Spring Flowers

"Flowers are the sweetest thing God ever made, and forgot

to put a soul into."

Henry Beecher, 'Life Thoughts' 1858

  

  I have had the opportunity to visit two beautiful estates and gardens in Central Florida this week. Leu Gardens near Orlando and Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales which is a bit of a drive from Orlando or Tampa but is well worth it.  Spring is in full bloom here and both places are breathtakingly beautiful. It was pretty breezy at Bok Tower which makes taking close up flower photos pretty difficult though! Bok Tower is surrounded by groves of orange trees which are all blossoming right now-the scent was positively intoxicating! I am going to have to find some candles that smell like orange blossoms, just heaven! I did manage to get a few photos I like of course.

  Growing up, one of my favorite books was The Secret Garden, and I feel like I have stumbled upon my own secret garden when I visit these kinds of places. Especially at Bok Tower, there are 'secret' paths, and a stone semi circle with a small pond in the center where cut little frogs live. It is truly a magical place.

  I am also very fond of plants with lacy little leaves like this. So delicate and beautiful!

  This is a beautiful blossom that had already fallen to the ground. Flowers truly fascinate me, the variety, the colors, and the scents. I wish that the blooming trees would blossom year round but then again maybe we would not appreciate them as much.

  Love the colors and design of this flower!  

  Once again I have saved my favorite photos for last. I spotted this straw flower at Leu Gardens and spent a good deal of time experimenting with settings and compositions-I decided putting it in the bottom of the frame was a little unusual and loved the green/blue background which is a natural gradient-I just pumped up the vibrancy on it. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Stephanie

  

Portrait Shoot: Welselly at Fred Howard Park

  

   Last week I received a call asking for some fun portrait photos to be taken at the beach.  My favorite kind!
My client and I decided on Fred Howard park in Tarpon Springs, Florida. This is not a park you stumble upon by accident but it is very much worth seeking out. In addition to the park on the main land there is a causeway leading out to a beautiful little island with white sand beaches, large rocks and a killer view of the sunset.  When we got there the first thing I noticed was that someone had taken some sea grass and arranged it in the shape of a heart! No way I could resist a ready made prop like that!!

  There is a wonderful little hill that overlooks the beach in on direction, the water in another, it was used again for the final photos taken as the sun set.

  We walked over to a less populated area on the side of the island and had some fun, this photo was taken in mid spin. I find that asking for my subject to spin around produces unique shots and natural smiles!

  Here we have a little sass! The water provides a nice backdrop for this photo!

  

  Love this one! There are beautiful Black-Eyed Susan flowers all over the place and there was a soft breeze which worked with Welselly's hair in a a good way here. In fact it was a perfect spring day here in Florida, not too hot!

  I love converting images to black and white or sepia, they have such a classy feel to them!  How beautiful are her eyes in this photo?

  I also of course like to find a photo or two to crop square from each session. I love the way her hair is blowing here and also the line of trees trailing out in the background. And of course there are once again those eyes!

  As we got closer to sunset we went back to 'the hill' and pulled out my Gary Fong Lightsphere to work with some off camera flash. It provides a nice even spread of flattering light.  

  Check out that sky and of course the girl in front of it. I love using this park for sunset shots so much!

 I asked Welselly to jump for me so we could get a few fun silo shots, she almost looks like she is suspended in mid air!  I love the free spirited feel of this image.

  

  Beautiful! I leave you with our favorite photo from the shoot which turned out to be the very last one. Great pose, great expression-it really captured Welselly's beauty and spirit!

  Thank you so much Welselly for choosing me to be your photographer! I had a great time and you were a pleasure to work with!

   I am hoping this week to visit both Bok Tower Gardens, and Disney's Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot center to capture the beauty that is bursting out everywhere here in Florida this spring. Also have a baby portrait shoot coming up and am very excited about that! 

Stephanie

  

Bark in the Park!

  Yesterday I attended the 24th Annual Bark in the Park to benefit the Humane Society here in Tampa. The event included a charity walk let by members of Rescue Ink, vendors, contests, and hundreds of dogs of all kinds!  I LOVE dogs so wandering Al Lopez Park seeing them all have so much fun was heaven for me! The fact that the Humane Society is even necessary saddens me so deeply.  The unconditional love provided by dogs is one of the best things in this world, so hard to comprehend what goes on in the minds of those who mistreat them!

  

  This was one of the puppies up for adoption. I wanted to take home 3 or 4!  The most touching moment of the day happened when I was photographing some of the fenced in puppies up for adoption. I was kneeling on the ground looking over the short fence when suddenly I felt a paw on my leg-I turned around and someones dog wanted me to pet him so sweet! Almost brought a tear to my eye. I wish I had a photo of that dog but it happened too fast. So sweet!!

  Dogs have different personalities, just like people. Many were alert and curious, very excited to be among so many friends. This guy however lacked any energy at all. Such long ears!!

  This Chow was recently adopted by my friend Tanya, his name is Fez. He had a great time and was very well behaved as were almost all of the dogs I saw. All of these different dogs got along better than similar groups of people!

  These dogs were having fun running hurdles in pursuit of tennis balls. So much fun!

  This is the longest tongue I have ever seen! This dog is 12 years old and is slobbers a lot. The owner told me it is a good thing she has tile floors she can easily mop up!

  Cute and oh so perky in his green scarf! I love when they seem to pose for me and look right into the camera!

  Finally I think this is my favorite shot of the day. How amazing is this husky puppy?  Look at those blue eyes! And no I did not enhance them they really were that blue!  

  I love photography dogs and am looking to photograph some with professional off-camera lighting with interesting backgrounds. Especially looking for medium-large dogs for this particular project who are well behaved and will sit still for at least a few seconds at a time :) If you are interested please email me at stephaniellen11@gmail.com.  

Feeding the Lions

  My last post featured tigers and leopards from Tampa's Big Cat Rescue. I had no idea at that time that my next one would feature lions. I went to Busch Gardens yesterday. Spring has fully sprung already here and Tampa and it was much more beautiful there then it was when I visited in January-many more flowers, trees blossoming, a perfect day in the high in the upper 70s with a slight breeze and puffy white clouds often filtering the sunlight for me nicely.  Despite this I was not especially excited about the photos I was getting. Very often on days like this the payoff comes towards the end of the day, I am not sure why this is but it is wonderful to end on a high note!  

  As luck would have it I came to the area where the Lions live just as they were about to be fed! Two men with containers of chopped up meat arrived and the male and two female lions-who are often sleeping were awake, alert and ready for some food!  No cage to shoot through there was simply a deep gully and a 3 ft fence between me and them and my 70-300mm lens served me well. The first photo at the top shows one of the females anticipating the food about to be thrown her way.  The above is just a wonderful portrait of the male, I have never been able to capture anything like it before!

  My two best action shots. They were jumping in between sun and shade so it was difficult to expose these photos properly. Also because they were moving  so fast a few shots were ruined by me chopping off the tops of their heads etc. I like these two though because you can see the meat suspended in mid air just before it is caught!

  I find myself somewhat spellbound by the eyes of these animals. I see intelligence, emotions and a bit of mystery in them.  I am so pleased that I was in the right place at the right time!

  I got a bit more arty here in editing this one, I love this!  When I look at it I am reminded of the lion Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. He is watching and tracking the food on its way to him very intensely but if you didn't know that it almost looks like he is waving :).

  I will finish up with another image I took some artistic license with-this really looks like an old faded photo. For those edited I run many of my images through photo shop plug ins Nick Color Efex Pro and/or Nic Silver Efex Pro.  I will share a few more images from my day at Busch Gardens in my next post.

Stephanie

Big Cat Rescue

  

   Today I toured Tampa's Big Cat Rescue for the first time. I learned a great deal about the exotic animal trade and the abuse that is dealt these animals by some of our fellow human beings. Whenever I hear about this type of thing it breaks my heart, be it dogs or tigers, what is wrong with people? Have the people involved no hearts? It is just so difficult for me to understand what goes on in their minds.  Big Cat Rescue is doing their part to help out animals abandoned by owners who thought it would be cool to have a an exotic cat as a pet-only to discover they couldn't handle it.

  Animals come to Big Cat Rescue for a variety of other reasons as well. The following is copied from their website and tells you who they are and what they are about:

Who is Big Cat Rescue?

• Big Cat Rescue is the largest accredited sanctuary in the world dedicated entirely to abused and abandoned big cats.
• The nonprofit sanctuary began in 1992.
• The sanctuary is home to more than 100 exotic big cats
• The cats at Big Cat Rescue are here for a variety of reasons, including:
  • Abandoned by owners who wrongly thought they would make good pets
  • Abused by owners in order to force them to perform
  • Retired from performing acts
  • Saved from being slaughtered to make fur coats
  • Rescued as babies after hunters killed their mothers
• Big Cat Rescue has 16 species of cats, many of whom are threatened, endangered or extinct now in the wild, including:
  • Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Cougars
  • Bobcats, Lynx, Servals, Ocelots, Caracals
• Big Cat Rescue’s mission is to provide the best possible home for the animals in our care and try to stop the flow of exotic cats needing sanctuary by educating the public about the plight of the animals and supporting stronger laws to protect them.
• The non-profit organization is:
  • Accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries
  • Certified by Independent Charities of America as a “Best in America Charity”
  • Member of the World Society for Protection of Animals
  • Rated 4 Stars (highest rating) by Charity Navigator for sound fiscal management
• The sanctuary is situated on 55 acres in the Citrus Park area of north Tampa.

  To visit Big Cat Rescue you must arrive at a pre-scheduled time for a tour, which lasts about 90 minutes.  Taking photos was a bit of a challenge as all of the animals are behind fences like this one. Their enclosures are large and they have a good life here but they are unable to survive in the wild where they really belong because they were in most cases bred to be pets and have never lived in the environment they are supposed to.

  Yes there was a cage in the above photo, somehow by putting the focus point on the cats eyes it was made to disappear-I am not sure exactly why this but I am not complaining!

  In this one I decided to simply try to get both eyes within the same square opening in the fence, worked out pretty good!

  I will wrap up this post with my favorite photo of the day, how I love it when an animal appears to look directly into my camera! I find it hard to stop looking into those eyes an the B&W treatment makes it all the more striking. Big Cat Rescue is located at 12802 Easy Street Tampa near Citrus Park Mall and can be reached at. 813.920.4130.  The cost of the tour goes to hope a great cause and is well worth it!

  

  

Out of the Darkness-Ybor Practice Shoot

  Last night I traveled to Ybor City to practice night photography with off camera flash-I have limited experience in this area and interested in learning as much as I can about it. I started off a little frustrated but ended up with a few images I really like. All photos wee taken with Canon 580 flash mounted on a monopod with a Gary Fong Lightsphere diffuser attached to it.  I am amazed to see how powerful one 580 Flash can be in the dark!

I love taking jumping photos, or just freezing motion in general as I am able to capture moments that go too quickly for the human eye to appreciate.  Here my model for the evening, Charles jumps up in the air in and alley very popular for photographers in Ybor.  There was some visible light and walls in the background which I blacked out in Photo Shop to make this shot into what I wanted it to be from the start.

  Okay believe it or not Charles was sitting in total darkness here. I mean, it was so dark that I could barely see him much less his expression as I took a series of photos here-the flash was about 8 feet from him and the Diffuser produced a beautiful and even wash of light. 

  I

  I have no idea what this thing Charles is sitting in/on was! It was round and had four legs and was wobbly just sitting in the alley.  I really liked the silver sheeting propped up against the wall behind it. I did not intentionally make everything besides his skin Black and White here, it is simple the way it really was!

  This is I think my favorite taken at the end of the night. I positioned the flash along a wall to the left of Charles. When he looked straight at me his face was in split lighting,half lit, half dark. I asked him to turn his face toward the light a little and got just what I wanted, Rembrandt lighting!  I really enjoyed this practice shoot and am eager to learn more about this area of photography. There is always so much more to learn!

Stephanie