Great Blue Heron: Strength and Grace

Oh the beauty of the Great Blue Heron in flight: I see strength and grace, silent purpose, and independence.

Great Blue Heron, GBH, Shark Valley
Great Blue Heron takes flight in Shark Valley, Everglades National Park.

If you are up to a full day bike hike through the hot, sunny Everglades, you will observe birds and alligators in abundance and a tremendous variety of photo opportunities.

Fierce Predator, Tender Parent

A fish swimming near the surface doesn’t have a chance when an adult osprey spots it and descends to sink its sharp talons into it. Once the osprey grips the fish, up it flies to the nest where young osprey chicks are waiting. Atop the nest, the osprey parent shreds the fish and feeds the youngsters. It’s a tender moment for any species…

osprey
Adult osprey feeding the young in the nest on Sanibel Island, Florida.

The Only Kind of Rain We Get

In Southwest Florida, the only kind of rain we get in March is not the wet kind that falls from clouds and waters the plants. No, this time of year it rains yellow blossoms in the breeze.

tabebuia tree
Yellow blossoms of the Tabebuia tree rain in the breeze at Naples Botanical Garden, March 2022.

I associate the perennial blooming of this lovely tree with Spring Break, since we often visited Naples, Florida when my children were on Spring Break in late March. If you take a walk in Naples today, you will see countless numbers of Tabebuia trees in bloom, raining yellow flowers. Are they as numerous as alligators in the Everglades? Well, maybe not, but much prettier.

Supporting Ukraine

Skylum Software, created by Ukrainians, is a great tool to use when processing landscape photography. Having used Luminar by Skylum for years, I was happy to support their recent fund raising effort for fellow Ukrainians now suffering terrible hardships during the Russian assault on their homeland.

This landscape photo from the Heber Valley in Utah was processed by Luminar AI, made by Skylum.

Ukraine, Heber Valley, horse, snow, mountains, landscape, skylum,luminar
A golden brown horse accents this landscape of the Heber Valley and the snowy Utah mountains on a sunny morning.

The Obvious Choice: X

Standing on the bluff overlooking ice fishermen on the frozen lake and a wide vista of snowy Utah mountains, I did not at first recognize the most dramatic composition — the one that included the X on the ground. “X” marked the landing pad for a rescue helicopter. Yes, the X attracts the eye and tells a story about a dramatic rescue that took place here.

Aren’t the best photographs, the ones that tell a story? Maybe not the most obvious story, but stories that happened in the past that we can only imagine?

Utah, winter, mountains, ice, lake
One tragic day a school bus careened over this cliff, and a rescue helicopter landed here. “X” marks the spot on this frigid day in the Utah winter.