Photography From My Florida Jaunt

Posted on February 13, 2008

I spent a few days down in Cocoa Beach, Florida from the 6th-11th. My parents rent a condo on the beach, and my 21 year old daughter works in Vero Beach. With air fares being as cheap as they are right now before spring break, it was the perfect time for me to hit the road (without professional camera gear for a change!) and just kick back with some of the family.

There’s really no way for me to escape photography though. It’s a part of me. It would be like a runner not traveling with running gear. (oh wait, I’m a runner too……and I DID bring that with me and used it all but 1 day!). So, I DID bring a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix S51 camera with me. It’s a little 8 megapixel camera that I picked up this past fall. I actually ran the Marine Corps Marathon with that camera. (yes, I ran a marathon carrying a camera the whole 26.2 miles, and I took around 100 pictures during the race).

I like the fact that I can shoot this camera on Manual and pick my own ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. I’m not a big fan of that GREEN setting with a flash blasting everything in sight.

So, between fishing and sitting on the beach, I just played around a little.

Seagulls are always fun to shoot. Of course, with the limited zoom of this little toy camera I had to low crawl up to the bird to get this shot. I think it thought I was going to feed it.

Going down there, I was unaware that the Space Shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to launch, but it was a nice surprise to be on the beach fishing when it did. I couldn’t have asked for a better view. The sound was DEAFENING when it went up. Pretty awesome sight.

That’s my dad there feeding his pet pelican “Pete”. My daughter grabbed my camera and got this great shot of the little fish my dad caught mid air as he tossed it to the pelican. Pete was always nearby when we were fishing. My dad has been feeding that same pelican for 15 years (if you hear him tell the story!) Maybe fish stories and pelican stories are in the same category?

This is a closer view of Pete the Pelican! I had to use my “low crawl up the bird method” to get this shot. I thought he was going to flap me to death when he took off. He DID get me with his feet when he launched himself into the air. He went straight at me over my back.

This is my daughter and I on the beach. This was a case of my dad grabbing my camera and ordering me to grab my daughter for a quick picture. That was our uniform of the day in Florida! I WAS mindful of sunscreen though thankfully. I used to live there and remember all the times I couldn’t MOVE after a day on the beach from the sunburns I used to get.

My mom brought some stale bread down the beach to feed the birds and I got a BUNCH of Alfred Hitchcock like “The Birds” pictures. I escaped this without being the target of a seagull waste dumping attack thankfully!

Lastly, back in the condo, a window light portrait of my daughter using “short light”. Short light is having the key light on the side of the face away from the camera so that the shadow side of the face is closest to the lens. It’s a technique I like to use in wedding photography quite a bit if the conditions are right.

So, even with a little Coolpix, you CAN get a few cool pics.

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