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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY SPRING 2008
During my stay this year in Florida, there
was a lunar eclipse and I decided to devote the evening to it. I have seen them
before, but never gave one the unbridled attention I did to this one. I was
staying at the Koreshan campground near Fort Meyers and the night sky was
cloudless. I sat on my picnic table enjoying a glass of wine in the warm evening
as the full moon rose over my camper. I set up my 500mm telephoto lens to watch
the moon opting to use a 1.4X and 2X teleconverter when I needed and trying to
be as quiet as a mouse. There is a rule in the campgrounds where they observe a
quiet time, between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM which I am in favor of. It keeps loud
neighbors quiet either with their kids or themselves. However, I soon found the
whole campground was aware of the eclipse as everyone was quietly watching it
and making comments as it progressed. I soon invited some of them over to look
through my camera and we ended having a "quiet" party if you can imagine such a
thing. The moon was spectacular as the earth's shadow moved over it. It started about 10:00 and by midnight was completely covered. Then it slowly cleared and by 2:00 AM it was back to normal. During totality, the moon had a reddish-brown glow that really looked strange in the night sky. I could photograph the moon before this totality as the moon itself gives a lot of light. But once it was completely covered by the earth, it was several stops darker and the long exposure required was too much. The camera would have to be held open for several seconds and by that time the moon moves and as a result would only appear as a blur, not clear in the photo. Still, it was something to behold and we all enjoyed it very much.
A couple of years ago I managed to stay in
Florida until mid-April and found it to be more photographic. The beautiful bald
cypress trees in the swamps had grown their needles back and the live oaks had
grown new leaves. Overhead could be
seen occasionally, the magnificent swallow-tailed kites back from South America.
It was definitely a better time to be there.
This year however, I did see a phenomenon I hadn't seen before at this time of year. Florida has been getting a lot of rainfall, far more than usual and so there was a flurry of new green plants growing and blooming like I haven't seen before. The most spectacular was the growing of the resurrection ferns. These plants grow on all the tree limbs just like the Spanish moss but are usually brown and dried up. But with the addition of rainfall, these dormant plants quickly regain their lives and are really prolific throughout the woods. They cluster all over the trees going up trunks, across all branches and up into the skylight. On all my hikes I couldn't help but notice them and worked hard at trying to capture them in photographs. The ferns growing up the trees like ivy and with the Spanish moss dangling over the live oaks, was really a spectacle to behold. I found this to be happening all over Florida but especially at the wonderful Myakka River State Park near Sarasota.
I did see some swallow-tailed kites fly by, apparently they were returning sooner than expected. Mockingbirds were starting to nest around the campgrounds and were getting very territorial as well as emitting some sounds I have never heard, apparently uttered when one is near their nest. Return to PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNAL main page. Date this page was edited: April 9, 2008. |
With
my busy winter, I have been away from my journal for awhile but will try to
bring things up to date. 
Although I love going to Florida each winter
to do art shows and photography, it really isn't the best time of year for some
of the photography I want to do. There is always the ocean or palm trees to
shoot with a sunrise or sunset, but the trees in the woods, like Michigan, are
bare and leafless. Most of the ponds and waterways are at the yearly low
awaiting the spring rains and so don't have as much appeal as other times of the
year. So, the general view is monochromatic and desolate. 
The
winding roads take you right through the best views of these Spring happenings
whether driving or hiking. I normally don't like to include roads in my
photography or any "hand of man" in my nature photography, but here was the park
at its best and I thought it should be included. This is Florida at its finest. These
temporary green fronds are most welcome in the drab winter.