Florida Trees 2

This is the last Photo of the Day for 2010 and tomorrow marks the beginning of my eight year of sending daily photos to people around the world. I started it as a way of sharing images with close relatives, but now over 750 people view my photos every day. I look forward to sharing lots of photos with you in 2011.

I don't plan to share photos of Florida for a long time, but have several themes already chosen for the next week or so. After that I will probably return to photos of Newfoundland and Labrador, then share Florida images again later in the winter.

Today I chose more images of trees taken in Belle Villa, just after the sun rose during my second morning photo shoot. The bottle brush plant was in bloom with many red flowers that look like old fashioned bottle brushes. I liked the red and green colours of the plant against the blue sky. I liked the colour, shapes and textures of dead palm leaves on a tree near the road. The reddish-orange colours were exaggerated by the early morning light. In this image I chose to centre the leaf, but uploaded a different composition to my Blog.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Trees

Thanks for the comments on the "Spring-like conditions here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Yesterday was sunny and beautiful, but this morning it is 0°C (32°F) which is a lot more normal. We may even get a snow flurry or two this morning.

There is a section in the gated community of Citrus Park called Belle Villa and I often walk along the streets taking photos. Today's images show a few trees along one of the streets there.

I am always amazed at the different varieties of palm trees growing in this part of Florida and photograph them each time I visit. I am certain I have photographed the same trees several times, but no two photos are identical. The lighting (influenced by the time of day, time of year, weather conditions, etc.) changes the look of each image. As well the composition is never identical so each image is unique.

A friend once asked if I ever tired of looking at the same things over and over, and when I thought of it I had to admit that I don't. I have walked the same trails behind my house hundreds of times, but enjoy hiking and making photos every time I go. I have walked around Citrus Park many times and still see something to photograph every time. A few times I have ventured out without my camera, but am always sorry because I missed opportunities to make pictures. Needless to say, I don't leave without my camera very often.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Weird Weather

I know I promised that I would continue my Florida series this morning, but I decided to share a few images I took yesterday in my yard here in Holyrood, Newfoundland and Labrador. I will return to the Florida series tomorrow.

As I stated previously, for the past month the temperatures here have been above normal and most mornings I get up, it has been warmer here than in Florida. (Of course it warms up more there during the day.) The rest of Canada and much of the USA have had several snow storms, but here, I have been weeding my gardens and will soon have to mow the grass if this weather continues for much longer.

The first photo shows my house around 11:30 AM yesterday. It was sunny and 10°C (50°F). The grass, which I planted last summer, is growing and turning green. Look at the long shadows near noon this time of the year. That will give you an idea of how low the sun is in the sky.

I decided to weed a couple of my raised beds because the weeds have been growing most of the fall. As I pulled the weeds I noticed that several species were starting to flower which I thought was unusual for this time of the year. The second photo shows tiny white flowers and the last shows yellow flowers about to open.

The news has been reporting snow all across Canada, Europe, the US and even in Australia where it normally doesn't snow this time of the year. Yet, here in the middle of the North Atlantic we are enjoying warmer than normal temperatures.

Here's another oddity. This morning's online news on CBC (www.cbc.ca/nl) reports that some seals are giving birth in Labrador three months early. Native elders living in the area cannot remember it ever happening before and scientists are puzzled. It is all very weird!

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Citrus Blossom 2

I would like to welcome several more new members from Citrus Park who joined my list yesterday. I may share more Christmas decorations later, but this will be the last in this series for a while. Tomorrow I plan to share more photos taken around Citrus Park during my recent visit.

We had a green Christmas here in Newfoundland and Labrador and still have no snow. It's been raining for days and days - amazing for this time of the year. It is 7°C (44°F) here at 6:00AM. and 3° (36°F) in Bonita Springs. It has been like that for most of the month of December. Weird! How often in it warmer here in the north Atlantic than is sunny Florida? I know it was like it a lot last winter as well.

I thought that my grandson would like the children on a toboggan as well as the Disney characters and I was right. He likes looking at all the Christmas images and cartoon characters I took while I was at the park.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Citrus Blossom

Citrus Blossom

I would like to welcome several new members from Citrus Park in Florida who joined my list yesterday. As promised today I am sharing more photos of the decorations on Citrus Blossom for a few days.

You may be wondering why I bother to photograph Christmas decorations. My 15 month old grandson, Sam, loves looking at photos of Santa and snowmen. Of course, bears, penguins, gingerbread people, nutcrackers and other Christmassy things are exciting for him and he really enjoys them. He was getting tired of the old ones I had taken so when I arrived in Florida, I decided to photograph every Santa, snowman and nutcracker I saw.

The large display on Citrus Blossom has a Nativity scene, land of snow, and Disney themes with a working train. I didn't photograph it at night because I didn't have my tripod with me. The Nativity scene shown in the first photo is quite large - the animals and people are almost life-sized and the artwork is quite good. Santa coming out of the igloo was cute as were the polar bears and penguins.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Toy Train

This morning's post shows a train that is part of the decorations that people on one street in Citrus Park put up every Christmas. The train shown is on a track and it actually runs during the Christmas season. I was photographing the decorations, struck up a conversation with a lady working there and asked when the train was going to be set up. She asked someone else who said it wouldn't be set up until after I left the park. A few days later a gentleman stopped me as I was walking along, camera in hand, and asked if I was the person who wanted to photograph the train. He then told me he would set it up early for me so I could photograph it before I left. I don't know these people, but am very appreciative that they went through the extra effort for a stranger.

You can see some of the decorations in the background of the first photo, the largest of which is a nativity scene. The people put a lot of time and effort into decorating for Christmas and they do get quite a few people dropping by to view it both during the day and at night. Over the next couple of days, I would like to share more images of their efforts.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Merry Christmas 3

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope you all spend this special Holiday with family and friends.

I photographed Santa during a tree-lighting ceremony in Bonita Springs. He certainly seemed to be enjoying getting his photos taken despite very long line-ups of children. The snowman with fresh falling snow and house in the background made an interesting Christmas image, which I have used to design a custom Christmas Card for a relative. The houses shown in the third image were decorations on a property here in Holyrood. Since they were lit up at night, I also photographed them after dark.

For several years I have photographed Christmas decorations on other peoples' properties but have to admit that I have never put up outside decorations in my adult life. In the early 70's I was concerned about "wasting" energy and the health of the environment and felt I was doing my part in helping conserve energy by NOT getting involved. Not only were trees killed unnecessarily, but the world was in an energy crisis back then and I felt that lighting trees outside was a waste of precious energy. Needless to say, not too many people got involved in that aspect of conservation.

Over the years I have watched outside decorations go from a few lights on a tree or a wreath, to near-Holyrood productions with special effects. These days, some people are "into" decorating the outside of their homes and many towns and cities have contests for the best theme and concepts. In some areas, whole neighbourhoods and streets get together to have the "best" decorations. I have even heard of some places where homeowners feel pressured into putting up more decorations than they normally would because their neighbours want to win "best decorated street". Like many other aspects of Christmas, decorating has become over-commercialized.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Merry Christmas 2

Christmas Eve certainly crept up on us this year. It may have something to do with the fact we were in Florida for 10 days in early December. Today I am sharing more Christmas images which you may share with friends and relatives.

I liked the outdoor nativity scenes, especially when lit up at night. The white door with a modest decoration caught my attention and I thought it would make an interesting Christmas image. The light reflecting off a smiling snowman also caught my attention one year and I made several photos of it from different angles.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Merry Christmas 1

Over the next few days I plan to share images that may be used as Christmas messages. Many of the images were taken in Citrus Park, Florida where I spent a week in early December. Feel free to send these images to your friends and relatives. All text was added using Picasa 3.5

The first image shows light coming through a banner of Santa Claus. The second was a small Christmas ornament at our friend's house in Florida, and the third is a well-lit Nativity scene

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.

Florida 10

This morning's photos were taken in the sequence shown. As I have stated in my last two posts, during my walk on the second morning in Florida, I chose to return to the point in the road that the giant grasses thrive in order to capture the sun as it rose behind them. A person asked what time the sun rose this time of the year and this mornings photos were taken approximately 7:30 AM. The official time of sunrise while I was there was listed as 7:06 AM

The first medium shot was taken with my 70-300 IS lens. The sun was coming into sight and was getting very bright at this point. This was the widest image I could make with that lens, so I switched lenses to my 17-40mm lens at maximum width to make the last image. As the sun gets higher in the sky it gets very bright and I had to move in towards the grasses to obscure the sun once again. The orange light of early morning is just about gone now.

My morning routine in Florida was to walk from 7-9ish taking photos. Usually I took a couple more trips around the park by golf cart throughout the day. I had been told of two caracara birds, and several sandhill cranes that were visiting the park so I was keeping an eye out for them. As well, I knew there was a red-shouldered hawk hunting near the orange orchard and I enjoy photographing them as well. I did get a chance to see them all, but in most cases they were too far away to get good photos.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows
and/or wallpapers/screensavers.