Thunderstorm in the Atlantic Ocean

On Tuesday night before the scheduled shuttle launch a thunderstorm developed just offshore from Daytona Beach and moved toward the Kennedy Space Center. This delayed the loading of fuel until this storm had passed. The launch was later scrubbed because of a fuel leak. Look closely to the left of the bolt of lightning on the horizon and the white speck is the light from a shrimp boat.

This image was captured using a Sony Handycam Digital Video Recorder. I used Adobe Premiere Elements' Freeze Frame feature to turn it into a still shot.

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

If you read the Tricolored Heron post first I know you are wondering, "Where are the pictures of the alligators?" Well here they are and this is only a sample of the many alligators located here. In the top image the alligators know where the feeding stations are and will gather there to beg for food. Tourist, myself included, can get a handfull of pellets for a 25 cents and throw it to them. The smallest gator in this group was about 5 feet long. Below that is a juvenile gator with his mough open. It is hard to find an alligator with their mouth open, even when you throw them food because they do it so fast. This is a young gator waking up from a nap. The bottom image contains two "bull" gators discussing who is boss. The small waves around the larger gator is from his growl which sounds like a "hot rod" starting up. The smaller of the two alligators is about 12 feet. You would not want to come across either of these two alligators while walking through a swamp.

Tricolored Heron

The Tricolored Heron is one of the most abundant herons found in the South. It is the only dark colored heron with a white belly. This image was captured at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. Becky and I stopped there on our way back from Daytona Beach. While this place has the most alligators per square foot of any place I know, it also has an outstanding rookery where you can reach out and touch the birds if you wanted to therefore saving to cost of a very expensive telephoto lens. I recommend buying the annual photo pass which allows you in one hour before the general public. The place fills up with yankees and young'uns reel quick after 9:00 am.

Taken with a Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm IS telephoto lens @300mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 100.

Sunrise on our last day in Daytona Beach

On our last morning in Daytona Beach we got up to another beautiful sunrise. Becky and I grabbed our cameras and of course they had been in the room all night long and were cold so when we got outside in the high humidity and warm air out lenses all fogged over. By the time our lenses had thawed out the sun was about to go behind a cloud bank and we began walking back to the hotel for breakfast. I turned and saw the above image and I was able to capture it before the cyclist got out of the frame. Kinda summed up our morning, "On the Road Again".

Taken with a Canon 50D, using a Canon 28-80mm lens @ 40mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 100

I might have missed seeing the launch of a space shuttle but I got to see it on the pad. Because it was on standby for the previous shuttle mission to the Hubble telescope it was on the launch pad that is farther away than the normal pad they use. It was a hot and hazy afternoon so the image is not as sharpe as I wanted. It is almost four miles away. Taken with a Canon 50D, with a Canon 400mm L lens f/4.0, with a Canon 2X extender. Effective focal length was a little over 1200 mm when to take into effect of the 1.6 crop factor of the APS-C sensor of the Canon 50D. f/11 @ 1/180 sec. ISO 100 and on a tripod with remote release.

Black Skimmers on the Beach

d The pair of nesting Black Skimmers are resting comfortability in front of the band shell on Daytona Beach's Boardwalk. The local's tried unsucessfully to get them to nest in a more remote part of the beach but instead they choose the most popular location on the beach. Guess they like the night live here. The photo at the top was taken from the Daytona Beach Pier and gives you some perspective of the Black Skimmer's location. These photos were taken at 9:00 am, just imagine how many people will be here by noon. Taken with a Canon 50D, using a Canon 80-28 mm lens. The lower photo was taken at 80 mm, f/13, 1/500 sec. 100 iso. The lower photo was taken at 28 mm, f/13, 1/250 sec, 100 iso

Early Morning Launch

Well the shuttle launch was scrubbed so we settled for this beautiful sunrise.

Shrimper @ Night and Sunrise at Daytona Beach

The image at top is the sun rising at Daytona Beach, FL. If you look closely you can see a couple of shrimpers on the horizon. The lower image is a shrimper fishing at night. This image was taken from our room using a 200mm telephoto lens.

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Above are two images of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse located just south of Daytona Beach, FL So far we have been there twice. The first time I took these two images before the "No-Seeums" ran us off. Were were there again tonight, but the lightning ran us off.

We put up corn this week and as old fashion as that sounds we did it will listening to a seminar on the laptop computer. Pictured above is Becky creaming corn with the laptop in the rocking chair. I did the shucking and removing of the silk and Becky was in charge of scraping the corn off of the cob. When it was all over we had put up 13 packages of corn. I kept a few ears out so I could have some on the cob. Taken with a Canon 40D, using a Canon 28-135 lens @ 44mm, f4.0, 1/60th sec.