of the show at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. There is also a koi pond, a stand of bamboo, a fern garden, and banyan trees. Several of the floral photos from last week’s article were taken here.

Koi

I found the koi pond to be either a beehive of activity, or a languid experience with each fish doing their own, leisurely thing.

Activity picks up as one tosses a handful of fish-food pellets into the pond. This stirs up the action as everyone knows it’s meal time.

For this photo, I intentionally used a long exposure to capture the frenetic motion of these fish, producing a colorful abstract photo.

The Stalker

Though there were few birds, there was this one bird…kind of creepy…it was the way it moved that mesmerized me. I watched for about five minutes as he very, very, very slowly (you get the picture, right?) moved through a grove of bamboo.

Though his body moved forward, his head seemed to float along. His piercing eyes had an eye on the prize, which I had not yet seen. Here is what he looked like in his creepiness. Being a creeper, he crept…slowly…ever so slowly. What is it that he spies?

All the rage these days is the carryout meal. I’m pretty sure that this guy invented the carryout meal. He was adept at it, to say the least.

I asked him to hold up a bit for a portrait, and he obliged. He did seem to be a bit distracted though, as it had just turned noon, and time for lunch. After the photo session, he walked away, much to my delight.

Sarasota Jungle Gardens

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens are located about 4 miles north of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. The main attraction for us were the flamingos, though there were a few ‘show birds’ present, too.

The flamingos walked among us. Though we could reach out and touch them as they moseyed by, we didn’t…they get a bit cranky.

I’ve taken a bit of artistic license with the next photo. I call this one, ‘Family Chat’.

I never knew that flamingos had such an unusual tongue…actually, I never knew much at all about flamingos. Kind of spiky…for rooting around in the muck, perhaps?

Now we move on to the show birds. Their handler encouraged them to display their antics. For a fee, you could have them sit on your shoulder. Since I was broke, I just photographed.

Saint Augustine

What is it about St Augustine, Florida? I have faint memories of learning something in history class about this area, but it’s rather hazy. That’s the way I showed up. What I learned whilst there surprised me. Do you remember anything about this town?

It is our oldest, continuously inhabited, European-established settlement in the USA. It was founded in 1565, which is almost 460 years ago. The ‘ownership’ was back-and-forth as Spain, then Britain, then Spain, and then the US each had a hand in governance. I don’t expect it to change hands again.

The city itself is now on my ‘favorites list’. I had no idea that it was to be so beautiful. The old town has those charming narrow streets and the absolutely fabulous Flagler College and churches are a highlight. Add to that its location right on the Atlantic coast and you have a place that should be on your own bucket list. But, enough travel log.

Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park

Located in the city limit of St Augustine, this is the historic site of the first settlement in the USA. In addition to being an interest to history buffs, if you like peacocks, you’ll find several there strutting their stuff. Like this guy.

The waters of the Fountain of Youth seemed to have dried up, but Ponce looked marvelous!

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park

I promised you birds, so it’s time that I deliver on that promise. You may be wondering why I put birds under the heading of an alligator farm…I certainly had no idea why we would be photographing birds there before my arrival. But then, it all became clear.

Within the boundaries of this park (founded in 1893), there is a rookery. I knew that a rookery had something to do with birds, but as I looked up the word ‘rookery’ a dictionary states, “a breeding ground for gregarious birds”. And ‘gregarious’ for animals (includes us, right?) means, “tending to form a group with others of the same species, and enjoying the company of others”.

So, it’s a place where birds can gather in groups to have a good time…and a good time they had! It was mating and nest-building season during our visit in early March.

Roseate Spoonbills

I fell in love with these birds. Their pinkish coloring is something that I had not seen in birds. And, they didn’t appear to be as serious about life as the egrets, who were busy doing this and that to get their nest in order. The Spoonbills were hanging out and having a good time. That’s the way I saw them, so that’s they way I present them in my photographs.

The next photo shows the flight sequence of a Spoonbill just going from here-to-there.

*When We Die We’ll Catch a Roseate Spoonbills Wing, and We Will Fly Away to Heaven*

I said that I found them a bit whimsical, so here’s some whimsy, brought to you by Roseate Spoonbills as they were actually seen and overheard at the rookery…

And now on a more serious note…

One of the photographers that I follow is Doug Landreth. I love the way he takes a simple image and, using texture and composition, makes it into a photograph that I would certainly place on my wall. He has a photograph with flowers that I emulate below, and I substitute Roseate Spoonbills for his yellow daffodils. You can see Doug’s creative original version here. This photo is titled, “Homage to Doug Landreth”. All of the elements of the photo came from the rookery.

The Great White Egret

Now we come to the Great White Egret. These magnificent birds of the heron family were in the midst of building their nests and doing the mating that goes along with that. They are monogamous for the season. The male selects the nest area, starts a nest, and then attracts a female through it’s up-and-down movement and plumage display. They then complete their nest together, with one flying out time-after-time to gather sticks that are passed to the other to complete the next. During our visit, some of the males had success in attracting a mate, while others were still energetically working at it.

Here’s the thing: to me they didn’t just seem to be going through the motions…they were serious about their task, and I felt that they were serious about each other.

Below, you will see birds that seem to be in a state of true love. I saw this over and over. Maybe you’ll get the same feeling that I did. I’ll let you be the judge of their demeanor.

In my last article, I showed some examples of how I transformed a snapshot of a flower into a fine-art photograph. Today, I do the same, though with photos of the beautiful egrets.

In this first comparison, you see the original image, which has a lot of distraction due to the upper branches of the tree. In the accompanying photo, you can see that I’ve removed that foliage, and that I’ve added mood through texture and atmospherics (i.e. clouds).

In this photo, there is a good bit more transformation. Using a bit of software magic, I’ve converted the photo of the blue heron into a stained-glass photo, complete with framing.

Here is an egret flying away from the nesting area in search of a stick. One stick. Just one stick at a time, please. And, not too large.

Heading Out for a Day of Stick Gathering

Time and again a stick is fetched and brought back to build a nest…or should I say, a bird home.

Below you see several exchanges of a nest-building material. Is it just me, or does there seem to be a strong sense of cooperation and anticipation as the stick is transferred?

As afternoon begins to turn to evening, the flyway begins to be a bit congested.

And, that stick retrieval flyway can get quite congested! I call this photo, “YIKES!!!”.

Earlier I suggested that there is a nature of true love between these mates. These two interlocking beaks are enough evidence for me.

And this gesture?! I rest my case.

Here I’ve placed three of my photos into a triptych…or what I call a ‘lovetych’.

Black and white images seem best to capture the plumage of these males that still need a nestmate.

Success will lead to as many as six bluish green eggs, which both sexes will incubate.

What’s so important that this guy didn’t even put his stick down? Oh…I see now.

Other Birds of the Rookery

Just a few of the other bird species at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.

Alligators

I did mention that we were at an alligator farm, didn’t I? Here are a few of those denizens.

It is very fortunate that these alligators get along, otherwise there would be no rest for these weary reptiles.

That grouping in the upper right…stacked up like cord wood.

I crept up on this big fella to see if he was asleep. Do they sleep with their eyes open? I sure hope so.

At the Beach

During our workshop, we photographed at beaches in Sarasota (sunsets) and St Augustine (sunrises). Here is a smattering of those photos. Padma Inguva was our guide during these excursions.

That wraps up my travelogue for flowers and butterflies from last time, and today’s display of koi, birds and gators. Thank you loyal followers for hanging in there on this Luvblooms workshop journey across Florida. Next time, I promise to be back to Italy, Our Italy. Until then I say…

Ciao for now,

Steve

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Index of Articles

Yes, that’s right…something different. Different from Italy. More like Florida. Or I should say, exactly like Florida.

I had the pleasure of joining a group photo workshop in Florida in March of this year. This was the rescheduling of a trip that was cancelled during the Spring of 2020 because…you can guess why, I’m sure.

This trip was led by Jackie Kramer of Luvblooms.com…click on that link to see why I wanted to attend her workshop…she creates beautiful floral photography and I wanted to learn from the best. She was assisted by friends Linda Torbert and Padma Inguva. Though the first part of our workshop focused on floral photography, we later moved on to butterflies, birds, long-exposure beach sunrises and sunsets, and interior photography of churches and other beautiful buildings. Our trek went from Naples to Sarasota to Gainesville and finally St Augustine.

Along the way, I was amazed at Jackie’s energy. But it was her desire to teach us the art of floral photography that most impressed me. We learned how to approach the flower to find just the right background, how to isolate a flower that would otherwise be lost in clutter, how to do ‘shoot throughs’ to get a softer foreground, and so much more.

Jackie’s mission is to support other photographers, and using photography as a medium, to build relationships and enrich others' lives. I was enriched, and I know from her following that thousands of others are, too. And, my life was changed in a way that is too personal to share with you here…in person will have to do…just ask when you see me next.

Today, I will share with you flower photography, and a smattering of butterflies that like to frequent flowers.

Transformations, but with a different subject

Many of you have told me that your favorite articles here at Italy, Our Italy are the ones where I transform a rather blah snapshot taken in Italy into a fine-art photograph. And, I’ve mentioned in numerous articles that doing this puts me in my happy place. Actually two happy places…one in Italy, and then one in my digital darkroom as I perform my transformations. So today, I share photographs of flowers that I have transformed from ‘just snapshots’ into what I hope you will agree are fine-art photographs.

Just below I give you three examples of the transformation of a typical snapshot of a flower…though not in the detail that I cover in my Italy transformations (to see a complete list of transformations of photos from Italy, click here and scroll way down in the right-hand column to “Italy-Photo Transformations”). Today, you get just a before-and-after view.

Transformation Demo

You will see that the basic transformation involves the creation of what I would call a less weighty, or more ethereal look. The addition of texture is used to downplay a distracting background. Where Jackie has a whole line of Lensbaby optics that she uses to create her magic (which she demonstrates here) all my photos were taken with just a macro lens.

[Please click on the first image of each example to see a full-screen view]

This first transformation is a rather simple one involving a [insert the name of the flower here, as I am embarassed to say that I have no idea what it is].

Here I rely on luminance and texture to soften the background, which gives a more pleasing ethereal look, which is exactly what I was looking for. The original photo has inherited a lightness that I just love in floral photography.

This next transformation relies heavily on texture, for both the background and the subject, which is called a [you guessed it, I have no idea!].

Here I’m going for moody, rather than lightness.

Finally, a bit more complicated transformation, This transformation involves a water lily…yes, it’s called a water lily! Though I know not which variety.

I decided to go beyond just cropping the photo, and I went maybe a bit overboard in my creative transformation. But again, I am no longer satisfied with just a flower snapshot.

Thus ends my transformation demo. The remaining photos just show you the transformation’s resulting image.

The Flower Gallery

[As always, you can click on an image for a larger view]

None of the photos were done in studio…all were as they were found in the Naples Botanical Gardens, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota Jungle Gardens, Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

Thorns!

And there were a few cacti in the Naples Botanical Garden.

Flutterbys

And now, the flutterbys. You will see that some have their probiscus inserted into a flower…or it might be rolled up like a hose. And those eyes!

If you were expecting information on Italy, my apologies…but I’m happy that you made it this far in today’s diversion. Thank you for hanging in there!

Next time you will see birds, with a smattering of other photos taken during our fabulous workshop. And until then, I say…