The Blue Heron is a beautiful fisher bird that migrates to Florida and other southern states during the winter. There is something about this particular one that made me think that this bird knew exactly how pretty it was. The bird kept turning as we walked along a boardwalk almost as if posing for a photograph.
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This title is really a stretch. Florida doesn’t really have waterfalls. The highest elevation in the state id 345 feet so the terrain doesn’t lend itself to what a Pennsylvanian would call a waterfall. There are cascades and rapids however in some of the rivers and streams. Florida also has wonderful and well run State Parks with great facilities that are well maintained. This picture was taken at Hillsborough River State Park north of Tampa.
I didn’t have a tripod but was able to rest the camera on a railing and take this picture at a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second at f22 with an ISO of 100. Normally I would use a tripod for this kind of shot but have been impressed with Nikon’s VR {vibration reduction} lenses and risked the shot. It turned out so well I am sorry I did not experiment with even slower shutter speeds.
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If you follow this blog you have come to realize that I love Pelicans. I photograph them whenever I can and even offer Pelican apparel on my commercial site. Yet as many as I have photographed, I have still not captured the “money shot”. The shot that I visualize is a Pelican rising out of the water with a fish in his mouth. I guess I have to keep taking pictures of them. This one was captured in flight off Merritt Island in Florida.
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If you have followed this blog at all you probably know that I love pelicans. For every pelican picture I publish there are fifty I don’t. Their method of fishing makes them balletic when hitting the water. It is different each time. They are also large birds and beautiful in flight. This is a Mexican brown pelican in flight over the beach in Cancun.
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In Flight
I photographed this pelican on Isla Mujeres on the dock near the turtle farm. All he wanted to do was sit on the post at the end of the pier. However, the kids would run out to the edge of the pier which made him nervous and he would jump into the little harbor and wait until they left. He would then skip along the water and fly back up to his post. I saw him do this a few times before I finally got a picture of him skipping on the water.
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I think most people as children want to be able to fly. We dream about it and some actually jump out of airplanes and off cliffs with the appropriate equipment just to be able to simulate the experience of flight. As a photographer capturing birds in flight has been a goal for decades and I have captured a few. However many times the sky is boring behind the bird so this time I just replaced the sky with one I like better.
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In Flight
The first time someone ever asked me “have you been to Ding Darling” I thought they were staring to tell me a dirty joke and just said “pardon me?” I later found out they were talking about the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Captiva island in Florida. Turns out it is actually name for a guy called Ding Darling, but that is a whole other story.
It truly is a wonderful spot and even can be appreciated on a gray day like the one we were there. But the rain held off and the birds didn’t really care that is wasn’t sunny. To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.
Pelicans at Ding Darling
I think I could spend weeks just observing pelicans fish. Pelicans are large birds an easy to identify and beautiful in flight.
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Brown Pelican Fishing
You have seen them fly and seen them fish but did you know they can walk on water? The amazing Florida Brown Pelican coming in for a landing.
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Dancing Pelican
I was telling my wife that over the years of visiting Florida, I had never seen a White Pelican. My mother who had lived in West Palm Beach had thought they were going extinct. Turns out they are migratory and real snowbirds!
We visited the Ding Darling nature preserve on Captiva Island and saw hundreds of these large birds. They are much larger than brown pelicans or even bald eagles for that matter with a nine foot wing span. I was fortunate to capture one in flight.
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White Pelican
Imagery Photography 