Night On The Lake

I have driven by this small lake for years but never took the time to stop and photograph it.

I was driving home one evening and wasn’t in any hurry so I decided to stop and set up my camera and tripod to see what I could capture. It was a cool September evening but it was clear with calm water conditions which I figured could produce some nice reflections.

The first photo was taken shortly after sunset and was a 30 second exposure that produce a beautiful blue tone to it.

The second photo was taken about 25 minutes later or so when it was much darker. The exposure lasted almost 5 minutes which allowed me to pick up the movement of an early star in the sky and the lights of passing traffic on the road to the right.

Full Moon Reflection

I have been craving trying a good honest effort to photograph a full moon with the  moonlight reflecting off the water but could never get it right.

The problem has always been exposure. The moon is always too bright to allow for the proper exposure of the light reflecting off the water. The only way to get around this problem was to combine two separate photos into one.

I photographed the moon at one exposure setting and then took a separate photograph of the moonlight on the water. I combined the two photos to create this final product.

The second photo was taken two days earlier when the moon wasn’t quite as full and with it further in the sky but the process was the same.

Dangerous Reflection

During my annual winter trip to Florida to visit family I planned to get out and take some nature photos.

I jumped in the car one morning and struck out for Myakka River State Park which I have been to in the past and have had some success.

At my first stop I was worried since I had always seen alligators at that location but there were none to be found at that time. I moved on and stopped at the damn where during my last visit a year earlier all I found was water, birds and a cool breeze. This time I was very lucky to find eight gators either on the shore sunning themselves or lurking in the water. I took over one-hundred photos at this location alone.

As I was heading out of the park I decided to try the first location one more time. This turned out to be a good idea as I came across two more alligators relaxing at the water’s edge. In this photo below you see the younger of the two predators casting an ominous reflection in the calm waters.

Marsh Storm

This photo is the same as an earlier photo I posted. The only difference is I did some more creative post-processing on the photo.

I think this gives the photo a more vibrant and eye-appealing look…or at least I like it better.

In The Beginning

This is one of the first photos I was truly happy with after purchasing my new Nikon D80. This is the first dSLR camera I have owned.

The photo was taken at Presqu’ile Provincial Park near Brighton, Ontario. This is one of my favourite locations to shoot nature photos. It was taken in May of 2007.