Short post today, honestly, only because I don’t want to look at this photo anymore. The reason, I HATE SPIDERS!!! Even though I have this phobia, I can still respect a wicked cool one. After some research I found out the name to be the Key West Devil Spider. Not sure if this is correct or if the spider is poisonous or not. I do know I wouldn’t get close to this spider as I took this photo with a 200mm. I wish I had a 400mm, haha.
Category Archives: Florida
Here are the rest of the images from my visit to Fort Zachary Taylor. Named after President Taylor, construction started on the fort in 1845 and was completed in 1866. Surprisingly this was after the Civil War, which started in 1861. During the war the Union seized control of the fort. After being handed to the U.S. Navy by the U.S. Army Fort Zachary Taylor was closed in 1971. During the time the Navy had the fort, they put it through some maintenance. It was during this time that it was discovered that the fort hid within its walls the largest collection of Civil War cannons. Originally Fort Zachary Taylor was three tiers high but was knocked down to one tier to make room for modern weapons. You can see what this would have looked like from a picture that Mark Garbowski took at Fort Wadsworth up in New York. During this remodeling they decided to put the cannons in the wall to save on material. I don’t think they wanted to move those giant pieces of iron far as they weighed between 15,000lbs and 25,000lbs. Personally, I don’t blame them.
Now the fort sits on 82 acres that is part of the Florida State Parks system. Part of these grounds is a really cool beach as you’ve seen in these images (Palm Beach and Clear Blue). I guess they also have an annual Civil War reenactment. (Sidenote: It would be so cool to see one of those). They also turn the fort into a Civil War themed haunted house during the week before Halloween, which sounds pretty awesome as well!
Outer Fort Wall
One of the larger cannons that weigh over 23,000lbs
Fort Door
Detail
Cannon Window
Part of the wall with the cannons used as material.
Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend.
For today’s post I was planning on doing a long post for Fort Zachary Taylor with tons of photos from this cool place. Then life hit with awesome news this weekend. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend got engaged! So instead of spending time processing those tons of photos, I spent time with family celebrating the happy occasion.
Tomorrow I will talk more about the fort and its history that dates all the way back to 1845.
Happy Friday
Here is another image from Fort Zachary Taylor Beach. I will be doing a post of this cool fort on Monday. Keep an eye out for that.
I hope everyone has a great weekend with great opportunities to shoot.
I love the water down in the Keys. It is the perfect blue that invites you to come swim in it. This might be one reason why this is my favorite color. I caught this gorgeous water at Fort Zachary State Park. There are more photos to come from this neat park. Be excited!
Simple post today of a simple beautiful object. At sunset tons of sailboats sail out of the marina towards to setting sun. It makes for a gorgeous addition to an awesome show at the end of the day.
Here is another classic sunset off of Sunset Key down in Florida. This was our first sunset while down in the keys. It sure did not disappoint us. As we watched the sun make its descent under the horizon a bunch of dolphins played in front of us. It was quite an awesome site.
Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was pretty good minus the Broncos being slaughtered by Tom Brady and the Patriots. That was a tough game to watch, if you can call it a game.
Processing this photo cheered me up as I was really pleased how it turned out. Its always fun to have a photo turn out better than you expected while shooting, to me this is really motivating. These are the photos that remind you to take all pictures you can, you never know what photo will make the final cut.
This photo was captured over at pier of Sunset Key. This is a really cool island just off of Key West. On half of the island is the Sunset Key Resort and the other half is private residence. I have heard the Michael Jordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger have homes on the island. Well, it might be Maria Schrivers house now. Many people come to the island for the Latitudes restaurant. Latitudes is known as one of the best restaurants in Key West. Unfortunately, it is one of the most expensive as well but is worth the price. The food is is unbelievable! I loved the lobster dish and my wife loved the chicken (she doesnt like seafood, crazy uh?). You might know Sunset Key from the movie Office Space. They play the resort off as a Mexican Resort where Milton took refuge at after burning down the office.
Happy Friday the 13th!
Today we have some fun images from a fun show. The Catman is one of those awesome shows you can watch on the Key West Boardwalk as the sunsets over the keys. He is a really goofy funny French guy that has trained cats to do tricks. His form of comedy reminds me of Mr. Bean but a bit more nutty. He has so many goofy quotes as well, such as, “Hurry up, take your time.” You have to imagine all of these fun goofy quotes said with a deep French accent. His show is simply fun and entertaining. If you are ever down in Key West, you must see the Catman. Here are a few snapshots I captured of his show one evening.
The clouds couldn’t have been much better on our last sunset in Key West. They formed a fantastic pallet of horizontal colors stacked upon each other. Here are two panoramic images, one vertical and one horizontal, that capture these layers. I slowed down the shutter speed to make the water a tad bit blurry. I kinda like the result of this, what do you think?
Also, I’ve been getting two different color results between Photoshop and Photo Tools. One being more saturated than the other, and I’m not sure which to believe. These images are from one of those sources. Are the reds way over saturated on your monitor like they were from one of these programs? Thanks for your help with this.
Vertical Panorama
Horizontal Panorama