After some long and careful thought, I’ve decided to stop this blog and combine it with my regular photography blog because my two blogs have been so closely parallel that I often would have to stop and decide which website’s blog would get the article/images. One is Florida Nature, and the other is everything else. To speed up my workflow and allow me more time in the field, I’ve decided to discontinue “Notes from the Field” in favor of my regular blog because technology allowed me a simple solution. I can continue posting new blogs to the Florida Nature Photography website from my regular blog – just the posts about Florida nature will be automatically separated out and delivered as they have been for all these years.

 What does this mean for you? It means that if you would like to continue receiving blog updates through your email or RSS feed, you will have to resubscribe.

UPDATE: It seems this subscription link isn’t working for some browsers. Try this link if you don’t reach the subscribe menu.

A few years ago I chose Feedburner (a third-party company) to handle all my blog subscriptions to protect both you and I from spam (and will happily continue working with them). I cannot simply switch your subscription because I never had access to your email address in the first place, and Feedburner will not do it for me because it is protecting all of our privacy, which I love!
We all have our rules and procedures, and I respect and appreciate their dedication to personal privacy and doing business the right way.

Your re-subscription would mean a lot to me, and as I try to keep in touch with everyone as much as possible through Twitter, Facebook, and now more importantly through Google+ – My readers and followers here keep me in business and out in the wild places to bring my images home to you.

See you over at the Leighton Photography & Imaging blog! All the best of Florida and North American Nature Photography!

~ click on image for whole story ~

Sometimes I get into the groove writing a blog post and in no time it gets too big and long to fit into my preferred blog size (400 words max). This is when I chop it up and make it into a shot & sweet few paragraphs, add the image and hit “publish”. I thought about breaking it up into several posts (like chapters) but in the end, decided to publish it whole and intact, and on a third-party website known for these kind of posts. I thought not only would it work better, I could try a new system and at the same time expand and hopefully find a broader audience.

Orchid-Hunting in the Florida Everglades

This story is one that I wanted to still keep short, but didn’t want to to cut it up too much. It’s a story about the time I was in the Everglades photographing orchids and had my worst encounter with a huge alligator. It was very literally my brush with death, and I added some images from my photo galleries to help tell the story. Click the link above to read it in it’s entirety.

Since this is a new format for me, any comments or thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated at the bottom of the story in the comments section. I will be rated by Hub Pages by the amount of visitors to the page, so if you like it, please help me out by please sharing it with others who you  think might like it as well!

What does this mean for Florida Nature Photography? Read all about it HERE!

Recently I made a trip down to the South Florida to one of the best places to see the real Everglades: the Shark River Valley. This is essentially the living and beating heart of the Everglades, and is only accessible by airboat, touristy tram ride, on bicycle on the same tram road, or on foot. I brought my trusty reliable mountain bike which is customized for nature photography excursions.

As I’ve written in the past, mountain bikes are the perfect solution for covering a lot of ground without spooking wildlife. I ride a Specialized Hardrock which I’ve had for about ten years and have had almost every piece except for the frame replaced for either outfitting to my personal needs for work or for environmental reasons. Not ecological reasons in this case, but that the environment (rain, heat, cold, humidity, saltwater) in some of the places I visit can break down certain components. Then there are the accidents, crashes, etc. such as this (please excuse my language) that are bound to happen.

Though I usually prefer traveling the unbeaten path, this time I made an exception, and was glad I did. The 15-mile tram road was a fantastic ride through the Everglades, and there was so much to see, but the highlight for me was the number of clutches of baby alligators I would see from time to time, mile after mile. Sometimes there was a large protective mother keenly watching her brood, and sometimes the newly hatched youngsters were seemingly alone until my presence caused the predictable chorus of baby gator chirping that ultimately brought “mama” to the surface of the pond or canal. Here is one of them I was able to photograph without disturbing the wildlife.

Combining my love for nature photography and mountain biking has been such a productive, fun, and healthy endeavor for me and I would have missed so many of the best-selling images seen in my galleries otherwise. But there is so much more to it than that. You get to see much more than one would while hiking. You get to travel much further than you would do on foot. In the South when it’s hot, you feel cooler with the wind and speed you are traveling. In the cold, you feel warmer by the exercise. After a while, you can even get attached to your bike. I know I am.

My Customized Rockhopper - deep in the Fakahatchee Strand (NW Everglades) ~ April 2011

My mountain bike has been with me high in the mountains of Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Kentucky, across Virginia and Georgia hills and salt marshes along the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been carried on my back up steep ravines and carried across innumerable creaks and streams, and ridden hard through just about every environment and condition the entire state of Florida can throw at it. Best of all – in a few weeks it will be tested by the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park!

Sanibel Island in Southwest Florida is a regular stop in my rounds of the state, and as this is roughly the area where I was born and mostly raised – I have quite a few secret spots where I know the wildlife hangs out.

On this particular day, I was deep in a tangled mess of red mangroves where flashes of pink among the trees meant one thing – spoonbills. I’ve never really taken a good photograph of one, and as the late afternoon sun was in the right position and the tide was just right – I just had to go for it.  I don’t really carry a lot of birding equipment, so my main method is patience and stealth, intending to get close and compose my shot. Not exactly possible in this situation.

Anyone who has ever tried to walk through mangroves – never mind with a backpack full of photography gear and holding a camera – knows that it is not easy. Twisted above-ground roots and protruding rhizomes make any travel slightly faster than not moving at all. Estuarine mud sucks at boots and shoes, and none of this is ever done quietly. Then there are the ever-present saltwater mosquitoes (Florida’s State Bird) and no-see-ums. Every once in a while I wish someone was there photographing me as I am deeply focused and in “stalk mode” – oblivious to anything but my quarry – I’m sure it would be hilarious! It was anything but a graceful advance. It was a slow and awkward approach, but I took my time, and finally got a clear shot of this young roseate spoonbill which seemed just as interested in me as I was of it.

Mission accomplished!

Sometimes we photographers slip up and don’t find the very best spot to get our best sunset shot. Sometimes it’s a new area and location or we don’t know the lay of the land, sometimes we get distracted shooting other subjects and get so absorbed in what we are doing that we lose track of time.

Recently I was down in Fort Myers, Florida (my old stomping ground) and visited a new tract of state preserve land off of Winkler Ave. It’s now a part of the extended Estero Bay Preserve State Park. I was with a good friend and we spent some time photographing the butterflies in the area and as the “golden hour” started to wane, it was time to pick out sunset location. It was my first time in this section of protected land, and I was following the lead of my companion.

Unfortunately, the whole area was undergoing an “invasive species” clean-up. and the foliage and landscape was a mess of shredded melaleuca trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia) and the accompanying lack of natural foliage, except for the usual salt myrtles that are common around the region where salt marsh meet pineland woods. There was water present – inches of brackish water standing above deep thick organic marl and muck that can easily rob the passerby of both balance and shoes. The sun was getting low and there was no time to find another location.

Here is a little trick to great landscape shots I’ve learned over the years through trial and error: drop low, put the camera close to the ground and you just might see something amazing that you missed while holding the camera at about five feet off the ground. Water gets very reflective. Perspective gets very interesting. Very small apertures (f/22 for example) will catch everything in detail and in focus from the objects in the foreground to the objects in the background. This is what I did for the shot above.

There is a drawback to always being on the go. Sometimes (almost always) I take so many images that I can’t possibly edit all of them as I shoot, and as a result files sit in storage for a long time before they are even looked at. Sometimes it’s a busy workload with other photography projects or jobs, or sometimes I just get tired of looking at something and shelve it until it gets more interesting to me again.

This image is an excellent example. I was with a group of good friends last fall in the Big Cypress National Preserve and we were hiking (slogging) through the Gator Hook Strand near the Collier/Monroe county line in what is essentially the Northwest Everglades, even though the region lies outside of the Everglades National Park boundary. We got there before sunrise, and waiting for it to crest over the distant cypress domes and sawgrass. It was a very common sight to me, but not to my friends. Therefore it got shelved. Living in Tallahassee for the past three years and away from my beloved Everglades – it’s not a common sight for me anymore and I decided to have a look at it. Even do a little photo editing.

So in short – Geoff can stop bugging me (I’m joking) about letting him see the images from this wonderful morning!

After years of talking about it, planning it, traveling around the state of Florida shooting for it – I am pleased to announce that my first book, “Native Orchids of Florida” is now published and available. A great deal of time went into this project and I wanted to wait until I was ready and had enough interesting material and an understanding of our native orchids to attempt this book.

Limited copies are available at this time as so many people have requested copies in advance, and a second order/shipment from our printing company is being put together this week. I will have copies available at the 2011 CREW Wildflower Festival on April 2 in Naples, Florida (see previous blog post) where we always attend and have out booth set up with hundreds of matted and/or framed prints on sale from FloridaNaturePhotography.com.

Please watch the video above for more information and prices.

Get your copy here!

It’s that time of year again, and FloridaNaturePhotography.com will have it’s usual table/display set up at the 2011 Crew Wildflower Festival in Southwest Florida. Every year we meet lots of new people and catch up with old friends, and get to hear a lot of news and happenings from fellow naturalists, artists and outdoors-types. We will be set up for the second day on Saturday, April 2 in the CREW Cypress Dome Trails (same as last year) with lots of cool and new stuff to see! For more information, please visit CREW Land & Water Trust.

We will be bringing lots of new photographs and work that will be either matted and framed matted only. New this year, we will have our first offering of our new book, “Native Orchids of Florida” by Rich Leighton. These will be available in limited numbers, and will go on a first come-first serve basis. More information on this will be posted soon!

Looking very forward to seeing all of you there! It’s going to be a GREAT time!