Wet footed scratching Great Blue Heron

I took great joy in being with my wife Gretchun on Friday, September 5, 2014 at the Circle B Bar Reserve. She and I both got multiple pictures of this Great Blue Heron as it was wading and hunting in the water alongside the Wading Bird Way Trail. The bird was about fifty or so yards away, necessitating the use of my tripod. I had to take several pictures as it stopped and scratched an itch in hopes of getting one good one. I unfortunately could not get a good angle to take a clearer shot of the reflection under the bird.

I'm scratching as fast as I can.

This is still another example of my wildlife photography that involves the Circle B Bar Reserve during the summer of 2014. This Great Blue Heron was vigorously scratching the side of it's head when I captured this image. This is also the sam GBH from the previous two posts.

Bad hair day for a Great Blue Heron

This Great Blue Heron is the same one from yesterday's post, just a few minutes later. I do not know if birds can be infested by fleas or not. If they can be infested, the Great Blue Heron, as the largest of the Heron family has plenty of room to carry them. I am thinking that what ever is causing this Great Blue Heron to scratch was also giving him a bad hair day.

Itch and Scratch week.

First, let me apologize for the break in posting, but as all of you can say, life gets busy and choices have to be made. I think (and hope) that I have enough photographs of animals itching and scratching or at least preening to do one a day. The first photograph is of a Great Blue Heron in a Cypress tree at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. If you look really closely at the right hand side of the Heron, you can just see one toe/claw sticking out from under the wing where it is apparently scratching.

Osprey 108

I managed to get this image of an Osprey perching on a Cypress tree Branch at the Circle B Bar Reserve. The Circle B Bar Reserve is located in central Florida about half way between Winter Haven and Lakeland, Florida. This photograph of the Osprey bird is one of many I took of that bird on July 12, 2014. The fishhawk is a large predatory bird that is common in Florida and often seen along lakes and rivers perched in trees or on telephone poles. It's primary food source is the various types of fish found in both fresh and saltwater here in Florida.

Lake Howard Sunrise 001 Draft

I took this pre dawn landscape photo from a public dock at the Lake Howard Nature Park in Winter Haven, Florida. It was a little bit past oh-dark-thirty (6:40 A.M.) on August 13, 2014 when I took this photograph of the eastern side of Lake Howard. I was using as many manual settings as my GE X2600 camera would allow me to use. The Fstop was f/16.1 at 1/5 second with an ISO of 64 and a 35mm focal length of 199. I was of course also using a tripod for the shoot. While I feel that my X2600 is a great little camera for a bridge camera to learn on, it has some things that are annoying. One of the majorly annoying things is the picture degradation when using the electronically augmented part of the zoom magnification. Another annoyance is the lack of the ability to attach a secondary flash unit over the top of the onboard flash. As is the case with many point and shoot or other types of cameras with "on-board" flash units, the subject of the picture can get "burned out" when the flash unit is used. If it doesn't get burned out it is frequently underexposed, while experience will mitigate some of these problems, a secondary flash system is a definite plus. I am dreaming and scheming about a digit SLR as a replacement for my X-2600. I think that it is time for some serious research on the three major brands of camera. Well maybe this Christmas Santa will leave a new (or used) digital SLR under my Christmas Tree. I would not even care which major brand it was. Olympus, Nikon or Canon, in any order of preference. 

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

I captured this photograph of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly on June 16, 2014. I believe that I was at the South Lake Howard Nature park in Winter Haven, Florida. I got busy with a different part of my life and have been unable to stock pile any posts or in fact keep up with my writing schedule. Sorry about that.

Black Swallowtail 000

This is another view of the same Black Swallowtail Butterfly that I captured in a photograph on August 21, 2014. The Swallowtail Butterfly has several types in the family. Often enough the same type of butterfly will be called by a different name locally. A Parsnip Swallowtail is a Black Swallowtail by another name.

BUTTERFLY WEEK

As a challenge to myself this week I am going to work on getting acceptable pictures of butterflies to post here. They can be quite challenging to get close enough to to get a good quality picture without scaring them off. I have noticed that on days or times when there are more than very mild breezes the butterflies tend to be even more flighty and challenging to photograph. Central Florida has at least three very common types of butterfly. One is the Black Swallowtail, commonly referred to as the american Swallowtail or parsnip Swallowtail. Another very common butterfly is the Gulf Fritilarry Butterfly. Finally the Yellow Sulfer Butterfly is seen very frequently. Today's picture is of a Black Swallowtail that I tried very hard to get, but the flowers in the foreground tricked me. I am posting this picture strictly because I like the way that the depth of field treats it and blends it into the whole picture. 

Brown's Piper Cub 005

  August 9, 2014 had dawned as a typical Florida Day. In other words it was hot, bright and humid already when I started out for Brown's Seaplane Base near the Winter Haven Municipal Airport. Still the short trip from my home would have been worthwhile, even if this had been the only aviation photograph I had gotten. This photograph of a Piper Cub Taxiing on the water was taken just before the Instructor Pilot and student Pilot lifted off for what may have been Lake Alfred in the heart of historic Lake Alfred, Florida (Population 5120?). Brown's Seaplane Base Aircraft frequently use Lake Alfred as a landing area when training student pilots in flying seaplanes.

Browns Seaplane Base

I took this photograph of a Piper Cub seaplane

taking off from Brown's Seaplane Base adjacent to Gilbert airport on August 9, 2014 giving it a copyright date for 2014. I believe that it is a PiperJ-3 Cub, but I am not positive of that information. If you would like to see what it might look like from the pilot's seat check out this YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcE6RXGZkp8. I am giving myself an absolutely shameless plug here: http://chris-mercer.artistwebsites.com/art/all/aircraft+/all?page=1; all of these pictures are from shots I have taken at the Winter Haven airport area or as part of photographing Brown's Seaplane Base aircraft. For a little Historical information on the Piper Cub you might check out: http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/index.php/component/content/article/50. Piper Aircraft, Inc. was originally founded in September 1927 by ClarenceGilbert Taylor and GordonA. Taylor inRochester,New York.  At That time it was known as the TaylorBrothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company. During 1929 the company moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where it was invested in by WillaimT. Piper. Piper eventually ended up controlling and running as PiperAircraft, Inc. The piper Cub is probably the best known and longest lasting aircraft type from the Piper manufacturing family. 

Gilbert Field

This is a picture of a Stearman Biplane engine that I took at Gilbert Field in Winter Haven, Florida.

Gilbert Field is an small municipal airport that is part of H.O.V.A. Though I have been told that H.O.V.A. Stands for Heart Of Virginia it really stands for HOVA Flight Services. HOVA Flight Services is located at Hanover County Airport near Richmond, Va. Hanover County Airport is designated as KOFP. 

Stearman Biplane

For those of you who would like to know what it is like to fly in a Stearman Biplane, check out this link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsUnPigl85E. If you happen to be at Gilbert Field in Winter Haven, Florida check out http://www.flytailwheel.com/.


If you stop by and take a flight with them you will get an even closer look at the cockpit and instrument panel on their Boeing Stearman Model 75 aircraft. 

Aviation Week

This week's emphasis is going to be on classic aviation and aircraft. I will be using information to enhance the daily picture I present here. While the Wright Brothers are credited with being to first to fly a "heavier than Air machine", the basic concepts and designs go much further back according to this website: http://mentalfloss.com/article/16814/who-flew-wright-brothers.
  An early pioneer in the aviation industry was William E. Boeing. The very beginning of the Boeing Aircraft conglomerate was in approximately 1910 to 1915 according to this page from the Boeing website: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/history/narrative/n002boe.page. By the beginning of world war II Boeing had become a major aircraft company and had merged with the Stearman Aircraft Corporation. The Boeing corporation was a major supplier of aircraft and related services to the U.S. Government that helped to win the war. One of the aircraft that actually helped win the war at it's most basic level was the Stearman Biplane, a basic flight trainer for both the U.S. Naval Forces and the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF ) . It was commonly known at the time as the Yellow Peril and Kaydet. Here is one of my copyrighted photographs that I took of at the Winter Haven Municipal Airport , which is also known as Gilbert Field.
  There are at least two other major competitors for Boeing during that time frame. Glenn L. Martin the founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company and Glenn Hammond Curtiss who formed a company with the Wright-Brothers . 

Moon 009

Though this is NOT the super moon of the recent past, it is in my less than humble opinion a SUPER moon photograph. If you would like to find out more about the super moon you can check out this link to start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon. I am actually surprised that my GE X2600 camera can actually do this well. While it is a nice bridge camera between a point and shoot camera and an SLR camera, it is not a high priced model with all of the bells and whistles.

Lake Howard Sunrise 001

Sometimes the reflections are just of the light source on a reflective surface, such as a Lake or other natural body of water. The reflection here is not as subtle as the reflections in yesterday's lanscape pictures, but they are still subtle and of the sunlight only. Sometimes they can enhance a foreground element of the landscape photograph (or not, depending on your personal opinion).

Lake Howard Sunrise

Hello, I forgot to schedule today's post (or any posts following), so this one is a few hours late. I apologize for that. Building on the reflections theme, I present this picture of South Lake Howard in Winter Haven, Florida. Sometimes the reflections in a photograph are subtle, such as in this landscape picture of south Lake Howard, taken from a public dock over the lake. I took this copyrighted landscape photo on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at about six thirty AM. The reflections of the buildings are subtle and insubstantial. The second type of landscape reflection is even mor subtle and comes from the diffuse reflection of the early morning sun on the water.

Lake Silver Reflections 003

This photographic image is actually the same base photo as yesterday's landscape picture. I simply cropped the image down to emphasize the building in the center. I simply wanted to put the main attention on how the building reflected on the water even though the building is a significant distance away from the water.

Reflections on Lake Silver 002

Here is yet another reflective photograph taken from the dock. It seems to enhance the reflective image because I had not zoomed in as much on the tower and had more buildings to show reflecting.

Reflections on Lake Silver 000

This is another photograph that combines several elements of landscape photography in the same image. You do not need to look closely to see a big blue skyscape in the background with water reflections of a ski jump ramp in the water mid photo and a waterscape in the foreground.

Reflections on Lake Silver

Some Days it does pay to get out over or on the water. This was one such day as you can see from this landscape picture. I was at Lake Siver in Downtown Winter Haven, Florida just doing some photography with no defined goals in mind. I saw a small semi-permanent dock just double dog daring me to take pictures from it. I took the dare and this was one of the results. I thought that it made an awesome landscape picture. This photograph combines several elements of landscape photography in the same image. You do not need to look closely to see a big blue skyscape in the background with water reflections of a building mid photo and a waterscape in the foreground.

Cruising Winter Haven in a 1972 Yenko Nova

Donald ("Don") Yenko (a former race car driver)began modifying Chevrolet muscle cars during the middle 1960's and built a brand around the name Yenko Deuce. The first popular "Yenko Car" was a modified 1965 Chevy Corvair he named the "The Stinger". It is rumored that a total of 185 Stingers were built between 1965 and 1967. When the Chevrolet Camaro came out for sale in 1967 Yenko began to modify SS Camaros with his after market Chevrolet parts. By 1972 Yenko was producing the Yenko Nova, a Modified Chevrolet Nova. The Chevy Nova lived on to become a classic car that occupied many garages. Nova is on that long list of classic cars that many people want to own or have owned in the past. It is a car that just will not quit. Nearly everyone in the United States has owned or ridden in an automobile at some point in their life. Automobiles are a major part of everyday life for most people. General Motors builds a lot of cars and many pass into classic car status.

Cruising Winter Haven in a Ford Model A

As we all know, Henry Ford started the Ford motor company around the turn of the 20th century to produce what was commonly referred to at the time as "horseless carriages". FOMOCO (FOrd MOtor COmpany)was the first of the horseless carriage company's to use a systematic mass production system for the production of what was to become known as the automobile. Mass production allows for the production of thousands of Ford cars per year to meet the perceived needs of a now mobile public. An early classic car was the Form Model A which was very well recieved by the public and is still popular among collectors because parts are relatively easy to find. Automobiles are generally classed as vintage, Classic and Antique. I think that a classic car is at least twenty years old, a vintage car is twenty five years old and an antique car is even older.

Cruising Winter Haven in Studebaker Style

While I was checking out the Cruising Winter Haven car show on Saturday, August 2, 2014 I saw many vintage cars. One of the best classic cars in my opinion was this 1964 Studebaker Hawk GT. This classic car was probably one of the last classic automobiles produced by the studebaker automobile company. Some of the keywords I came across as part of my research about this vehicle were studebaker, classic car, vintage car, antique car, jpg jpeg, .jpg image, jpg images, jpegs, picture .jpg, antique studebaker, vintage studebaker, classic studebaker, studebaker-packard corporation, "studebaker automobile company".

While talking with the owner of this awesome classic automobile I confirmed that it was still for sale, although he was expecting an offer from someone who had paid someone to fly out from California to inspect it.

Cruising Winter Haven in a Chevy Corvair

While I saw a lot of classic cars during this month's show, this Chevy Corvair really struck a cord with me. At the time this car debuted, Chevrolet was for the most part manufacturing ever larger "family cars". This classic car was one of the first "midsize" cars produced by the "Big Three" automakers. This vintage car had a style and Charisma all it's own, though you may have to be old enough to at least remember seeing them when they were common. In some ways it was, in my opinion, the family version of the Chevrolet Corvette in appearance. Though it is now an antique car it will probably always live on in the nostalgia of small town America. To be honest with you, I do not know when a vintage automobile becomes an antique automobile. I think that the owner's first name was George, but if my memory is faulty, you have my apologies along with my thanks for your permission to post these photographic images here.

Cruising Winter Haven Celebrity

I am not so sure that the city founders made exactly the right decision when they invited this celebrity in to our small town. As you can see, he also invited his bride with him. Things have not been quite the same since Chucky (http://horror.wikia.com/wiki/Chucky) moved in. I just hope that they don't invite Jason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_(franchise)) or even worse, Michael Meyers(http://halloweenmovies.com/).

Cruising Winter Haven

Winter Haven has not lost that small town America feeling and in fact encourages the feeling. One of the ways the movers and shakers of this small town preserves the feeling is by hosting "Cruising Winter Haven", a monthly classic (and not so classic) car show. It is currently held on the first saturday of every month in the downtown park area. For this post I am actually going to post several "streetmosphere" pictures just to hopefully give you a small feel for it. Most if not all of these pictures are straight from the camera with no editing beyond reducing the resolution to make them load faster for you.