Salt Marsh Grave Yard

On this day Rick Cruz joined us as we began the day out in the grass photographing.

As Clyde and Rick photographed I meandered around taking pictures of flowers. Once again I am amazed at the beauty of these wonderful creations. It reminds me of a quote I love: "People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." - Iris Murdoch







When Clyde was finished photographing the grass scene he was working on, Rick said he wanted to take us to a really wonderful place that he thought Clyde would enjoy. Rick guided us to a fascinating place...a dream world for black and white large format photographers! A place that no one would believe could exist in Everglades National Park...It is a salt marsh filled with the white skeletons of very old trees. A place of driftwood, bromeliads, orchids and cactus! Amazing!

Getting there was a little tricky though...


Walking through mangroves is difficult. The trick is to stay as close to the main trunk as possible or else you'll find yourself thigh deep in the muck!

But once we finally made it through the mangroves we came out onto a beautiful bright spring green salt marsh.

The field was filled with the bones of sun bleached dead trees. Clyde was in heaven! Everywhere he turned he saw photographs! It took him a while to settle down and choose one scene to photograph.




As Rick helped Clyde set up his camera and lens he came across Clyde's secret stash of M&M's!

These sea shells had either been worn down, or eaten by a critter and became these beautiful designs. It made me wonder if past people's of this land used these kinds of shells for jewelery.





The grass is filled with so much color! It is every shade of green from a pale sea foam green to a deep rich green, and in between are the colors of burgundy, red and orange. A magnificent sight of colors to the eye. The colors are hard to see in this image, so I took a close up to share with you...


But, of course, Clyde is photographing in black and white and so his eye is looking for shadow, shape and texture.










The logs laying all over were filled with texture, shape and form...Clyde was in heaven!














As Clyde and Rick photographed I meandered around taking pictures too. When I came across this image of cactus, a bromeliad and salt grass I just had to take the image...who would believe those three things could live together?!










And then, from a far distance I heard Rick shout, "Wha-wee!!!" I knew he and Clyde had discovered something major. As I rounded the bend I saw them standing in front of the most luscious Cow Horn (Cigar) orchid I have ever seen! Rick is known for images of native plants and orchids, so when we saw how impressed he was we KNEW this was an extraordinary bloom. If you would like to see a selection of Ricks photography you can check out his website at: www.rickcruzphotography.com




We all took turns taking pictures and then, after one last look at this marvelous creation shining bright and beautiful in the wilderness we began our hike back to the van.




It had been a great day. We enjoyed Ricks companionship and excitement over the environment of South Florida. Once again it was a joy to be around a person who loves the Everglades as much as we do.

Movie Dome

Another beautiful early morning with the mist gently rising off the grass.

We headed out to Movie Dome. This is a Cypress Dome that the Park takes groups of folks into in order to explain the ecosystem of a dome. Eric had told us that the bromeliads were abundant in the dome, so Clyde decided to photograph it.

We were stunned by the lush quantity of bromeliads. It was wonderful to see so many healthy plants in one place. Florida is being attacked by a beetle from Mexico that is eating our bromeliads. It is very sad because so far, there is nothing that can be done. The oaks and cypress trees are being denuded of bromeliads...what would Florida be without its bromeliads?! So, seeing that Everglades National Park hasn't been attacked is a very, very good sight!

In the center of the dome is a small pond with cypress trees surrounding it dripping with moss. Clyde set up his camera in the muck and began taking pictures. Because of the instability of muck, he took several shots of the same scene in the hopes that one of them will be sharp.

As the sun began lighting up the interior of the dome we had to leave. Direct sunlight on scenes that are 'inside' have a tendency to be 'blotchy'...to much contrast between the sunny areas and the shadow areas. The film can't see the extreme light levels so the image will turn out either to light or to dark. Only even light works for Clyde when shooting 'inside', so once the sun comes up we are headed out into the open for photography.

My first time on Anhinga Trail

I was looking forward to seeing Anhinga Trail. Since I live in the Everglades/Big Cypress ecosystem, it may sound strange to say that I have never been on the most popular trail in the Everglades National Park! Clyde doesn't photograph birds, so we never made it to this particular spot. However, for this project he wanted to see if he could get a couple of bird shots with a large format camera. Not any easy endeavor!

He didn't take his camera for this walk. He just wanted to see if it was at all possible for him to get a picture. The problem with shooting animals is that they move! Just when you think they are going to settle down they make a sudden movement. It takes a lot of film/exposures to get a good picture of an animal or bird, and large format film is very expensive!

While he meandered down the trail, I went crazy over the birds. WOW! This is a birders paradise and a bird photographers paradise! The birds are accustomed to people, so they don't spook and fly away. All I have is a 300mm lens, but it worked ok...but then I'm not a "real" bird photographer. They use those very large lenses...sometimes I didn't know which was more fun to photograph, the birds or the photographers!

This Anhinga had a 'hair-do' that reminded me of a punk-rocker!

It seemed that at every turn there was a bird sitting waiting to be photographed! Between all of the photographers snapping away, I felt like one of those paparazzi photographers, only the stars were birds!


The brilliant red color of the Cardinal was beautiful against the green background. I only got one shot off..and a blurry one at that...before he flew away.

One of my most favorite birds are vultures. They are so much fun to watch and, I swear, they have facial expressions! They are very social birds and take care of each other.

At the gallery we once had a vulture that was hit by a car. It wasn't hurt, but it was stunned. It sat there next to the front pond for the longest time and Rene was afraid a gator would get it, so she sat down to keep it company. I will never forget the look on that birds face when she sat down! It was as though it said, "Oh my gosh, how embarrassing...a human has come to sit with me!" Rene stayed with the bird until The Conservancy of Southwest Florida came out and picked it up so they could repair its wing. However, as it turned out, the bird wasn't injured, just stunned, so they released it.

Often, when one of the vulture clan is injured other vultures will stand watch for days before they leave the bird to its demise. It's wonderful to watch the pecking order of the group. It seems each bird has its own personality. Funny, strange birds to watch.

I believe these vultures are Black Vultures. Florida also has a vulture called a Turkey Vulture, its head is red like a Turkey. The Turkey Vulture is the only bird in North America with a sense of smell. (Black Vultures are also in South America) Vultures rely on keen eyesight and smell to locate food. The Black Vulture takes advantage of the Turkey Vultures powerful nose and follow them to the carcasses and then exclude them from the meal! Of course, watching vultures argue over a meal is always fun...such a social group!

The beautiful black and white wings of the Anhinga are patterns that photographers love to photograph. I am not a "birder", but I do enjoy birds. I can't tell you a lot about the Anhinga, but perhaps someone who reads the blog can fill in the blanks. However, for those of you who don't know what an Anhinga is I can tell you this much: The bird is very similar to a Cormorant. It doesn't have oil on its wings because it dives for fish, just as Cormorants do. One of the common names for the Anhinga is Turkey Bird because when it is swimming it often spreads its tail feathers like a turkey. A fun place to watch them swim is at Shark Valley. When you walk up to the look out tower you can look down into the pond below and watch them dart back and forth under the water. Anyway, because they don't have oil on their feathers they must take the time to dry them before they dive. Photographers lust over images of them sitting in a tree spreading those beautiful wings.

The Purple Gallinule is a rainbow of colors. They are very quick moving birds and rarely do they hold their heads still so capturing them in a photograph is tricky. It's hard to see in this tiny picture all the of the colors in feathers, not to mention the bright red beak...mmm I'll have to try for a better image next time on I'm on Anhinga Trail!

Clyde finally found the photo he wanted to take. We came back early the next morning and he set up to photograph a male Anhinga with his mate on her nest. The nest practically on top of the rail of the boardwalk. A great opportunity for any photographer, and especially for a large format photographer!

The pair were so sweet to watch...it was like a first love. She was all curled up in the nest and never moved until he brought her a new twig to decorate their home. She'd wake up, they'd discuss it, and then she'd take the twig and twist and turn until she made it fit into their home (nest). Then he'd get all puffed up, preen his feathers and be so very proud.
















By the time the day was over Clyde was almost out of film, which meant it was time to unload the film from the film holders and load them back up. To accomplish that he sets up a small special tent that has light-tight arm holes in it so that he can do the work in complete darkness.

We spend our evenings unloading and loading film while listening to the Commentary CD's from Brook Jensen, the publisher of Lenswork magazine. Brook Jensen always provides us with opinions and concepts that either we agree with, or very much disagree with. His CD's (and commentaries in his magazine) give Clyde and I much to discuss and debate every evening. He is the only well known person in the field of photography that I know of who is not afraid to give his very unique OPINION. It is very refreshing and thought provoking.

Mahogany Tree

We decided to beat the wind and woke up before the sun came up to 'high-tale' it out to the Mahogany Hammock Boardwalk. Normally, dawn is a very quiet time until the sun cracks the horizon, then the change in temperature creates wind.

Clyde needed complete stillness in order to photograph the tree. The hammock is dark to begin with and so even in day light it requires a long exposure, but during the day there is wind, so he can't photograph because the movement causes things to be out of focus. Getting up early means an even longer exposure, but at least everything would be still and in focus.

We also figured we'd beat any visitor to the boardwalk...this is a vacation location...surely no one would be walking on the boardwalk before dawn! Oh...the reason we needed to have no one walking on the boardwalk is because it causes the boardwalk to move, which moves the camera, and everything is out of focus...ahhhh, the pleasure of photographing with a large format camera!

The morning was clean smelling and pure...don't know how else to describe the early dawn in the wilderness...just very peaceful. We managed to get the camera set up and just as Clyde was about to take his first picture he felt the boardwalk moving. "Some one is coming," he said. I couldn't believe it! Who would be out here at this time of the morning?


And then, rounding the bend came David Anderson with Sara. David is the executive director of Florida Audubon, and that answered my question. Only a birder would wake up as early as the birds! And, only a birder would be out and about looking for birds at that early morning hour!

We talked for awhile about all kinds of environmental subjects and then David and Sara took off in search of more birds. As soon as the movement of the boardwalk stopped, Clyde continued photographing the tree.

Snakes and Orchids

Today we took a spiritual journey with Eric and Katy Raits. They guided us into their favorite Cypress dome to share their place of peace with us.

Several of the images in this blog were taken by Eric and Katy.










The hike into the dome was absolutely glorious. We were surrounded by bromeliads in bloom.






The bright red, purple and yellow of the bloom contrasted brilliantly with the winter surroundings. It is hard to see the all the colors in this photo, so I have given you a close-up.















Katy noticed a strange plant growing out of the side of a Cypress tree and wondered what it was. I had never seen anything like it, so I asked Clyde. He said it was a fern..in fact, it is one of the most ancient species of fern in the world. If anyone out there reads this and knows their plants I'd like a confirmation on that. Anyway, both Katy and I thought it was neat so we took turns photographing it. (After I published this blog I received information regarding the fern: It is, indeed, an ancient Fern, however there is a controversy as to whether it is a fern or not. Some authorities say it is, and others say its not, but they all agree that it is "fern-like".)


As we made our way deeper into the dome, Eric and Katy had a real surprise for us...a large Cow Horn (also called Cigar) Orchid in bloom! What a special treat it was to see such a beautiful specimen!











Naturally, Clyde got out his camera right away and began taking pictures. It was a bit difficult because the slightest breeze would cause bouquet of small flowers to move. He took many pieces of film in the hopes that at least one would be still.





It is hard to see the beauty of this orchid in these photos, so I took a close-up of a single small orchid in the bloom so that you can see the wonderful colors spread all over the orchid.












As we began exploring the dome we came across the remains of a blue crab...what a wonderful color those tiny legs were!









Clyde discovered a wonderful composition of bromeliads and took a few photographs, then decided the composition had so much detail that he wanted to capture it with the 11x14 camera and would return later to do that photograph.





We left the dome to head out in search of the "Z" tree. It is the most photographed tree in the park and we wanted to see exactly what that was all about! As we were walking through the tall grass Katy looked down just in time to see a beautiful snake ready to take a bite out of her! We think it was a water moccasin...don't really know, but we do know it IS poisonous!...and of course, we all took numerous photographs of the snake...















As we continued through the tall grass, we noticed that the ground was covered with snail shells. Between the crab legs and the escargot, some animal or bird has been having feast!











We jumped into our van and followed Eric down the road until we came to the famous Z tree. Clyde set up his camera and took a shot.








We said good-bye to Eric and Katy and thanked them for a wonderful day...it was a great time with two people who care deeply about the Everglades.













If you'd like to see the photography of Eric and Katy their website is: www.gladesphotos.com

Time to Photograph!!!

Once again we ventured down the boardwalk at Mahogany Hammock in hopes of taking a picture of the GREAT tree. However, the wind was still too much...

With disappointment, we returned to the parking lot and was thrilled to see the Southern Cross Astrological Society setting up their equipment in the parking lot! ...and I thought Clyde had big cameras! Clyde enjoyed talking with Tim Khan and going through some of the photos he had taken. They were marvelous! Those images made me feel very humble...we humans are such a small part of the universe ...


As we were admiring the equipment, Eric and Katy Raits walked out of the woods! Eric had purchased a new 4x5 camera. Now HERE was a camera Clyde understood! He and Eric had such a great time talking that Eric invited us to join them the next day at one of there favorite Cypress domes .