Kiwanis Park, Palm Bay, FL
I’m still cold! If it was only snow, then I would be OK, but this cold is really getting to me. I have to ride this out over the weekend and by Monday we will have rain. WTH? For now, here is another warm, Florida image to enjoy…
Sunrise Dock
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 2.5s, 12mm, f/11, ISO 200
Cocoa Beach, FL
OK, I’m tired of hearing about the polar vortex and I had to shovel the driveway this morning with a wind chill of -24F. I was only outside for twenty minutes but that was enough for me to want to remember a warmer time. I pulled up my pictures from the trip to Florida over Christmas and found this one that has a nice warm feel to it. I love the reflection of the sunrise in the windows of the restaurant on the pier…
Reflections on Cocoa
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.8s, 24mm, f/11, ISO 200
Melbourne, FL
Morning is Coming
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.8s, 18mm, f/16, ISO 64
Hinckley Reservoir
The forecast was for a nice day on Saturday. The view out my window before sunrise was telling a different story. Or maybe the prelude to the day wanted to be different. There were some clouds in the sky but I could see stars too. I took the chance there would be something to photograph at sunrise and headed up to Hinckley Reservoir. As I waited in the car for the color to arrive I watched the race between the clouds and rising sun. The clouds were going to win. I grabbed a few images even though there was still 20 minutes until the actual sunrise. The battle was almost lost…
BTW – turned out to be a great day. The clouds kept on moving.
Horizon Battle
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 5s, 40mm, f/11, ISO 200
Cocoa Beach Pier
I suppose I should make my apologies now. I’m still processing images from my trip to Florida. It is a combination of numerous opportunities for good images and the winter hasn’t settled in here in Upstate NY. I find it hard to go out and photograph when there isn’t a nice layer of white snow covering the brown of late autumn. So for now, you will get a few more Florida images… 🙂
This image is back up at Cocoa Beach. I hung around until the sun broke the horizon. There was a nice layer of clouds low in the sky that I felt would provide some interest as well as catch more of the morning colors. It never hurts to have the pier in silhouette against the sun, nor some nice waves running toward the shore. I almost switched to my telephoto lens but this 40mm top end on my workhorse lens provided the right amount of zoom. Any closer and I think I would have been crowding the frame.
Peek-A-Boo Sun
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/80s, 40mm, f/16, ISO 200
Cocoa Beach, FL
It was almost two years to the day when I captured the original image I titled Overwatch at Cocoa Beach, Florida. The conditions two years ago where a little more drastic than I experienced this past December. It was also my first visit to Cocoa Beach and I might have been rushing my compositions.
This year I knew what I wanted to capture and I arrived early enough before sunrise to allow me to take my time. I was more composed and was not running around the beach trying to capture every bright spot my eye could find. My only concern this year was getting the right light.
My expectations were high as I missed an opportunity the day before after dropping my son off at the Orlando airport. The sky was brilliant as I drove East trying to make it to Cocoa Beach before the sun climbed too high above the horizon. I didn’t make it that day but it did steel my resolve to get up early the following morning and talk Mother Nature into putting on another good light show. She must like me… 🙂
Overwatch II
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 10s, 17mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
Geiger Point, Melbourne, FL
I ended my vacation where I started it, at Geiger Point next to the 192 causeway in Melbourne, FL. It was a great holiday vacation! The weather was fantastic. The Airbnb rental was amazing. I had a relaxing time with family and still managed to get out and photograph the sunrise and sunsets every day. It doesn’t get any better than that…
This image is a three exposure, HDR creation. I probably could have processed the +1EV image but I didn’t want to have to push the highlights and shadows too far to achieve the look I envisioned. I wanted to include the detail of the rocks in the foreground and with them being severely backlit, it was a good excuse to blend a few exposures. I have been using Aurora HDR by Skylum and it has allowed me to effortlessly blend any number of exposures into a great image. Typically, I only need to due a few post-processing tweaks after I create the HDR version of my image.
192 Causeway
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {6, 13 & 25s bracket}, 12mm, f/11, ISO 200
