The Major reason for this is because I got a Sigma 10-20mm lens and want to take photos of everything with the super-wide-angles that were previously unavailable to me, and when I get a new lens, I go insane with it shooting everything possible that will sit still long enough.

I have been using the lens in Florida for wide seascape photos, but didn’t really use it at home yet on anything practical, which in all reality, this lens isn’t practical for most shooting unless you zoom it out to the 18 or 20mm range.

Still though! I have to use it until I am worn out and tired of taking photos using the lens.

Across the parking lot from us here at the shop are two old houses. They are in a state of dis-repair and according to the 2nd law of Thermodynamics: Entropy, The longer something is left alone, the more of a disorganized state it will be over time. In other words, these houses ain’t fixing themselves. They just keep getting worse every day. I figured I would get a shot across the back porch of one of the houses.

The old house falling apart in New Albany

The next shot was taken because about every few months, I come across some kind of crappy and creepy discarded doll. This shot was taken about 9 inches from the doll with the left edge of the camera touching the ground at 10mm. I used the “Ghost Stories Photoshop action of the Doll to take the creepy vibe to the next level and you can get the action from here!

Creepy dolls seem to follow me.

Shortly after that photo was taken, Daniel who is the shop apprentice at Asgard Ink Tattoo Studio, walked out and this made him a prime target for the lens.

Testing out the Sigma 10-20mm on Daniel

And last, I took a photo of a tattoo done by Mark a couple of nights ago.

Tattoo by Mark Schieber at Asgard Ink tattoo studio in New Albany, Indiana

Every morning,  I was up before dawn and heading to a location where I could get a good view of the East with the Sun rising over the Indian River Lagoon and every afternoon, I was on the Barrier Island or somewhere on the mainland where I could get a shot to the West; getting the best Sun set I could find.

My favorite locations are usually one of the Parks in Edegwater in the Morning. Maynard May Park has some of the better views, but there are limited things that I can put in the foreground in photos, Kennedy Memorial Park has a large retaining wall which makes sure that any possibility for well composed photos of land or seascapes are impossible, and then Veteran’s Memorial Park has a lot of nice moss colored rocks and a long dock, the caveat to this is that you have to climb on the mossy rocks to get a good shot. You are warned. Mossy rocks, even those with texture and oysters on them are like walking on ice. To make it worse, oysters shells are insane. They are nature’s razor blades, do you don’t want to fall on that crap.

The Sun rising over an oyster bed from Kennedy Memorial Park

The above photo was taken at Kennedy Memorial Park shortly after Sun rise  from the retaining wall that I mentioned before. The tide was “slack”. This is when there is a change between low and high tide, there is about an hour where the water is perfectly still. Low tide had just ended and things were about to change directions, in about an hour after the photo was taken, all of the oyster beds you see would have been under water until the next low tide.

Sun rise from Maynard May park

Maynard May Park right before the Sun comes over the Horizon. Actually, this photo was about the only one that was worth a shit that day. As soon as the Sun popped up, all the clouds burned away.

Sun rise from Veteran's memorial Park in Edgewater, Florida.

Lastly, a shot from the long dock at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Edgewater, Florida.

All of these shots were taken with a Nikon D300s using a Sigma 10-20mm Lens. I had just acquired the new Sigma and I am totally thrilled with Sigma glass all the way. This is the Third time I have picked a Sigma lens over Nikon with a 18-200mm, 14mm prime and now this 10-20mm which will be used almost exclusively for Landscapes and Seascapes.

I’m not 100% sure how well it will work for lightning photos, but it should be awesome for getting entire Supercells when big thunderstorms roll through this spring.

More Oyster Rock at Maynard May Park

Since I got a new Sigma 10-20mm Lens and I was looking for a new lens for wide and sweeping seascape and landscape photos, I wanted to take full advantage of being on the Lagoon for 10 days.

The result is hundreds of photos from various locations. The above photo was taken from Maynard May park in Edgewater, Florida which is close to New Smyrna and Daytona. It was taken at Sunset on a day that was mostly cloudy, but I was in luck when the clouds started to break up and give some fantastic light in the late afternoon.

The photo below was taken with a fairly long exposure between Bethune Beach and Canaveral National Seashore at Sunset. I wasn’t really impressed with the light that afternoon, but as the Sun went below the horizon, the colors became pretty subtle and looked nice reflecting on the water.

Sunset at Canaveral Seashore.

The next two shots were on a Morning  that I got a little bit of a late start and rushed to get to the closest Park (Maynard May)  so I could get something before the Sun came up too high and ruined the lighting.

Although I missed the real light-show while getting my gear out of the truck, I still feel like the photos came out great and I got a couple of shots to be proud of.

Sunrise in February on the Indian River Lagoon.

Sunrise in February on the Indian River Lagoon.

With the photos, I try to keep away from HDR images because it is just so easy to over-process everything and it looks like a caricature of the scene instead of being a somewhat good representative of what it actually looked like. Instead, I will usually just layer the image and use the levels to get the sky and ground correctly exposed or sometimes I will photo-merge 2 images which the ground vs. sky are both exposed just right and fool with the layers until it looks like it did from my memory.

One of the things that I do love is all of the color in the sky over the water. There is always awesome color and its always different. One day, you may have really warm tones and there are red, yellow and orange reflections, then the next it can be blues, purples and greens.

Also, I kept the new Sigma 10-20mm lens on the camera the entire time. This lens is perfect for landscapes and seascapes anyway and its proved to be a warrior in the field.

The next two shots were taken at the same place, but at different times of the day. This first one is of Mangrove roots which fall from the Mangrove trees and bury themselves in the sand thus making a new barrier of Mangroves along the Florida coast. These Mangroves are VERY important to the ecosystem there  and pretty useful to humans as well. They give stability to the islands on the Lagoon and make an awesome flood-wall and barrier against the weather. The photo was taken about 20 minutes after Sunrise and I just found what I thought was a good place to stick my expensive camera very close to the salt water hoping to get a good shot. The Sigma 10-20mm lens allowed me to put the camera on the ground and the Mangrove shoots look more like some kind of forest instead of 8 inch tall pieces of roots.

Mangroves growing on the Indian RIver Lagoon.

The next photo was taken on the same day at Sunset. The tide was super low and there is a rock right by one of the docks that I fish on at Maynard May park. The rock has quite a few Oysters growing on it. With the tide so low, there was a small pool that formed behind the rock and there was a good reflection of the sky, so I got very close and got the following shot.

Sunset at Maynard May park in Edgewater, Florida.

When the line is in the water, it is terribly difficult to see. This is great for the fisherman or woman who is out trying to catch easily spooked fish, but its not too cool for birds, whales, and sea turtles.

A lot of times, the animals can end up caught up in the line and there are times when sea turtles mistake the line for jellyfish, which they eat. This usually results in a disfigured and often a dead animal.

When I am out, I see Pelicans all the time with line hanging from them, usually around their feet.

At one of the places that I frequent when I am on the lagoon, there is a giant flock of seagulls that hangs out waiting for bait and the elderly to throw them bread. Feeding the wildlife is really not such a good idea, because they go from being wild animals to super-brave pest who have no fear of humans. When you get to some of the larger birds, there is a chance of human injury and then everyone wants to form a posse to destroy animals that are doing exactly what we have been training them to do, get an easy food source.

The photos below are of a seagull that hangs out at Maynard May park in Edgewater, Florida.

A seagull at Sunrise

If you look close at the next photo, you can get an idea of what monofilament fishing line will do when it gets wrapped around the foot of a bird.

A victim of discarded monofilament fishing line

As you can see, the bird lost a foot. After watching the bird, I noticed that as all the other gulls went in to the water, this one would avoid the water at all cost. It would fly but never get in the water.

At all of the parks and anywhere that you can fish, there are bins which are ONLY for fishing line. All it takes is a couple of minutes to pick up your line and prevent accidents like this.

C’mon guys and help out just a little. If your line breaks, ball it up and put it in your pocket and throw it away when you are done for the day. Just a couple of minutes of inconvenience can maybe save one of the awesome animals that make the Lagoon such an awesome eco-system for everyone to enjoy.

A few years ago, I figured it would be a good idea to keep my camera with me while I am out hunting.

Since I am working on Herd Management, I let a lot of Deer walk by and go on to make more little Deer.

The rules are fairly simple:

I don’t harvest any Deer in it’s prime.

I don’t take more than I need for food.

I usually only really take Doe because they really outnumber Buck by a fairly large margin.

If I do take a Buck, it’s usually to remove it from the herd because of genetic problems like a weak or really bad looking rack, its past its prime, massive body with a small rack or albino. This is because these things are undesirable in a strong herd and male white-tails can breed several times a day during the rut (breeding season).

If a place has an obvious over-population of  Deer, these rules can go somewhat “out the window” because the herd may need to be thinned.

The following photos are shots of deer that I have taken in the last few years while out hunting.

Two fawn with their Mother checking me out.

The above photo is proof that in the very early Fall, deer aren’t as “spooky” and will come very close. These deer are under 20 feet from me and came even closer. As the season moves on, they spook a lot faster and getting this close is really hard. On top of that, they still have their spots and even the doe-mother didn’t seem to mind that I was so close to them. It was taken in Eastern Jefferson County, outside the city of Louisville, Kentucky which actually has a massive Deer population to the point that they are considered “pest and nuisance animals” by the farmers. A place with this kind of density is prime in the early season “early Fall” for getting really good photos up close.

The next two photos were taken on the same farm as well:

A doe entering the woods cautiously

The same doe and her fawn (2) in the woods.

The rotting corpse of a deer.

This deer was killed by the land-owner who saw the deer on his property acting very strange. Although it may seem a bit barbaric, there was a huge outbreak of Blue-tongue disease in Kentucky and there is also a chance that any deer acting odd could have CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) which is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. It’s pretty much Mad Cow Disease for deer. It can destroy a healthy herd and probably for the best to destroy the animal because we want our deer in Kentucky prion free.

The next Three photos are from my land in Hancock County Kentucky which is my main base of operations for deer hunting.

A 5 point buck

This is a very young 5 point buck that came by my stand following a group of doe. He was actually grunting and in a fairly feverish trot looking for them. I had to actually make noise for him to turn and look at me.

Spotted by the 5 point buck

Spotted!

A young and healthy 8 point

This one is a fairly young and very nice 8 point buck. This animal is amazing. It has a beautiful rack, its muscle tone is outstanding and next year it will be a monster. Right now, I expect this deer to be in the 180 pound range and next year, it should top 200 pounds with an even more massive rack. I just hope I can get some photos of it then.

Brown Pelicans and Cormorants on the small island rookery.

Although I never considered myself much of a “bird photographer,” I find myself taking a lot of photos of the birds around the Indian River Lagoon. The Pelicans, Snowy Egrets, White Egrets, and the Ibis are always fun to watch and amazing hunters.

Because people feed these birds; which is always a bad idea, a lot of them have little to no fear of humans and can often be found around the docks bumming for bait and food.

I have had a Pelican stalk me for an entire day. I had a sneaky Cormorant sit on my foot while I was reeling in a fish and I have had my cast net attacked by Egrets while I was trying to get a school of mullet out.

Because of this, there is never any lack of birds to get photos of.

A White Egret waiting for baitfish.

Although I hate shooting lightning in the middle of Louisville because of several reason. It’s not very flat, there is always crap in the way, there aren’t too many field and the field there are don’t give a good view to the North or West, there are power lines EVERYWHERE and last, there are giant trees that block a lot of the view, I still went to Seneca park.

Seneca Park is a very flat park with wide open fields, but there are usually a lot of lights for the baseball fields, basketball fields and the tennis courts. These make it very hard to get a good exposure set for lightning. And as fast at the storm was moving, it was really my only option.

I set up over by the basketball courts and waited, but not too long.

The wall cloud from the storm racing my way.

The above photo was the storm bearing down right on me from the distance.

Layers of cloud

Just a few moments later, the storm was over-head and you could see the layers of the bottom of the shelf formed by the thick clouds.

Multiple Lightning strikes.

Again, thanks to me trusty lightning trigger, I started getting huge lightning strikes.

Another big cloud to ground strike.

Cloud to Cloud lightning

As the storm passed, there was a lot of lingering cloud-to-cloud lightning making spider-webs across the night sky.

more cloud to cloud

more cloud to cloud

A giant cloud to cloud strike.

If you notice at the top of the page, you will see a link for a photo gallery, you can click that and see all of the photos from this storm. I have just put a small sampling of them on this post.

I also like shooting them when there is something in the photo thats fun; props and things like that.

One night, me and the guys were playing around when it was particularly slow and I got to use the Graflex Speedgraphic to get some shots of them.

Billy dressed for war!

That photo was taken on Kodak Tmax100 film.

Developed in Kodak D-76 for 6 minutes a little on the warm side.

Fixed using Ilford Rapid Fixer

Contact Printed on Ilford Multigrade.

In December, 2011 I was out getting photos of the Sunrise very early one morning and a sleek Catamaran came down.

A Catamaran cruising on the Indian River Lagoon in December.

If you notice, the mast for the main-sail is leaning back less than 90 degrees. This is set up this way for performance.

Now, we both know the same exact amount about sailing.