Winter trek, Part XII: Florida Keys' skies

We saw some spectacular sun-painted sky tapestries -- both in colors and cloud patterns -- on several drives, from St. Augustine to the Florida Keys ... as well as on a couple sunsets later in the week. So I felt that I ought to dedicate a single Photo Potpourri post to just that.

With the photo leading off the post, I start with several shots taken the night of Feb. 6 from the ocean overlook at Sunset Grille and Raw Bar in Marathon, a city that is just about at the halfway point between mainland Florida and Key West. We first visited Sunset Grille in January 2017 ... and I had loved the smoked prime rib, an offering on the eatery's special Tuesday-only barbecue menu. So we went back ... for the food (on a Tuesday), but also for the great view of the nightly sunset.

Now, about the photo at the top of this post ...

In February 2009, not long after I started Photo Potpourri, I devoted a post to French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the earliest known photojournalists and the shooter remembered for coining the phrase "the decisive moment" in photography. The "decisive moment" refers to the perfect timing of a shot that would be available only for a moment (often, a moving subject) and that also is spontaneous.

For example, you often have plenty of time to prepare for an "important moment" shot involving a sunset or sunrise -- because the sun's movement develops quite gradually (i.e., it is not spontaneous). You can plan for it -- i.e., you know it's coming well in advance, and there is time find an ideal spot and/or elevation, spotting landscape elements to integrate into the composition, etc.

But a "decisive moment" shot is spontaneous, something a photographer has very little time to prepare for. That's what happened in the photo leading off the post.

I had been standing along Sunset Grille's wall near the water shooting some sky and sunset pictures when I noticed, in my right peripheral vision, a fast-moving motor boat coming toward me. I pulled away from the camera to verify what I thought I had seen, confirmed it, then returned to the camera viewfinder to focus on the solar reflection on the water.

A second or two later the boat reached that point. Using no different settings than what I had been working with previously, I pressed the shutter when the boat reached the reflection, making three quick exposures in burst mode (the camera had already been in that mode from my three-exposure-bracketing of all my shots for possible processing in HDR). I knew I'd be happy if I could nail just one of them. I'd momentarily forgotten how beautiful the sky was with the clouds filtering the golden rays of the setting sun. Or even that there was a pretty symmetrical cloud pattern at all. Or that the iconic 7-Mile Bridge and bridge arch were in the far background.

The camera settings on my 6D for this exposure were f/8, 1/1000, ISO-200. The Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VZD VC lens that I was using (equipped with a B+W polarizing filter) was set at 50 mm.

The photos that appear below probably don't require a whole lot of explanation ... but I will drop in comments anywhere I feel context might be helpful. Until noted otherwise, the first series of pictures were taken Feb. 6 during our aforementioned dinner visit to the Sunset Grille and Raw Bar in Marathon, which is located on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Keys. The restaurant pier that appears in some pictures is easily accessible from the outdoor dining area.

The highway you see on the right in these photos is U.S. 1, also known as the Overseas Highway, which spans the full Keys. The arched portion of the roadway that you notice in some pictures (beginning with the first one below) is iconic; it's near the unofficial start of the so-called 7-Mile Bridge -- a long section of roadway that doesn't hit any section of land.

To view a larger and sharper version of any image here, just click on the photo.

Photo geek stuff: All but two shots in this post were taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens equipped with a B+W polarizing filter. I bracketed each composition for three exposures to allow for possible melding of those three frames into one in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. Most of the 6D images in this post are single-frame shots. Two of the shots were taken with my iPhone X. I've noted those under the pictures below.

Above: This is one of two photos in this post taken with my iPhone. The woman sitting on the pier with her dog will appear again -- in a closeup composition -- a few photos below. 

Above and next two below: Post-sunset scenes of the Gulf of Mexico from our resort in Marathon shortly after we arrived on Feb. 4.

Above: Also an iPhone shot. 

The shots you see above and below were taken Feb. 4 as we drove along U.S. 1 (the Overseas Highway), heading to Marathon in the Keys. Marathon is considered the halfway point between mainland Florida and Key West. The last shot below features a utility line juxtaposed atop the sun in the background.

Next up: Return to Key West

Previous posts in this series: 

Savannah at night

Savannah in daylight

American Prohibition Museum

Telfair Academy

Jepson Center for the Arts

Thomas Kinkade Gallery, Savannah

Castillo de San Marco, St. Augustine

World Golf Village and Hall of Fame, St. Augustine

St. Augustine Beach

Flagler College, St. Augustine

Everything else, St. Augustine

Winter trek, Part X: Flagler College, St. Augustine

When I first heard about Henry Morrison Flagler -- which was a couple years ago -- it was in connection with his role in the extension of the Florida East Coast Railroad from the southern tip of mainland Florida all the down the Keys to Key West.

I since have learned about his hand in developing a lot more in the U.S. Southeast. One of those developments was the first luxury hotel in St. Augustine, the Ponce de Leon, in 1888.

I've also learned that Flagler was the founder of Standard Oil and was hugely responsible for developing the communities of Miami, Palm Beach and St. Augustine. Almost single-handedly -- and in multiple increments -- he brought rail transportation down the east coast of Florida and eventually through the Keys all the way to Key West, a project many thought was not worth the cost (it was occasionally referred to as "Flagler's Folly").

The Overseas Railroad in the Keys opened in 1912 and ran for 32 years before it closed after sustaining damage too costly to repair in the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. However, the remaining rail infrastructure was used later to build the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1) that spans the full Keys.

But I digress.

In St. Augustine, Flagler built the Ponce de Leon Hotel, which in the 1960s was transformed into the centerpiece of the new Flagler College. The hotel, built in Spanish Renaissance style architecture, survived through the years -- including the Great Depression -- even while other upscale hotels in the city did not. Once such hotel was the Alcazar -- also built by Flagler -- situated across King Street from the Ponce de Leon and is now the Lightner Museum. During World War II, the federal government took over Ponce de Leon and used it as a Coast Guard training Center.

Although the structure returned to a hotel operation after the war, its customer traffic gradually waned until it was no longer financially feasible to keep it open. It closed in 1967, but just a year later, it was transformed as part of newly opened Flagler College. Ponce de Leon Hall now serves as the school's administrative and academic center.

With limited time for exploration, I didn't make it to see all of the campus -- some buildings are a few blocks away. Sadly, I also didn't make it to the grounds of the Lightner Museum, another Spanish Renaissance architectural marvel. The museum, which holds fine art and antiquities (mostly 19th century), closed as a hotel in 1932. Its new life as a museum began in 1949.

Leading off the post is a photo of the main entryway to Ponce de Leon Hall, outside of which stands a statue of Henry Flagler. Once you pass through the gates there, you come upon a plaza featuring a circular fountain (first photo below). The main building overlooks the fountain. The third photo below is a shot of the front facade of Lightner Museum.

To view a larger and sharper version of any image here, just click on the photo. To see a full gallery of images from my visit to Flagler College, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: All shots were taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens equipped with a polarizing filter. I bracketed each composition for three exposures to allow for possible melding of those three frames into one in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. While some images here have been treated in Photomatix, most are single-frame shots.

Above and next two below are detail shots of the Spanish Renaissance architecture of Ponce de Leon Hall, the former hotel.

Above: There is space in one of the wings off King Street for students to park their bicycles.

In the Palm Garden area behind Ponce de Leon Hall, one can find a sand volleyball court (above) and palm trees, where apparently students are welcome to temporary string up a hammock (below) to relax in the cozy surroundings.

The front facade of Ringhaver Student Center (above) is a continuation of the Spanish Renaissance architecture. On the far end (right, in the above photo) is the access to the college bookstore (detail shot, first photo below), where you can find all the merchandise you'd expect to find in a college bookstore, including apparel emblazoned with the school name (second below).  

The West Lawn is adjacent to the palm garden, and the lawn area -- just outside Kenan Hall -- is where you find some of the campus' most striking landscaping and vistas, as evidenced by the photos above and first five below. 

If you ever get to the campus to check it out, don't pass up the chance to get inside the rotunda of Ponce de Leon Hall. That's where you'll find the scenes you see pictured above and below. The school offers campus tours; we didn't have time to devote to a lengthy tour, but fortunately, we were able to take in the rotunda.

  

Next up: Almost everything else, St. Augustine


Previous posts in this series: 

Savannah at night

Savannah in daylight

American Prohibition Museum

Telfair Academy

Jepson Center for the Arts

Thomas Kinkade Gallery, Savannah

Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine

World Golf Village and Hall of Fame, St. Augustine

St. Augustine Beach

Florida Keys, Part I: Not bad at all for 'almost paradise'

Welcome to the first post on a subject -- my trip last month to the Florida Keys -- destined to have many parts (i.e., multiple additional posts).

For the past week or so, I've been going through hundreds of images from my two weeks in the Keys, a trip I had dreamed about for quite a while, definitely since I retired in 2012 ...
and something that I'd mentally floated off and on for a decade or so before that.

Oddly, perhaps, I approached the trip with some trepidation. A couple people I know, including a family member, had visited the Keys (or parts of them) and told me they were not impressed. Also, it would mark the first time I traveled on a commercial airline since 1996. I'm not a flying aficionado; I'm a "grounded" kind of guy who likes seeing where I'm going, so ... abandoning that in such a dramatic way is a serious challenge to me. Compounding the situation was the fact that our plane to the Keys would make its landing at the very same airport in Florida -- Ft. Lauderdale -- where only nine days earlier an ISIS-inspired gunman fired randomly at people walking in the baggage area, resulting in multiple casualties, including five deaths.

But I managed ... and on a very positive upside, I found the Keys wonderful. Except for one overcast and rainy day, for the duration of the visit, it was mostly sunny, and temperatures stayed in the mid- to upper 70s. I couldn't have asked for better weather.

A quick aside before I resume with my train of thought: Even though I'm going to spend the majority of time in this first post discussing photo geek stuff and the Overseas Highway, I wanted to use the lead image to provide a soft introductory to the series of Keys posts. The photo you see at the top of the page was taken on my third full day in the Keys. I was killing time, looking out at the ocean in the general area of where, in about a half-hour, Lee Ann and I would enjoy a sunset cruise on a catamaran. I shot a lot images of the flock of seagulls on the wooden perch, and I think I lucked out getting this one -- with so many sailboats in the background.

For all but one day and night of the trip, Lee Ann and I stayed at the Hammocks of Marathon (left), a "resort" on Marathon Key, which is about halfway down the chain of Keys. The resort is part of the Bluegreen Vacation Club, of which I became a member a year ago. Being situated in the middle of the Keys helped facilitate getting to other Keys destinations northeast and southwest of there via the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1), which runs the length of the coral cay archipelago.

We spent most of our time at Marathon, although we did dedicate two daytime visits to Key West and a day and a night in Key Largo. The story behind the latter has a fortuitous twist. Originally, the full trip was supposed to last only six nights (Sunday through Friday) -- all at the Hammocks, using "points" we'd earned to pay for the lodging. The original plan was to use check-out day to drive up to Key Largo and do a glass-bottom boat excursion on the reefs there ... and afterward finish the trip to the airport in Fort Lauderdale to fly home.

But during the week, the Hammocks staff mentioned that a cancellation had opened up a room for five nights (Sunday through Thursday) the following week, and we could get the room at our club bonus rate of $59/night, so ... we snagged it. The only question was ... where to stay on Saturday night. Since we wanted to do the glass-bottom boat excursion in Key Largo anyway, we found a room at the Hilton Key Largo, and that solved our problem. We packed and unpacked a couple times in the process, but the trade-off was almost another full week in paradise. The only setback was that Saturday afternoon wind gusts at Key Largo forced the cancellation of the glass-bottom boat excursion, so we did without.

The Keys are a narrow strip of islands that begin near Miami at the southern tip of mainland Florida and extend southwest to Key West, the last inhabited island in the chain.

Posts about the trip subsequent to today's will come in various intervals (I'm still processing photos), but I thought I'd mention my photo gear strategy in this initial post.

We flew on Southwest, which allows two checked bags and two carry-ons per person. Into one of the carry-ons we packed my camera bag containing my Canon 6D, three lenses -- the EF 24-70mm f/28L, the EF 50mm ("Nifty Fifty") and a Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC). The camera bag also contained my Canon 580 EX II flash and Omni-Bounce flash diffuser.

As it turned out, I would use only the Tamron for every one of my shoots during the trip, and I never turned to the flash. The Tamron lens' versatility, vibration compensation and light weight made it invaluable on those long days at Key West and, during the second week, Bahia Honda State Park. As I processed my photos, I was reminded of a couple of the trade-offs for going with the Tamron -- mostly vignetting on shots at high focal ranges as well as slightly bent horizons on images taken using the wide (short) focal ranges. Fortunately, in most instances, I could crop around the vignetting or fix it and/or correct the horizon line issues in Photoshop Elements in the "Correct Camera Distortion" option under the "Filter" tab. In fact, I applied a slight vignetting correction on the left side of the image leading off the post.

I also brought along a laptop and portable hard drive, both of which I used to back up all of my photos after I filled up a card. I went through four and a quarter 32GB SD cards during the trip. I didn't completely fill up any of the first four cards, but I've used 32GB cards for many sports and theater shoots, and I've developed a good sense about when I'm getting to the edge.

One of the fascinating spectacles we came across during the trip was the Seven-Mile Bridge, once referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World. The bridge carries traffic across a long distance (which actually seemed more like 6 miles to me) over nothing but reef from Marathon to Little Duck Key. Through some of the trip, as illustrated in the photo above, you can see (to the left in the distance) the abandoned infrastructure of the former Overseas Railway, which from the early 1900s to 1935 was the first method used to transport visitors through the length of the Keys.

The railroad was shut down after sustaining serious damage in Labor Day 1935 hurricane, and much of the railroad thoroughfare was used to craft the new highway for automobiles. New sections were added and/or existing sections were widened as needed in the 1970s and '80s, and eventually the unusable portions of the original infrastructure were permanently closed to vehicle traffic (though it's still used by pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers and fisherman). That included an extension that ran to 50-acre Pigeon Key just south of Marathon. Now, motor vehicles have no access to Pigeon Key. I'll have more photos of railroad infrastructure in a future post.

Below are a few more photos of the highway. The first, I shot from a very elevated position in Bahia Honda State Park, named for the Key on which it is located, putting that section of highway at its southern end. The middle photo was taken from the docks adjacent to Lazy Days South restaurant at the southern tip of Marathon Key. It gives you an idea of the iconic arched span that appears at the northern point of the Seven-Mile Bridge. The third photo, a high-dynamic range (HDR) composition taken near sunset, has the arched span in the background and was taken from the edge of the Sunset Grill and Raw Bar on Vaca Key, a short jog south of Marathon key and Lazy Days. The Sunset eatery was right at the start point of the bridge.

Next up: Sombrero Beach