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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE
PHOTOGRAPHY WINTER 2010
Part of the problem is me. I have photographed the common birds so much that it would take a real special situation for me to become interested and stop to take photos. Most of the time I drive through the Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel Island I don't stop although there are many photographers actively taking photos. I just view what they are seeing and think to myself "I've got much better photos at home then this would be" or "there is too much contrast in the light, etc.", and move on.
One area I haven't been to in a couple of years is Shark Valley. This is on Highway 41 in the Everglades National Park and I was curious to see how it was doing. From Collier-Seminole State Park where I camped for a week, it is about an hour's drive due East on the Highway. Pick a day to go when it will be sunny and you want to arrive just as the sun rises to use the best light of the day but the park doesn't open until later. As we used to do, I pulled off the Highway and parked on the shoulder just past the "No Parking" signs that surround the entrance to Shark Valley. You can enter the park on foot before they open but cannot park in the entrance drive or on US-41 near the entrance. So parking further back and getting your camera gear and tripod out you can walk in just as the sun is rising. On the way into the entrance are canals that have all the water birds you want and most will sit still while you photograph them. As you walk along there are all the birds just like they used to be, this area may be the best in Florida now. Great blue herons, little blue herons, tri-colored herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, black-crowned night- herons, green herons and purple gallinules (the best in Florida for those two species), white ibis, wood storks and more are extremely close and very photographable. You can walk into the park past the concession and have all the action you can ever dream of.
The park is very popular and fills up quickly in the morning. Before I had started my bike ride they had already put up their "Park is Full" signs and were turning people away. I am not sure why they call it Shark Valley because you are in a fresh water watershed flowing to the ocean and there are no sharks around. The park is located on the northern part of the National Park and much can be seen on the many other park sites south of there as well.
Most of the birds are watching you as you approach with your camera and tripod. When you stop they resume their hunting for fish and can be photographed. Along the way are large alligators crawling out to warm up in the rising sun. I have heard the alligators bellow here and the conditions are good for them, the waters teem with fish of all sizes. It is good to know there are some places in Florida you can always count on. Date this page was edited: April 9, 2010. |
Every
year I go to Florida and hear other photographers claiming that it is not like
it used to be. The wildlife just isn't around anymore, there is too much
building and construction, and access to the wild regions has been reduced. I
have seen a lot of changes in the state in the twenty odd years I have been
coming here. I feel the opposite. One has to look a little harder or range a
little farther but there is as much to see as ever. 
But
part of the problem is some of the areas have gotten bad. Ding Darling has grown
up in vegetation where one could shoot more easily before. The water changes
with time and hurricanes and what may have been a tidal flat is now dried up or
in deep water. Many special areas we used to shoot at are not any good anymore
due to these condition changes.
I
wanted to check Shark Valley but the real reason was I wanted to revisit it is
to take a bike
ride down the tram trail they have into the Everglades. This is a paved trail
that they run an interpretive tram ride on and it goes seven miles out to a
tower that overlooks the Everglades. A different trail may be taken back that
winds around more and goes for eight miles to get you back to the headquarters.
There is nothing else out there, that is, these trails to the tower is the most
wilderness experience you can have in the Everglades without taking a canoe or
air boat ride. The photography was so good for me that I didn't start my bike
ride until two hours or so after the sun came up and so it was a lot warmer than
I had planned for. But you must take a lot of water and plan for a 15 mile round
trip so your bike should be in good shape. The photography isn't any better
further along the trail, just about the same as it is at the entrance. So, you
don't need to take any gear just enjoy the leisurely bike ride like I did. At the
end the tower puts you in the middle of the wilderness of the Everglades and is
a wonderful view.
I
don't know of a better place in Florida at this time. As you shoot the birds in
the early light, there is activity going on all around. Birds begin to flock up
and fly off to close feeding areas and by this time the light is high enough to
shoot flying birds against the blue sky with plenty of light to stop action.
Here are soaring wood storks and white ibis, red-shouldered hawks calling and
searching for prey and the herons and egrets moving to other fishing places. A
few years ago I spotted the rare snail kite flying by here.