Beauty of Nature

  Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the Tampa Bay area! The humidity has left us and the air was amazing with a high of around 80. A friend and I decided to take a day trip starting at Fort Desoto park and working our way up to Clearwater at sunset. Fort Desoto is an amazing park and features my favorite beach in the area, North Beach where the sand is powder white. You can find Sand Dollars here and you may catch a glimpse of dolphins jumping in the distance or see some Manatees swimming from one of the Piers at the Park. The above photo was taken from one of those Piers, you can see the Skyway Bridge in the background that will take you over to Sarasota and points further South. We arrived here at 1pm not the best time of day for photography but got some fun bird photos anyway.

  I love Pelicans and never stop trying to get unique, fun photos of them. One of the things I love living here in Florida is all of the unique birds you see around wherever you go. Pelicans however seem to stick to the beach areas. I remember seeing them when I was little on a trip down this way but it was many years before I moved here and could see them whenever I want.  Here two of them are perched on a little hut on the Pier where they sell snacks and bait for fisherman.

  Here are a group of different kinds of birds hanging out on the top of said hut. The two on top seem to be having a disagreement lol.

  The sky was such a beautiful blue making the perfect backdrop for this little guy.

  Another Pelican photo, this one caught just about to land on the water. It is amazing how wide their wingspan is!  

  Next we headed to Pass-A-Grille which is as south as you can get. It is only about 2 blocks across the bottom of this long skinny island which connects to many other beaches running up to Clearwater. On one side you see across to more land, as you can see here. The other side faces the Gulf. The famous pink Don Cesar hotel is just a few miles north of here.

  We then when to a touristy area called Johns Pass for some dinner near Treasure Island before making it to Sand Key Park just across the bridge from Clearwater Beach for Sunset.

  Beautiful!  For some reason I don't visit these areas too often. I want to spend more time in Fort Desoto and hope to do some portrait shoots there soon as well as take more nature shots toward the end of the day. It is more than worth the drive!