Winter trek, Part IX: St. Augustine Beach

I squeezed in a short period of time (about an hour) at St. Augustine Beach in the late afternoon of the day we arrived in early February. We'd first grabbed a late lunch at Salt Life Food Shack, after which I scooted across Beach Boulevard (Highway A1A) and took all of the beach scenes you see in this post.

I didn't get really overly excited about the shots I was composing until I got to the south side of the pier and saw sundry reflection patterns represented in the photo you see leading off the post. The image is a single-frame shot, and the intermittent sand bars in the foreground struck me as tailor-made for photographers seeking to do compositions of lines and patterns. If you squint or blow up the image, you can make out the solitary seagull sitting on the middle sand bar on the right, approximately between the second and third pier support pillar from the end.

I made a lot of shots integrating sections and cross sections of the pier and reflections, in several cases finding other seagulls on the sand bars, which you'll see below.

As much as I like this image, there is one thing that bothers me. And maybe I shouldn't fret about it. Heck, it isn't even the primary subject matters. It's the coloring in the upper left corner. It kind of looks like something I'd see in Photoshop if I had been trying to erase distracting content matter in that area. But not so. That's the natural color and pattern of the portion of sky uncluttered by cloud cover. You see it again just above the pier on the right side of the image. nd the haze that dominates the top portion was its natural color that afternoon.

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 St. Augustine Beach, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: All images were taken with my Canon 6D equipped with a Tamron 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 lens with all compositions bracketed for three different exposures in 2/3 increments. All photos you see here were processed as single images.

The shot above includes as much of the pier as I could get into the frame (with the lens fixed at 28mm). While I liked the perspective, I didn't think the image did as much as the section and cross sections (my term for radical crops) that I would do later. Those are represented in the first three below, where a gull becomes a more integral part of the composition ... and the pier support beams (or their reflections) serve as compositional frames. 

I got the itch to make a monochrome version of a couple images, and one of those is the one you see above. The same woman and dog are in the image below, a shot taken about 5 minutes after the one above.  

Above: I made two shots of this scene, both including the threesome on the right trying to get a kite airborne. I present this version because the kite is lower to the ground (the other version has the kite much higher, which necessitated me including a lot more vacuous sky in the frame), and because -- even though the threesome are relatively small in the composition -- you can tell that the kite-string holder is struggling with the task. By the time I made the other version of the scene, the woman and dog were no longer in the picture.

Above: Another composition in which the people involved are quite a distance from me. The woman on the left appears to be taking a selfie, the man on the right is hunting for buried metal, and the seagull above is heading south, destination unknown (apologies to the late Savannah writer/poet Conrad Aiken). 

Above: Youngsters marvel at the seagulls on this sandbar.

Above: I actually started the beach shoot on the north side of the pier, which is where I was when the shot above was taken. I liked the juxtaposition of people on the pier and below on the beach. 

Above and next six below: More compositions -- taken from the bluff -- integrating the pier, shadows, reflections and beach walkers. 

Above and below: The same pier, just level with the walking surface -- and incorporating the furniture along the way. 

Above: A gull navigating low to the sand.

We drove to the St. Augustine Lighthouse after stopping at the beach because it was in the same "neighborhood." That late in the day, neither Lee Ann nor I were in a mood to climb 219 steps to the top, which unfortunately meant we couldn't get close to the lighthouse to get unobstructed pictures. I did find an opening in some  brush to snag -- and frame -- the lighthouse in the shot you see below. The picture above is on the grounds outside the lighthouse gift shop. I was pleased with how it turned out as a single frame image; I was shooting with back light, but fortunately for me, the trees and foliage blocked just enough of the flare to give me sufficient detail.

Next up: Flagler College

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

Savannah, Part V: Tybee Island

I'd not heard of Tybee Island until a year or two ago, when it was the target destination of a couple shopping for a home near the ocean on HGTV's "Beachfront Bargain Hunt." The show follows and records couples as they shop for homes to buy on or near beaches in their dream locales, and on this particular episode, a couple wanted to live on Tybee Island.

As we prepared to leave Savannah and head north to South Carolina, Lee Ann and I decided to stop at Tybee Island first to check it out for ourselves.

Although temperatures had cooled by about 15 degrees (they had been in the low to mid-70s in Savannah the previous three days), it was still sunny and mostly gorgeous when we arrived. We had heard almost all visitor parking on the island is metered, so we stopped first at the Tybee Island Light Station and Museum, hoping we could stray from there to explore the beach afterward.

The bad news the day we got there was that the lighthouse stairwell rail was undergoing repairs and cordoned off to visitors hoping to climb to the top to enjoy the vistas and panorama. The good news was that museum staff, hoping to curry favor (and perhaps spur merchandise sales), invited visitors to park in the lighthouse station lot while doing what we had hoped to do while we were there -- explore the rest of the island (or at least as much of it as we could). We also got free admission to Fort Screven across the street and access to the fort's Battery Garland museum.

It was from the top of the fort that I looked back and took the photo of the lighthouse and surrounding property that you see leading off the post. The elevated position also offers nice vistas of the ocean and beach.

As always, click on any picture to pull up a larger, sharper version, which is particularly important if you access the blog from a mobile device. To view a full gallery of my shots on Tybee Island, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I shot everything you see here with a Canon 6D equipped with a Tamron 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 Di VZD VC lens using a polarizing filter when outdoors (I did without the filter when indoors for the Battery Garland museum shots). I bracketed all shots for three exposures, melding a good number of all three for each composition in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. In some situations where using HDR software was impractical, I composed a shot with single frames.

Above: This probably was my favorite photo from the day at Tybee Island. I wasn't sure if this dad and two kids were racing toward shore to scatter the seagulls or whether it was a stab at genuine family frolic with no ulterior motive (the skeptic in me leans toward the former explanation), but I happened to turn toward this scene at just the right moment.

The lighthouse in optimum lighting and color (above). Much later in the afternoon, I caught the shot below of the sun positioned behind the lamp. From the ground, it looked as if the lamp were turned on and not revolving. 

Above: Some people get a charge out of playing with gulls by tossing food in the air, and the hungry gulls play along. I saw this on a couple occasions at Tybee, and would see it again later in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. From a photographer's perspective, it presents an opportunity to capture a bird spectacle photo.

Above and next three below: These swings are scattered throughout the beach, and I made a point to collect evidence that people use them. The shot above includes the lighthouse in the composition, while the others were taken from the opposite direction.

Above: This photo was a close runnerup favorite photo of mine from Tybee Island. Bird and man in pursuit of different goals while strolling the shoreline, the gull feeding on a jellyfish stuck in the sand, the man simply indulging a joy of being near the water.

Above: I don't end up liking very many of the "gulls in flight" photos that I attempt when I'm at the beach, but I do keep trying. This is one of the rare ones that I have been happy with.  

When I saw this barrier of boulders, I spent about a half-hour trying to capture the perfect "wave crashing against rocks" shot, experimenting with different settings (mostly to vary the shutter speed). I humbly admit that "perfection," if it's possible, still eludes me. This simply was the best of the lot, and I use the term "best" quite loosely.

I think the bird above is an Anhinga, a species found in warmer climates and one that must air dry its wings after each water submersion because unlike most other waterfowl, it does not possess oil glands to waterproof its feathers. I would see more of these later on our trip in South Carolina. The bird below perched on this post not far from where Lee Ann and I dined at the North Beach Grill on Tybee Island.

Ever since our trip to Wrightsville and Atlantic beaches in North Carolina in Summer 2014, Lee Ann has me primed to look for and compose shots integrating tall, beachside grass blades. The photo above is was one such attempt at Tybee Island. Below is the pedestrian bridge from the parking lot to the north beach, near North Beach Grill, where we had lunch. It shows, in the background, one of the vessels that passed through while we were there. We did not see any sailboats, however.

Above: An attempt to illustrate the vastness of the beach and water.  

The lighthouse property contains several buildings, one of which is the lighthouse keeper's residence quarters (above). Admission to the attraction entitles visitors to tour the home, where the two shots below were taken. There are quite a few more of the keeper's house interior at the full gallery. I included the one of the old phone in this post because I hadn't seen one of those in a long time and figured many visitors here might be in the same boat.

The exterior of Fort Screven (above) and interior shots (next two below) of exhibits in the Battery Garland Museum.

From the top of Fort Screven, vistas such as the one above and two photos below can be enjoyed. The one above shows the metered parking lot and a portion of the North Beach Grill as well as the ocean. The second below features the wooden pedestrian access to the beach from the parking lot. 

Next up: Charleston revisited

Previous posts in this series:

Part I: Savannah's Forsyth Square

Part II: Savannah's old-city neighborhoods 

Part III: Savannah's Riverwalk

Part IV: Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery

Florida Keys, Part V: Getting a panoramic view of Key West

The Key West Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters Museum was a convenient attraction to check out when we were in Key West; it is across Whitehead Street from the Hemingway house and is not far from the popular marker of the southern-most point in the continental United States.

The lighthouse has existed since January 1826, although it collapsed during a storm 20 years later and had to be rebuilt. In the 1870s, 5 feet of height was added to the structure to improve visibility. (Indeed, our Ernest Hemingway House tour guide told us that the writer used the lighthouse -- which is right across the street from his residence -- to guide him while returning home after a late night of imbibing on Duval Street.)

The lighthouse is among several that adorn the nation's southern and eastern coasts. The $10 admission ($1 discounts for seniors and military personnel) enables you to climb the lighthouse and enjoy the panoramic view of the island, as well as tour the adjacent keeper's quarters.

The keeper's quarters is filled with historical information, photos and exhibits (including a 15-minute video) about the lighthouse and stories about its keepers. It includes photos and exhibits about the other lighthouses situated along the Keys and rest of the Florida coast. The museum has a gift shop, too.

A few blocks to the southeast is the large conical land-anchored buoy that designates the alleged southern-most point in the continental United States (the Hawaiian islands are quite a ways south of the Keys).

Sticklers for truth and accuracy -- actually, anyone who can read a map -- will note that the marker really doesn't appear to be the southern-most point even in the Keys; Whitehead Spit, a cape west of the touristy buoy at South and Whitehead streets, appears to be significantly south of the designated point. But it possibly is, however, the southern-most point that is publicly accessible, i.e., a place to draw tourists without trampling on private property.

Photo geek stuff: Everything in this post was taken with my Canon 6D equipped with a Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di PZD VC lens, which was equipped with a 67mm B&W polarizing filter. I bracketed most compositions for three exposures that I processed in Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software.

And as usual, if you'd like to see a larger, sharper version of an image, click on the image. This is particularly important if you access the blog using a mobile device. I've devoted a full gallery to my Key West Lighthouse shots at my site at SmugMug.com. To view all my images from the southern-most point and other sites in Key West, follow the link in this sentence.

Above and below: The entrance to the museum gift shop from the modest parking lot. Below is a closeup of the keeper figurine, next to which one visitor felt it was important to take a selfie.

Above: A good amount of exhibits and historical information is devoted to illustrating and explaining the evolution of lenses used in the beacon portion of the lighthouse.

Above: A lighthouse staffer wore this souvenir T-shirt illustrating the various lighthouses that can be found along the Southeast Atlantic Coast. It enticed me enough to get one for myself.

Above and below: The lighthouse and its interior stairwell.

Above: I grabbed this shot of another sculpted figure before I ascended the stairwell. Some people don't notice it until they make the return trip. 

Above is one of the shots I got from the lighthouse balcony at the top.  This view looks toward Mallory Square to the northwest. Below, a shot through a stairwell portal near the top of the stairs, a view looking mostly west but a little south.

Yet another view from the top (above and below), which not only allows one to enjoy the water views from afar, but also detail of the island neighborhoods. The neighborhood seen in the second photo below looks east on Whitehead Street toward the southern-most point marker, which is only a block or two from where the picture ends on the right.

Above and second below: Different views and crops of the same general area, Whitehead Point, which is explained in one of the many informational sight-line markers at the top of the lighthouse. These markers point out landmarks and explain what viewers see from the various vantage points on the balcony.

 Above and below: Two of the informational exhibits inside the keeper's quarters.

Landscaping on the lighthouse grounds (above) and, below in the distance, the keeper's quarters.

Above and next three below: The southern-most point marker is such a popular (and free) attraction that there are lines of people waiting to get their chance to take pictures and/or selfies, so the unobstructed view of the buoy (above) is a rarity. 

Above and next two below: While waiting in line for the obligatory selfie at the marker, I shot these scenes. The first below is a ground-lever view of the landmark at Whitehead Point that I'd first seen on the balcony of the lighthouse. The statue is part of the plaza decor where the marker buoy is located.

I shot the above and below photos on the return trip from the southern-most point marker. The biker is headed onto the Naval Air Station adjacent to Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Florida charges $9 per adult admission to its state parks, and I wasn't in a mood to spend the money and time to check it out that day. There were other things to see, and next up -- after lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe on Duval Street -- was a stop at Mallory Square on the opposite side of the island, where I'd indulge one of four opportunities to witness and photograph a sunset during my two-week stay in the Keys.  

Next up: Mallory Square at sunset


Previous posts in this series:

Part I: Not bad for 'almost paradise'

Part II: Sombrero Beach strikingly beautiful

Part III: Key West packed with sights and attractions

Part IV: Ernest Hemingway house is worth the tour