Heading south soon

I’m currently going through the thought and selection process of what camera equipment I’ll pack and take along on a southern Florida vacation beginning the end of this coming week. We’re heading to Marco Island on the Gulf Coast not far from the Everglades. It will be our first “real” vacation since January 2009. Work requirements and life requirements, including struggling to get a handle on a pet with severe seizures, cancelled a couple of vacation opportunities last year but it looks like perhaps the stars are aligning correctly this time (knock on wood for good luck.)

Bonnie and I have adopted a successful formula for vacations. Find a location/vacation spot with nice hotels, restaurants, and amenities, not too far from some interesting landscape, wilderness and/or wildlife photographic opportunities — for at least a few of the days we each enjoy our own pursuits, rendezvousing in the early evenings for good food and time together — she’s happy and I’m happy.

Within 25 miles of Marco Island are Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I’ve never been to any of these places so I’m very excited about the new experiences and new locations to photograph.

I’m a reader of Drew Fulton’s “Wanderer’s Apprentice” and he recently returned from a venture to this same Florida area. His beautiful photos and valuable details have given me a little indication of what I might expect. Drew also kindly shared via email some suggestions of places to see when I recently asked his advice. Thanks Drew!

We’ll driving on this trip so the selection of camera gear isn’t such a difficult proposition — I can take most of it and probably will! ;-) For sure my Tamron 200-500mm will be coming along as will both my D300 and D700 camera bodies — the D300 with the Tamron lens give an equivalent focal length of 750mm. I seldom use this lens in day-to-day shooting but I’m glad I’ve hung on to it.

This photo is from our back yard and is of the corner of the White Cedar Pergola and the Japanese Maple Tree I’ve been taking leaf photos of. The angles and the meshing of the tree and structure are what originally caught my eye but when later viewing the photo the sharp edges and mass of details left a rather harsh feel. My post processing goal was to soften the image while retaining those things that attracted me — this is what I came up with. I used Photoshop CS4, Topaz Simplify, and NIK Color Efex in post-processing.