The sun through palm trees

Posted on January 19, 2023 by dinajohnston

After I caught the sun rising at the Safety Harbor fishing pier I headed down to North Shore Park in St. Pete. The sun was up about half way by this time but still made for some pretty shots. This little beach sits on the bay side of St. Pete and the sand isn’t very nice so there usually isn’t too many people on it in the morning.

The water looked very inviting with the sun beaming down on it but it was a little chilly this morning.

I think this is a Hong Kong orchid tree. The the park was full of them blooming in early December.

I was hoping to find something different in the way of birds out here, sometimes a surprise might pop up but it was quiet. Only the usuals. A ring billed gull scratching an itch and a pelican lands in front of me. The little beach was full of laughing gulls but not much else.

As I was standing on the beach watching the birds this tiny shark swam right up near the sand.

More from MOTE Aquarium

Posted on January 28, 2020 by dinajohnston

It’s not often you get this close to a shark. Above are some of the bigger things under water at MOTE Aquarium in Sarasota.

The Aquarium rehabilitates and houses permanently injured turtles, manatees and dolphins. The turtle above was missing an eye.

We don’t have crocodiles in the Tampa Bay area, at least not yet. They can be found in areas much farther south including the Everglades. I’ve never seen one out in wild. They look very comical, almost like a cartoon.

Pretty flowers in the water at aquarium.

Big things swimming by.

Posted on November 12, 2019 by dinajohnston

I love seeing the big sting rays at the aquarium. It’s funny how they have faces underneath. I think that first one was smiling at me.

It’s fun to watch the kids go crazy over the sharks. You get to see them close up.

A turtle cruising by.

There’s something hypnotic about watching the fish swim by.

More fun from my September visit to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Indoor faces in the middle of August

Posted on October 2, 2018 by dinajohnston

It was too hot to be outside in the middle of August so I headed indoors to the Florida Aquarium. It was nice to walk around and take pictures in air conditioning. I cheated and took all of these in Auto program mode (with no flash) since the Aquarium was going to be way to crowded to be using a tripod. Even 10 minutes after the doors opened, kids were running into me. It was still a fun morning and I walked around for about 2 hours.

You can barely make out my reflection in the above. Even without using flash, there’s a slight light that shines for a second while focusing. Trying to use regular flash against this thick glass is crazy. You’re only going to get a big white light across your pictures. You also have to watch for shadows and reflections on the glass which is apparent in the above. I was able to keep other people’s reflections out of most of the pictures.

Linking to http://myworldthrumycameralens.blogspot.com/

Sleepy summer day at the fishing pier

Posted on September 10, 2018 by dinajohnston

Birds hanging around the fishing pier in the summer.

A beautiful day at the beach.

A manatee was cruising by the pier in the first shot.

Someone had caught a small shark.

Out in the gulf, boats go by.

The dolphin show at Fort Desoto.

Posted on August 16, 2018 by dinajohnston

A baby dolphin was swimming close to Mom above.

The dolphins were swimming right under the fishing pier at Fort Desoto in early June. The water was clear and the sun was hitting the water just perfect so you could see them before they came up for air.

Someone caught a tiny shark.

A beautiful day to be out in a boat.

A walk on the fishing pier

Posted on June 18, 2015 by dinajohnston

The snowy egrets are always putting on a show at the fishing pier. They are hanging around waiting for the fishermen to turn their backs on their bait buckets so they can steal the little minnows. Sometimes the fisherman will clean their fish on the pier and the egrets try to steal the scraps. There are signs saying not to throw the scraps in the water or to the birds but some people still do it. Then the ones that don’t are annoyed by the birds being aggressive.