Walk In Cascade Lake

Last week while in Tallahassee I walked for several hours taking photos around the noon hour on a bright sunny day in Cascade Lake. The lake is west of the intersection of Capital Circle and Orange Avenue West. The lake has drained again through several large sink holes. For more information go to http://www.mcglynnlabs.com/LakeBradfordHiawathaandCascade.pdf

The view of the tall cypress trees in the dry lake bottom is amazing ... the waterline on the trees in the second photo is over 8 feet above the dry white sand of the lake bed!

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Aucilla River

Photos on Saturday from a canoe on a you-can't-there-from-here portion of the Aucilla River.

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Walk from Otter to Alligator

These images are from a walk on Monday with David Moynahan in the St. Marks Refuge, from north of Otter Lake toward Alligator Lake. Gates in the Panacea unit of the Refuge are unlocked at this time to provide vehicle access for freshwater fishing. The walk was along a ditch dug years ago by slaves of a private land owner to drain Alligator Lake in an attempt to grow crops. The understory vegetation is open under ancient live oaks, with periodic sinks/ponds along the ditch. We encountered two snakes, a rattlesnake and an oak snake. What I fine morning!

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Azalias

Trudy and I won an azalia from Native Nurseries as a door prize at a Sierra Club meeting about 15 years ago. We planted it near our home and it has thrived, gracing us with bright orange flowers each spring. This azalia is Florida's native flame azalia (Rhododendrum austrinum) that has been hybridized to make it more cold hardy.

I spent considerable time with the photos below ... I wanted the flowers as my eyes see them, with flowers in focus and the background a pleasant blur. All were taken with a 60mm macro lens shot wide open to achieve an extremely narrow depth of field. The first two images are composites by Photoshop CS4 of multiple photos manually focused on individual flower parts to get more of the flowers in focus. The third image is a single photo.

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Grayton Beach State Park

This is a continuation of a drive that Trudy and I took last week to visit Florida State Parks to the west of Tallahassee.

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Opportunities ... that is what I felt early Sunday morning looking through this window of the bed and breakfast where we stayed in Marianna. Bands of gold and clear blue and repeating patterns of light and shadow ...


were also at Grayton Beach.


Mmmmmm. So fine!









The miraculously clear water along the natural shoreline of Grayton Beach would not exist without our Florida State Parks. From the center of the park facing the ocean, you can see to the right and left walls of condos just beyond the boundaries of the park.

Last week, Trudy and I drove west for four days to explore six parks. The images below are all from the Florida Caverns near Marianna.

Columbine was blooming profusely among the limestone rocks along the trail bordering the Chipola River floodplain.


This is my first look at a small flower tree called silverbell.


These Atamasco lilies are larger versions of the rain lilies of Wakulla.


I walked off the trail into the verdant, green floodplain swamp of the Chipola River.


Park Ranger Robert provided a memorable cave tour.

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Dogwood Flowers at Wakulla Springs

The bright white flowers of the dogwood trees at Wakulla Springs are exceptional this year ... and I am patiently waiting for a day with no wind for more macro images of these beauties.

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